Margaritaville

A very busy Saturday morning and the entrance to the shopping mall was across a bridge, known locally as the red bridge. Tons of people so just followed the crowd on my bike at pedestrian speed.

The bloke in front of me was wearing a T shirt with the word Margaritaville on the back.

"Where's Margaritaville?" I ask when we cross the bridge.

"No place" he says, "a band I heard in Las Vegas, bought the T shirt as a souvenir".

Sure enough, looking it up on Google, there it was, Margaritaville

Not quite my cup of tea!.

S.P.A.T

SPAT stands for the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania. It was founded in 1985 and currently has over 50000 records including some rare Edison cylinders. It displays old camera, electronic equipment, gramophones, and the like.

As at the time of writing, it could be contacted via the above website, via email at soundtas@bigpond.com (not the one in the web page) or by phoning +61 3 6254 1153 or visiting at their address in the Old Bellerive Post Office building, 19 Cambridge Rd, Bellerive, Tasmania, 7018.

	There are a number of telephones, this one caught my attention as it reminded me of my gradmother's phone in the 40s and 50s in Gympie, turn the handle, talk to the operator and get connected.
	Microphones galore. This little collection would have cost a million quid in its day. Even in my time, quality microphones cost big bucks. being half deaf these days, that sort of quality doesn't worry me.
	Speaker horns for gramophones were as varied as the designers were. One of the cutest was a sound box where the volume could be controled by opening small doors on the enclosure. Very ingenious!
	This is like the first radio I bought in 1959. It cost me 25 quid, about two weeks average earnings in those days. Valves and all that.
	There were gramophones and gramophones, this came from a studio, it even looks expensive still! High quality stuff, spot on speed and tracking.
	Part of the vast collection of records and cylinders that have been gathered over the years.

Kids at Play

Taken by Cassandra and with the canon A400. A 41 meg avi file converted to a 5 something meg flash file.

Hobart Break

 

I first went to Hobart in December 1966 for a couple of years, left at the end of 1968.

My sister moved to Hobart about 1968 and stayed. She married, had three children, all grown up now, and as you can see from the photo above, a grand view across the Derwent and its bridge.

So this was my first visit for 39 years. Some things have changed.

After six days, I was feeling quite comfortable in the old home town where our number 2 daughter was born, and I think the only reason that we never went back was the weather. It can be pretty inclement.




Beaumaris

This is the stately house we once lived in, once a had zoo attached that housed the now extint Tasmanian Devil. It had sprawling grounds which now hold sprawling flats. Guess the home is not so stately now!

Lady Nelson

The docks are still the same and as picturesque as ever. The surrounding Salamanca Place and parks have been preserved, some places are obviously tourist traps, not so Hobart, it presents rather naturally without all the gawdyness that goes with tourist towns.