Monday 26^th November

A most beautiful weekend- warm, sunny, spectacular.  I am sure tourists in Hobart over the last few days will be itching to sell up and move here, it all looked so very wonderful.  Beware beware, it is not always like this…

We spent Saturday afternoon on 2XS with Harry (8) and Lizzie (5).  Their parents (well their father…) were VERY anxious about our ability to keep Harry and Lizzie safe in the marina.  They were issued with life jackets and strict instructions to wear them at all times when out on deck.  They, and we, took this to heart.  However they did NOT want to wear the jackets inside.  And…they spent most of the time scampering In and Out and In and Out.  Jackets on, jackets off, jackets on, jackets off.  They didn’t seem to find this annoying or boring at all, fortunately, although I got a teeny bit sick of zipping and unzipping, clicking and unclicking.  In fact, they had a lovely time exploring the cabins, peering through the hatches, and lying on the nets looking down into the water.

I often wonder how people manage so well, raising their families on small boats for years at a time.  This gave me an inkling that maybe children are perfectly happy in a confined space, if they are able to scamper about and if they have an adult or two willing to give them a lot of uncritical attention.

Pete has been making friends with people living on their boats in Prince of Wales Bay.  One boat has a resident dog, a small, cheery terrier, who has lived aboard since he was a very small puppy.  Apparently he is perfectly at home on the baot (scampering about, no doubt.)  Pete asked about the obvious issues with dogs and hygiene aboard, and Chrissie said that from the very first puppy moments, this little dog would go to the edge of the deck, back up, and poo into the sea.  Brilliant!

India #28

OK so I got this off Wikipedia.  You can read it or not, depending if you want KNOWLEDGE or not.

“Although in ruins today, this capital city once boasted riches known far beyond the shores of India. The ruins of Hampi of the 14th Century lies scattered in about 26 sq. km area, amidst giant boulders and vegetation. Protected by the tempestuous river Tungabhadra in the north and rocky granite ridges on the other three sides, the ruins silently narrate the story of grandeur splendor and fabulous wealth. The splendid remains of palaces and gateways of the broken city tells a tale of men infinite talent and power of creativity together with his capacity for senseless destruction.”

Much better than me trying to explain.  It is a UNESCO site, and must be fabulous fun for teams of archaeologists, because there are literally dozens of temples, buildings, towers, walls, to be excavated and discovered and documented.  It all made me think of Ozymandius ‘

“My name is Ozymandius, king of kings.

Look upon my works ye mighty and despair!”

I stood gazing upon the ruined splendour quoting away in an annoying mMaryr; I am sure every person who has studied English Lit would be quoting the same lines, in Hampi…OK I can’t HELP it, I am going to put the whole poem in, because it is SO good:

Ozymandius, by: Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

It was actually quite strange, wandering around the fabulous ruins of Hampi, because none of us knew anything at all about the civilisation which had once been there.  All a blank to us.  Hampi now is a tiny village, built around the temple, which is usually totally swarming with monkeys.  Pete saw a photo of it, monkey-less, in Lonely Planet, and said, “How did they manage to get a photo without monkeys??”  Well we found out how.  They went there on the same days that we were there.  There were about three monkeys, not scampering much at all, just dozing on the lower levels.