Tuesday 1^st May

I am aware that since I have been back I have been excessively fulsome in my praise of Tasmania.  It is all so beautiful!  Hobart is so clean, sparkly, glorious!  The air twinkles with beauty!

So now I am going to complain, quite bitterly.

About shops.  I love shops.  No I’m not a shop-till-you-drop type, but I do love looking in shops.  Book shops and pharmacies in particular.  Bookshops for obvious reasons – they are full of books and all of the associated pleasures!  And pharmacies because they are so neat, clean, orderly, and full of thrilling options – so much shampooo!  Moisturiser!  Different nail care products!  Not to mention cough syrup, pain killers, fizzy stuff to drink when you are (ahem) indisposed…Everything neatly and prettily arranged in a sane and logical manner.

So imagine my distress when I wandered into a new pharmacy near the Lindisfarne bus stop on Friday night.  I was after some very exciting additions to Pete’s birthday present (tobacco coloured ugg boots…)  I planned to put little treats in each boot – a new toothbrush, shaving cream, maybe even a celebratory packet of quickeze – I know how to be extremely thoughtful and generous!!  I hadn’t gone far into the shop when I started to twitch nervously.  I was being shouted at!  By lurid PINK sticky notes!  Interspersed with even brighter YELLOW ones informing me I would RECIEVE something or another if I did something or another.  I was too alarmed at the spelling of RECEIVE to pay any attention.  And I couldn’t find anything I wanted; it was all too shouty and vibrant.  A nice shop assistant came to my rescue and indicated another arm of the shop, where I might find toothbrushes.  The shop went on and on - where was I?  In the hellmouth!!  It really was indescribably ghastly and unpleasant; I didn’t even stop and gaze, entranced, at the many shades of nail polish on offer, which is usually such a reliable pleasure.  Suddenly it dawned on me…oh no…I was in the shell of the old OBM shop, later taken over by Angus and Robertson.  A lovely shop, going, in L shape, from Elizabeth through to Collins Street.  It used to be full of books, jigsaw puzzles, maps, games, and I have spent many happy hours and many happy $$s on these premises.  And now…it is a cheapetycheap hyperpharmacy…

In fact many of the bookshops in Hobart have closed down, as have the pharmacies.  The latter have amalgamated into cheap & nasty variations on the theme.  How can any calm and elegant pharmacy compete??

My rant is over but…the sadness remans!