A short break in Tasmania

Last week was so very intense – all the problems with Phillip vs his father, trying to get all of my work ready for a hectic run of thirteen labs before I get more than a few days in the office again in mid-June, plus a dog lecture, a short week (Holy week), a candle to paint for St Paul’s East Kew, stewarding at Bulla on Good Friday morning, a rash promise made to the kids to have homemade pizzas on Saturday afternoon, and flying to Hobart on Easter day. Dumb week, now I come to look at it calmly. There was no time for any reflection the whole way through.

So Sunday came, and Sarah drove us to the airport at about 7am. We flew out just a few minutes late and arrived in Hobart at around 10am after an uneventful flight. Linda’s ex-ex picked us up, and we drove to Lauderdale for brunch – really nice Florentine eggs with smoked salmon (Tasmanian, of course), then to her ‘farmhouse’ on 3 acres. Brenda’s new love (Ann) was up at Great Lake with her family, so we drove up there to get Ann. It was nice to go and see some spectacular scenery, and on the way back we stopped for a drink and light supper at a very pretty hotel in some random town in the countryside. We got back around 9pm and sat and talked until nearly midnight. They let me talk a lot about my coming out and why it didn’t work with Tony, and why I can’t forgive myself for some things, and maybe never will. I think they were very patient with me.

Yesterday arrived with a barbecued breakfast from Brenda (very nice), and then a trip to a flea market. Linda enjoyed herself, and the girls bought a heap of ferns for the garden. From there we went to Salmon Ponds (near New Norfolk) and had a crepe lunch (mine was salmon and camembert… it was really good) and wandered around the trout ponds, feeding the fish and taking some scenery shots, and some romantic ones of Brenda and Ann. Then it was twilight, and we went to an antique shop in New Norfolk, and stayed there until dark. Brenda bought a fire surround. I saw stuff I grew up with – some that I only threw out last year – being sold, not for a lot of money, but for more than I thought it would be worth. For example, my little Aristone record player (that I gave to Phillip, instead of throwing out) - $145!! And the old icecream tin that Mum kept buttons in for .. well, for all my life, the yellow one with the red dancing elephant “Jumbo” - $12. Yep, $12 for an empty, old, tin. My coronation hand-me-downs – about $30-40 each! There were some pieces that were worth more, and some that were less than I thought. A Victorian travel writing desk was at the flea market for about $70, and had a nice inlaid top, needed to be French polished, but the main thing wrong was that it was missing the level wood panels inside (the ones for writing on…), then I saw one at the antique shop. The case was in worse condition, but it was complete - $300!! I didn’t get anything, although if I thought I had space at home I could have bought several things quite happily. Strangely, they only had one piece of carnival glass in the whole massive shop. There were three at the market, two were good, but not cheap, the other was a good price, but not very nice.

We were going to have nachos for dinner when we got back, but no one felt like eating, so we lit a fire, and looked at the day’s photographs. I gave copies to Ann and Brenda, we had a drink or two, and I went to bed around 11:30.

Today we had the day to ourselves. Brenda had to work today, and Ann was going back to her house. So we slept in a bit, and headed off around 11:15. We planned a breakfast at Fritto Misto (where we had brunch on Sunday), and thought we’d decide where to go from there. Unfortunately it was shut, so we kept driving in a random kind of undecided trip into town. We parked near the corner of two main streets (Barrack and Liverpool), marked it on the map and walked. We had a coffee in the mall, then to my great joy we found the Lark Distillery and had lunch there. I did the tasting (four of their whiskies for $7.50 – really good value), and a ploughmans platter of Tasmanian cheeses, crackers, bread, salami, olives, and pickled onions. Linda had two glasses of a local beer (some sort of pilsener – she said she liked it). Over lunch I checked my bank account and found that I had been paid…so I had FUN. I bought a bottle of the Lark whiskey, some of their Bush Liqueur made with local Pepperberries (for Brenda), a bottle of their whiskey liqueur and the three sample bottles of peppercorn gin and vodka and the single malt (for Anne). Then we walked over and looked at the Sea Shepherd ship that was docked (the ‘Steve Irwin’). We gave them a donation, then walked back through town to the car. I got us lost. It took longer than it should have.

We left Hobart at about 3pm, and used the satnav to get back to Lauderdale, pretty uneventfully. Back here we’ve just vegged; I’ve been writing, and Linda’s been reading old newspapers (not interesting-old, just last weekend-old). When Brenda gets back from work (any time now) we are going to Ann’s house, then I believe we are having fish and chips on the beach somewhere.

It has been a nice few days. I’m getting the chance to download now. I haven’t spoken to Phillip for a few days, so I should call this evening. Tomorrow I have to wash and straighten my hair, and read my notes for Thursday. So I want to finish the writing I wanted to do today. This was the first blog to be caught up. Next I’m writing my lab accreditation blog – this time about mechanisms for keeping up with reading, I think. My dog blog will cover last week’s lecture from Andrew Burt, and I have to send the link to some people, too. Enough now. Time to do what needs to be done next.