Silver Gypsy: What a buzz!

Happy hour with the Shearwaters

The Tassie Solo group, the Shearwaters, did a wonderful job sorting out camping for visiting solos. We are split over two venues, a council sports oval and the showground. I am at the oval -perfectly grassed and maintained, hot showers, a bus at the doorstep, and a prolonged happy hour each afternoon. This must have been a difficult site to organise as it is not normally open for camping. The Shearwaters even managed to secure a liquor licence and permission to have alcohol on the council land. The entertainment was probably the easiest part as not too many of us are shy and retiring.

Some of the Solos enjoying mid- summer in Hobart

The city is buzzing this weekend. The Wooden Boat Festival has filled all the nooks and crannies of the harbour, with the boats themselves, workshops, displays, and endless food suppliers. At the Salamanca Markets today, the crowds had to be seen to be believed. I think someone said that 200,000 people were expected. On top of the usual crowd, the Oration of the Sea was in dock with nearly 5000 passengers and 2000 crew..

I bet the Ovation of the Seas was terrified by the police yacht

I decided that this was a good day to get the ferry to the Museum of Old and New Art, MONA. the ferry ride was smooth and there was a commentary, pointing out landmarks and giving a bit of history. I had almost forgotten about the Lake Illawarra hitting the Tasman bridge until the uneven supports were pointed out. Twelve people were killed including the occupants of four cars which were on the bridge at the time. This happened in 1975, less than 5 years after the Westgate bridge disaster which left at least 35 dead.

The trip over was good but I had forgotten about the 99 steps from the boat to the entry of the museum. I wasn't the only one who was slow. I bet I wasn't the only one either who muttered under their breath as young ones ran up - two steps at a time. We had to mutter under our breath because we didn't have the energy to talk out loud.

At first glance the displays looked sparse until I realised that each gallery entry opened on to a series of rooms with related themes. In over two hours I only managed to work through the lowest floor of the museum, As in any museum and gallery, the variety of the exhibits reinforced some understandings, stretched the imagination and challenged some of our expectations.