13/3/15

Dear Diary,

Wake up early morning, draw back the curtains and am greeted by the spider I was warned about last night. It looks dead though so I get a paper to pick it out of its web and, suddenly, it springs into life and scuttles around before coming back to its original place. By this time I have dropped my newspaper and an standing on the bed like a housewife in a 50s sitcom letting out a strangled scream. It’s a big spider, about the surface area of a fist, but not the biggest if ever seen and it seems to be taunting me saying “Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.” This calls for a bigger weapon so I get my shoe and become a have-a-go-hero or a terrorist depending on your viewpoint. I give it a whack but its a tough thing and as it limps away I’m sure it raises two arms at me as if to say “I’m going to get my dad!!!”

Sleep tonight will be a nightmare.

Sometimes people ask me what's the best thing about living in Scotland and I almost always say “Smaller spiders.”

Aunty Shelly and chauffeur Lliam take me sightseeing around the local area and towns today starting with a tour of the Ashgrove cheese factory (where Lliam works) where I sample many of the local cheeses they make. onto Anvers chocolate factory where we sample many of the chocolates they produce. Pushing onto Devonport where we check out it’s port (and it’s devon) and not much else as apparently there are more interesting town a bit further down the way. Towns like Sheffield that has a mural theme running all over the town. Almost every building has an impressive large scale artwork on it’s flank or facade and the mural festival, where they invite artists to paint on large cement canvases in the local park is due to start on April 5th. It’s an impressive theme for a town to embrace but they have run with it and supplied an abundance of colourful character to the community. Sheffield also has a marble factory and after a quick visit I impulse buy some pretty marbles and spent the rest of the day in nostalgia avenue with marbles clinking around in my pocket like a naughty eight year old.

A bit further down the road is Rialton where many of the local households and businesses have shaped topiary trees in their front yard. We spotted an elephant, rabbits, humans of various shapes and sizes including Ned Kelly all in topiary form as we cruised through it’s main road.

Deloraine is the next town we visit with a little quirk all of its own. It has lots of little brass statues up and down it’s main street which include a little skateboarder, a little man chopping wood, a little sheep sheerer and a little postman on a motorcycle delivering mail outside the post office.

It’s great to see so many towns providing unique ways of providing atmosphere for it’s locals and interesting attractions for tourists to admire and I fall in love with this little part of Tasmania. It helps that I’m sharing it with great members of my family on a sun shiny day.

After another massive dinner there is plenty more chat and laughs before I have to call it a night and brave the bedroom with the seriously agitated spider somewhere in it.

Perhaps I should just stay up all night. I probably would if I didn't have to get up early to travel back down to hobart in time for Scotland's last big game of the World Cup.
The BIG game. Scotland V. Australia.




"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)