Hello again

I'm now in Sydney staying in a hotel for a couple of nights. The weather is drizzly here and the Sydney weather has been generally very damp and gloomy after the first couple of days at the beginning of the trip. I have met up with Geoff and Elaine yesterday and this morning which was great! Saw Peter and Jo (their son and daughter-in-law) last night and we all went for an amazing Thai meal..yum yum,

However, the purpose of this blog is to tell you all about my incredible trip to Hobart, Tasmania. Rodney met me from the flight through a cloudless sky, once we left NSW behind, and drove me around the city to reaquaint myself after our visit last January. When we got back to the house, Raf was already hard at work in the kitchen. We sat with cold wine, incredible cheeses and Raf's 'made on the spot before your very eyes' tsatsiki which was delicious. The next hour was like watching a recording of professional Masterchef. From a tiny kitchen he produced a meal to end all meals. It was a choregraphed work of art with flashing knives, pounding pestels and sizzling sounds. From it he finally laid before us the finished piece which was a beef fillet that tasted like nothing I have ever had before in terms of deliciousness!! With it went a quickly thrown together butter thing on the top with fresh herbs from the garden, leeks done in a way that I couldn't even begin to explain and mash....calling it simply 'mash' is probably a crime. This set the tone for the next four days. Every morning he is up at the crack of dawn proofing bread, whizzing fruit for breakfast and planning ahead for the delights of the evening.

On Friday I wandered to Hobart down the rivulet that rund by the house in hot sunshine, had a coffee and browsed. The Rodney took me out of the city to the new MONA gallery, Museum of Old and New Art. He worked in the cafe while I spent three happy hours wandering round the eclectic mix of goodies all bough/collected by a guy who won millions by working out how to win lotteries! He was a maths graduate and that's what he has done for his career. I just want to thank him because it's a stunning building and a stunning collection. Too much to go into here...see me later!

On Saturday we went down to the harbour market and then on out to Port Arthur. The sun beat down all day long making for fantastic stops en route to admire the geology of the coast. Rodney basically knows everything about Tassie (and a massive amount about the rest of the world as well) so I had my own guide! We arrived at Port Arthur, the largest convict settlement in the Commonwealth. It looked beautiful in the afternoon sun with the blue skies and sea wrapped around it but look below that and a sorry picture emerged. We have little to be proud of in our 'development' of the colonies but this take sthe biscuit. I managed to hold everything together until we went into the 'Separate Prison' which Rodney saved to the end. It was a totel segregation prison where the prisoners NEVER saw or heard another person except to hear the sermon on Sunday. It was modelled on Pentonville where they decided that isolating these prisoners, giving them nothing but a Bible and forbiding them any basic human kindness or touch would teach them the error of their ways. They went mad...literally. Pentonville gave up the experiment when they realised but Port Arthur carried on until it was closed. I just sat and cried. Rodney and Raf assured me that everybody does so I didn't feel such a wuss. You'll see more when I get the photos on. They tried to lighten the mood then by treating me to all the Port Arthur ghost stories but that didn't help at all!!

On Sunday we went off to Bruny Island which is the end of the world over here. We met up with their amazing friends, Richard and Michael. Richard is a Ranger and so was a real source of knowledge. Michael is a professional wildlife photographer but the best thing about them was that they were mad as hatters and we laughed the whole day long. we walked on pristine beaches, drove on gravel tracks over mountains and had a picnic in the bush looking out over the sea. we saw wildlife round every corner and ate lots of leaves and berries which don't seem to have done any harm! I felt very spoiled.

BBack home for more lovely food and one last effot by the guys to spot a platypus for me in the stream across from the house. No joy but you can't fault the effort. I was so sad to leave the next morning and all I can say is go to Tassie.

Well, of

f to Melbourne tomorrow to stay with friends and then home. I'll put one last lot of photos up before I leave. See a lot of you very soon.