Philip took me and the family to Tasmania for a few days, right out of the blue, and we got back yesterday. This photo is of Port Arthur, showing the ruins of convictism. I'd never seen this word before but bought Marcus Clarke's novel, 'For the Term of his Natural Life', written in 1874, and he uses 'convictism' frequently. (The computer doesn't recognise it - puts a red line underneath.) I'm thoroughly enjoying the book - it has a surprise in the plot every few pages. Could have been written today. The horrendous conditions the convicts had to live through are currently being visited upon asylum seekers. Australia's shame.
I don't like the actual travelling one bit, so had to suffer flying and driving to enjoy the good bits of the island. We flew into Hobart (in the south), and no sooner were we in the rented car than Hugo had a tantrum that lasted 30 minutes. After that we 'did' the Saturday Salamanca markets, then drove to Port Arthur, which is truly magnificent and we could have spent days there, instead of just a couple of hours.
The second night we rented a beach house somewhere on the east coast and our entertainment was the barbecue getting out of control and nearly burning the house down. Neighbours ran from everywhere to help Philip put the fire out, but not before the wooden base had burned almost away, and even the wooden deck was damaged. The owner gave us a free night to make up for the drama!
The last two nights were at Red Rooster Farm, where Emma overcame her fear of dogs and fell in love with Ben, the farm dog. She sobbed and sobbed when we left, and has already posted him a card telling him how much she misses him. The black sheep and a beautiful peacock were great hits, too.
We flew out of Launceston (in the north) and Hugo had another 30-minute tantrum as we descended for the landing in Sydney, bringing the wrath of an entire plane-load of people down on him! He kicked and screamed and the woman in front was forced to bear the brunt of his flailing feet, much to her loudly-voiced displeasure. I just looked away, pretending I'd never seen this family before :-))
Poor Muffy had been left at home alone, with Manami's parents checking up on her. I didn't know they were going to do this, but it's just as well they did, as they told us she ate the food for the whole five days on day one! She's hardly left my lap since I've been back, and if she does venture briefly outside she miaows loudly as if to say. 'Mummy, are you still there?'
I don't like the actual travelling one bit, so had to suffer flying and driving to enjoy the good bits of the island. We flew into Hobart (in the south), and no sooner were we in the rented car than Hugo had a tantrum that lasted 30 minutes. After that we 'did' the Saturday Salamanca markets, then drove to Port Arthur, which is truly magnificent and we could have spent days there, instead of just a couple of hours.
The second night we rented a beach house somewhere on the east coast and our entertainment was the barbecue getting out of control and nearly burning the house down. Neighbours ran from everywhere to help Philip put the fire out, but not before the wooden base had burned almost away, and even the wooden deck was damaged. The owner gave us a free night to make up for the drama!
The last two nights were at Red Rooster Farm, where Emma overcame her fear of dogs and fell in love with Ben, the farm dog. She sobbed and sobbed when we left, and has already posted him a card telling him how much she misses him. The black sheep and a beautiful peacock were great hits, too.
Poor Muffy had been left at home alone, with Manami's parents checking up on her. I didn't know they were going to do this, but it's just as well they did, as they told us she ate the food for the whole five days on day one! She's hardly left my lap since I've been back, and if she does venture briefly outside she miaows loudly as if to say. 'Mummy, are you still there?'
http://home.arcor.de/ilrap1/html/index.html
It's Michael's own cat gif collection, just click on "Seite 1" and "Seite 2".