Saturday, September 18th

 We've spent the last few days in Hobart and are now at home.  Nera is working in Hobart at the moment, in a Vaccination Centre set up in Blundstone Area, the state’s major Cricket Centre.  She and Jamie stay in accommodation provided by her employer and Marilyn and I look after Archie in whatever dog-friendly accommodation we can find.  This time we had a unit close to the city centre – very comfortable but the city is built on a hill and I get tired of clambering up steps all the time. 

While Nera is working, we wander around the shops or take a drive somewhere.  The trouble is, with Archie we can’t check out the shops together.  One of us has to sit outside with the dog while the other browses among the merchandise.  We received another pay from our Census work last week and Marilyn decided she was going to splash out on having the car detailed.  It certainly needed it; I think it rained every day we were working and the muddy country roads had left their mark inside and out.  A normal car wash is really unsatisfactory and so Marilyn decided there was nothing for it but to bite the bullet. 

We found the right people in the carpark at a local shopping centre.  Drive-in, leave your car, come back in 4 or 5 hours and you won’t recognise it.  Of course, your wallet will be several hundreds of dollars lighter but it’s a one-off expense and what else can you spend it on? 

The result was stunning.  There was a gang of five or six working on it and they had all the right gear: steam cleaners, polishers, vacuum cleaners, and every kind of chemical.  It’s a pleasure to run my hand over the duco and the floor mats are clean for the first time since we bought the car.  Marilyn can’t stop saying, smugly, “I told you so.” 

We’re back in Hobart for a few days next week and Jamie has found another dog-friendly place for us, at Richmond.  It’s called Harcher’s Manor and it’s like something out of Ma and Pa Kettle: a rambling old farm , with a large house, sprawling outbuildings, wagons, a gypsy caravan, horses, chooks and a mad woman with a horde of dogs, one with only three legs. “Watch out for him,” she says, “He gets a bit crabby.”  It could be an interesting stay.