Let's do dinner....in Hobart!

What a lovely weekend I just had! My darling sister Di rang me a few weeks ago. She was attending a user group meeting in Hobart on a Friday and was offered special accommodation rates if she wanted to overnight. Did I want to come meet her there? I was intending to catch up with Dad before he went through his next round of bionic "We Can Rebuild Him" back reconstructions en route to his robotic transformation (well, there's enough metal going in there anyway!). So I said "why the bloody hell not??!!" (please censor that statement if you're from the UK, no offence was intended LOL!) So I booked flights, heading back on the Saturday on the plane with Dianne, staying with Ma and Pa for the night, then back to Canberra on the Sunday.

So on Friday morning at dawn's crack I was off to the salubrious Canberra International Airport to head across the tasman. It was a pleasant 17deg when I arrived at the equally imposing Hobart International Airport and I caught the airport transfer bus to the city with an interesting bunch of travellers including a couple of strange fellows seemingly intent on blaming Ian Thorpe's withdrawal from the Melbourne Commonwealth Games on their opinion of his sexual orientation, with the impression that Canberra had politicians hopping down the mainstreet and popping into my place for a spot of Mocha Latte and some lobbying on Aboriginal Health Care Rebates for Whales. I quickly informed them that sure, pollies roamed the streets and we all knew each other on a first name basis. Sadly they seemed to drink that up but unfortunately the driver came around asking for ticket payment so I couldn't embellish further with my stories of using Air Force One to cropdust my backyard and other believable tales.

We were booked into the Savoy Quest (or Quest Savoy depending on your religion) and they seemed to be awaiting my arrival, I was sent forth to discover a lovely room. I roamed the streets of Hobart for some time (well it only took half an hour for a complete circumnavigation) and met up with Di early afternoon. We headed down to the therapeutic spa in the basement where we proceeded to completely ignore the signs papering the walls bearing 3 foot letters instructing use of the lockers, and promptly locked ourselves out. That fixed we headed off to the salt pool and the cold, tepid and hot spa baths (this also took us a while to work out). We chatted away while turning into wrinkled prunes, before heading back to our rooms for dinner. We made a 3 second stop in the steam room where Di became overcome with claustrophobia, eyes rolling like a spooked horse as she screeched "Does the door open? What if it gets STUCK????" Mind you, I hadn't even closed it yet. We forgo that experience, needless to say!

We strolled down to the Waterfront to the constant ringing of church bells. We were concerned, having missed the news, that either the Queen had carked it or maybe Nicole and Keith had chosen Hobart to stage their rumoured wedding. The bells actually seemed to go all weekend so we figured the tape had stuck, or Quasimodo had got tangled in the bell ropes, and the Priests had headed off on a winery tour. It could just have been my tinnitus, although it hadn't manifested itself in quite so a melodic, hymnal way before, and I hadn't shared it with anyone else before either (mind you locals didn't seem to notice it at all!). Yes, it was quite a mystery.

We perused the various restaurant menus, discovering fish, seafood and more fish on the menu in most, before choosing one. "Do you have a table?" we asked the hostess at the entrance to the mostly empty premises. "You can have one until 8" she snapped. We were planning a movie so we thought that would be OK and wondered what she would do if we went a minute or two over, perhaps frogmarch us out and toss us in the harbour. She seemed to have the shoulders for it. We ordered a cocktail and some garlic bread to start, Di ordered a risotto with local mushrooms, lamb strips and goat's fetta, I chose penne with chicken, bacon & broccoli in a creamy chili and basil sauce. They practically leapt on us with the whole lot seconds after the waitress scribbled the order. Yeah, yeah, we get the message, we're on a time limit! LOL! The cocktail was absolutely to-die-for - YUM YUM! - a concotion of Baileys, Strawberry Liqueur, strawberries and cream. The meals were absolutely delicious, we really enjoyed them. I was peed off I lugged my camera all the way and left my memory card at home, Di was obsessed with the young couple behind me, who were either on a bad first date or were extraterrestrials with mindreading talents as they did not say a word to each other during the duration of our meal. At any rate we got out with only moments to spare, after shoving some white chocolate creme brulee in at an alarming rate. Thank goodness we had a long walk to the cinema to walk it all off!

I'm still in deep depression over the fact we missed the earlier screening of "Casanova", but we decided to see Woody Allen's "Match Point" starring Scarlett Johannsen. It was OK, I couldn't get over how much the male lead (I'm sorry his name has Rhys in it, but it has escaped me) looked and sounded exactly like Joaquin Phoenix in "Gladiator" and it sort of sidetracked me. It was an odd film, but more mainstream than most of Woody's offerings, and I did enjoy it despite the sad, shabby, smelly and uncomfortable cinema (come on Tassie, get into the 21st century!). I'd probably give it 3 stars out of a possible 5. The cinema scored a dismal minus two!

On Saturday we headed to Salamanca Markets. It took two hours of recurring vertigo walking up and down the sloping cobbled streets to take in all the fabulous stalls full of local produce and crafts. I bought quite a few prezzies and bits, Di ended the expedition purchase-less, although I think she was intrigued with the "Moon Pads" (OMG OMG OMG!!!!). And she was somewhat starstruck by a hoboish looking busker whom she seemed to think was Johnny Cash, having been severely effected by her recent exposure to "Walk the Line".

We made our way by taxi to the airport and managed to look unassuming as we smuggled our grossly oversized and overweight pieces of handluggage through to the gate lounge for our flight back to Melbourne. There was a funny moment where Di was paged due to a seat change, but they didn't realise we were together so that sort of screwed up all their plans, but they were gracious and efficient and had Ms. Sankin's seats all sorted in no time (in joke). Speaking of jokes we had quite the card in our Cabin Supervisor, a budding wannabe stand up comic with a nervous stutter, whose hysterical gem for the trip had to be "Cabin crew, man doors and cross check for Blast Off"!!! We were a bit confused to our destination as both Fiji and Canberra were mentioned, although we did in fact land in Melbourne!

And so we eventually got to Mum and Dad's. It was great to see them and to catch up with Pam and Ron. We had a few drinks and a couple of laughs. I managed to stay on my seat for the lovely chicken and caesar salad dinner and awake for the movie. We watched "Walk The Line" and I quite enjoyed it. Terrific acting, Joaquin made an amazing Johnny Cash with all the mannerisms and angst, Reese was cute and determined as the talented June Carter. Their musical abilities were impressive, I could see what the hype and awards were all about.

In no time Di and the boys were with me at Melbourne airport for my flight home on Sunday. Jakes seems to have a serious aversion to hairdressing scissors and seems to be disappearing under his blonde mop. Rhys is more conservative, a few inches shorter and few enhanced shades lighter in the hair dept. Di introduced me to the delight of Hudsons Iced Chocolate and taught me how to scoop off the cream. I will ever be in her debt, or want to kill her for that. My flight home was uneventful, no poor-man's Rove on the speaker this time. I slept most of the trip, mouth open and drooling no doubt. Hope I didn't snore, oh well!

I was glad to see my little family when I got home. The kids crawled into the car before I turned the ignition off. I was kissed and hugged and welcomed home in grand style. I love those little creatures! So all in all, it had been a good weekend. Thanks Di, for inviting me! Thanks Mum for sharing you bed! Thanks Dad for just being you - I'm glad you were happy about the DVDs!

Well, I think I'm blogged out - I'll catch you all up on other stuff another time!

xxxx