1s January - Happy New Year!

Thursday 1^st January

Happy 2015, of course.  All is well in Hobart; all is set for a wonderful year.

There were fireworks over the city last night.

A bit blurry but still very pretty

and sparklers on the deck.

Ella

This morning we took three girls to the Taste of Tasmania.

Tessa Ella Holly

They think this is a huge treat; their mother hates the Taste.  I love…some of it.

Always good to see old friends (Lynette and Harry)

The huge echoing shed, although it is very familiar and very dear to me, leave me with a thumping headache now.

I do like the witty stalls

Much better sitting outside in the fresh air, alternately very hot and slightly chilly, to watch a busker. 

My issue with buskers is…were they much much better in the old days??  I remember greatly enjoying very witty buskers, full of verve and skill, juggling chainsaws, making human pyramids constructed from hapless audience members, performing death-defying tricks on the top of wobbly poles.  I have seen two buskers this year and they were mildly amusing but…I very much dislike being told I am not being an engaged audience member, that I am sitting like a blob,, lacking in energy.  I feel like saying, Well if you were a bit funnier I would be very engaged indeed! 

But…the girls thought this particular busker was vastly amusing and clever so maybe I am just getting jaded after many years of sitting outside the Taste of Tasmania sheds with a $5 in my hand…

On the way back to the car I stopped to take a nostalgic photo of my old work place.  The Commonwealth Law Courts and 144 Macquarie Street, up behind the law courts.  My work place(s) for ten years…And do I miss work?  Oh deary me…not at all!!

30th December - sleety Hobart - 2XScin the Philippines

Tuesday 30^th December

Today it is stormy and sleety in Hobart.  Not much fun for the Taste of Tasmania, or for the Falls Festival.

Back on 2XS in the Philippines Rosie and Toby are still happy on board.  But…they have run out of nurofen, and French mustard…(A strange combination, one would think.) And various things are not working – the inverter, the TV remote, this and that.  Pete will be busy with his Leatherman!

29th December - Taste of Tasmania - Sydney Hobart boats - family ties

Monday 29^th December

Up the mast (Comanche)

Today we caught the bus to town, with two total novices to the Metro system. 

Harry and Lizzie

They were delighted; the whole trip down the hill to the GPO was AWESOME.  It was bright and sunny and balmy.  A light breeze rippled through the air…

We took Harry and Lizzie to watch a busker doing his thing in the cool balmy breeze…which gradually strengthened…

and became a blustery storm!

We sheltered in the Taste of Tasmania shed, while the rain lashed the glass louvres and frightened the crowds quite a lot.

The rain desisted; the wind died down and we were able to stroll around and look at the boats already in the dock.

The clouds are still just a bit black!

Next stop – a visit to my South Hobart family.  Lizzie and Eva had never met…they are three months apart in age.  Lizzie was wearing her navy and blue dress with the red pocket, very new.  With plaits and sandals.  Within minutes Eva had plaits and sandals…and her own very new navy and blue dress with the red pocket.  SO cute!

Lizzie and Eva

On the way home we had drinks at Kathy and David’s, to meet their new grandson Levi

Elsa with Levi

and their old grandson Hamish.

Hamish with James

I so love all these new generations of offspring…

David had found an old volume, circa 1978, maybe, of Snowdon’s Tasmania.  In it – a random photo of a busker, with two of my daughters plus…a random little boy. Who is he??

Random kiddiewink, Claire, Nicky (1978??)

28th December - Wild Oats wins again (line honours in Sydney-Hobart Yacht race) - the fun continues in Hobart

Sunday 28^th December

Today Hobart turned on the works.  Blazing sunshine, 25 degrees, blue sky, rolling white clouds and a spectacular line honours win in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

We went and sat on the grassy knoll at Alexandra Battery and peacefully contemplated the gun emplacements, never used in anger, but built to repel the French, and then the Russians.  Just beyond the grassy knoll – the sparkling Derwent, with a swathe of white froth, churned up by the many boats waiting for Wild Oats 11 to come storming home.

There were hundreds of people on the Battery, enjoying the view.  In the midst of them, fortuitously, our friends Jo and Malcolm, who live near Eden and who are on their way, in a campervan, to the Falls Festival.

Malcolm and Jo

They had been to dinner the night before, with their three daughters plus one boyfriend.  

Andrew deserves a photo fo his very own - he is the one who came up with iMazing

Perfect dinner guests, really… Jo and Malcolm are delightful in their own right but…they came with The Young, who were able to team up and fix my iPad/iPod/Bose/Bluetooth problem which has had me tearing my hair for many days.  Well, I just had to install iMazing (who knew??) and all my problems would evaporate into clear thin air.  We can now listen to music on the very small Bose speaker, which produces beautiful LOUD sound at the touch of a switch.  (Well…now it does, thanks to Andrew, Charlotte, Chloe and Kate!!)  Come again, Malcolm and Jo, and bring your young!!

Charlotte, Kate, Chloe (2011, on 2XS)

John and Catherine came too – the first time I have seen them since Borneo.  Always nice to see them, here or there.  

John and Catherine in Sandakan

And they too value-added to their visit by bringing us a whopping great can crusher, which can do ten cans at a time.  Nifty!