Tentatively Tasmanian

  • Poo, Poke and Post

    That heading above is from an actual advertisement in my GP’s office about getting your bowel checked for cancer. I think it’s clever and ranks up there with ‘do a deposit in your undies’ that was plastered all over Adelaide’s buses encouraging online banking. Anyhoo, Pooing, Poking and Posting usually occurs when you’re fifty, but…

  • Madame Marg

    Sorry, dear Reader. It has been a long time since visiting this blog. Like my physical self, it has periods of intense activity followed by slovenly neglect. We had been based at an Air BnB in Moonah for nearly three months and it was only during our final week when I was busy wearing out…

  • Shopping shockers

    I’ve been job hunting lately, amongst the stuff like trying to get a Medicare card, a refund from an incredibly disinterested UN health insurer and keeping my daily steps up, and was thrown by a scenario presented to me in an interview. “You are about to visit a woman who gets out of bed for…

  • Sunday drive: New Norfolk

    In keeping with our new Tasmanian tradition, Craig* and I drove to New Norfolk which is only about 32 kilometres away from Hobart. The landscapes were incredible – it might be winter, but there is still the ‘dry’ look that only Australia has. Gum leaves are never tree-frog green, but stay a browny grey, no…

  • Mysterious money

    Way back in 1989, the “recession we had to have” was in full swing and as a newly-graduated non-expert in English Literature and Roman Art and Archaeology, the ANZ bank decided that I was a good bet for recruiting as a loans officer/graduate trainee at their bank. I was just grateful to have a job.…

  • Beauty in the eye of

    I set up this blog to shake off the writing cobwebs, but also to see, share and genuinely appreciate the good things about moving to Tasmania. An honourable intention to be sure, but in my day-to-day wanderings, there are some alarming sights as well and that’s just my reflection in shop windows most of the…

  • Brrrrr

    It is the middle of winter here in Hobart and you’d think, as an Australian, I’d be aware of this. But after twelve years of living in Switzerland and nearby France, we left there in early June on a sunny 24C day and arrived in Hobart to 8C. No problem of course. We ensured that…

  • Mangled mammals

    As you can see by now, I adore alliteration. I know that all advice from successful writers is to Avoid Alliteration Always, but the way the words complement each other, typing it or saying it out loud is rather satisfying to me. Then again, maybe I need to get out more. Speaking of which, the…

  • Senior stressors

    I was at Woolies, yes with my nanna cart, and one of their employees saw me wander in and offered me a copy of the free newspaper, ‘The Senior (TASMANIA.’ As you can see, it’s been enjoyed by over 22,000 seniors and further blurb inside informed me that it was suitable reading for someone, like…

  • Here you go darlin’

    It is weird to say that you’re in love with a bus system? Stuff it: I’m in love with MetroTas. Buses turn up every ten minutes where we’re currently located in Moonah and it was easy to buy a green credit card thingy from their office in Elizabeth Street, run by fifty-something ladies who all…