[Big A Journal] Tasmania – Day 3

Today was the last full day I have at Hobart. Tomorrow my Dad will rent a car and we will drive to Cradle Mountain. My Mum said we would be doing the laundry today. So at 8 o’clock My Mum, Sister and I go to a place call Salamanca Square. My Mum likes walking on outings, but she likes statues even more. She would stop and look at a statue even though it might look like a ‘kompos’. My Sister likes walking on outings too. She always likes running and jumping, skipping and all those kind of stuff. Myself on the other hand don’t like outings. I would rather sit in bed and read a book all day. But I don’t have a book at the moment (I finished one before I went to the holiday). And we have to do the laundry before tomorrow. 

Halfway on our trip it started to rain. My Mum tried to make Ayesha (my sister) go faster. Mum had no luck. I tried next (I am better at this than My Mum). I whispered that we were going to the Fairy Shop if she walks faster. Five minutes later we entered Salamanca Square. Mum took us to a cafe called Machine Laundry Cafe. The cafe is like a normal cafe, except there is a wall dividing the laundry and the cafe. The laundry was small but the cafe took 3 quarters of the building. When we stepped into the laundry, we saw five washing machines and 4 dryers. My Mum loaded the clothes into the washing machine. She then put five one dollar coins into the machine and did all those other things to make the machine start. My sister and I were waiting for our Mum to finish. We were waiting at the table and was reading the menu (well, I was reading the menu, Ayesha was playing with her jacket). 

A few minutes later Mum joined us. She asked what we would like to have. I said I’d like a chocolate milkshake. Ayesha said she’d like apple juice. But my Mum ordered a dish and a flat white. After we ordered Mum went to look at the washing. When she came back she said it was only going to be twenty minutes before it finishes. When we got our food we began to eat. The milkshake was delicious. It was nice, cold and taste like chocolate. Even when it’s cold and raining outside I still like drinking cold drinks. The people in Hobart by the looks of it seems used to the weather here. I am used to the weather too, but my parents and sister are not. They still wear coats and jackets.

The washing finished quicker than we ate. So we drank more of our drinks and waited while our Mum place our clothes in the dryer. Once we finished we went outside to take some photos. It was still raining outside. We wore our rain jacket and followed Ayesha just in front of the cafe. Ayesha has just spotted a large chess board. It was like the same one in Sydney at Hyde Park. Ayesha started to place the black pawns anywhere on the chess board. Mum started to help Ayesha and put the chess pieces to their right square. I stood watching on the side and taking photos. Ayesha seems enjoying herself, dragging the pieces onto different squares on the chessboard. A few minutes later when Ayesha was tired and the pieces were neatly tidied, Mum went inside to check of the laundry. She came back outside telling us that it’s finished. We went inside the laundry to where the dryers were. Our one was in the bottom-left corner. After she loaded the clothes back into the bag, we set of to find a toilet.

We found one at the other end of the square. Once we finished we went to a bookshop. It was not a small shop, but not a big one either. There were lot of books everywhere, on the shelves, on tables. Mum took us to the kids section to find a book I wanted called The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey. It took me ten minutes to find the book. I took it out of the shelf carefully and went over to My Mum. She was with Ayesha looking at the picture books. When I told her I found the book she checked the price and we went to the counter. The bookshop was not very crowded today so we didn’t have to line up. When we bought it, one of the staff said it was a really good book. I thought it was a really good book too because the previous book was great. 

We went out of the square to go to the Fairy Shop. When we entered the shop, we were entering a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a small room. Inside the room was lots and lots of cushions. There was also a well. The well was not a real well. It was not deep and it was not filled with water. Instead it was filled with sticky notes. Stuck on the roof of the well was a sign that read: Put your wish into the wishing well. I was guessing all the sticky notes in the well were wishes from little girls. I looked around the room. It was all pink on the wall. When we finished looking around we went through another door. On the other side was a shop. It was filled with lots of fairy stuff. It was also filled with some pirate stuff. I asked Mum why there were pirate stuff if this is a fairy shop. She said if girls have younger or older brothers they could look at the pirate stuff rather than the fairy stuff. When I looked around most things weren’t that interesting to me. The only things I was interested in was the klaudiscope, yoyo and the books. The things might be interesting for little kids who like fairies, but for me, and for kids like me who are older and don’t like fairies, it may not be that interesting.

When My Mum told me we would be leaving soon I chose Dinosaur Bubbles (I don’t like dinosaurs but I like bubbles). I went over to My Mum who was with my little sister. Ayesha was still deciding what to buy. She was holding two things: a headband and a notebook. Mum said she had to choose one thing. It took a few minutes but in the end she, I don’t know why she chose the notebook. Maybe she chose it because I have a notebook or maybe because the notebook looks like a bag. Anyway when we were outside, the rain stopped.

We were off walking down the street to the next stop off the journey, a park called Princess Park. Mum told us to turn right at the end of the block. So at the first corner we turned right, which led to a small lane. At the end of the lane there was a staircase. The size of the staircase I think is not big but huge. It went up three levels, up a flight, then landing turn right, then up another flight. At the very top of the stairs we were in a small but long street. I had no idea where we are and had no idea where we were going. I thought we were lost after a few minutes of waling around the blocks. Finally we found a place to sit down. We were in a very small park with two swings, a single bench and two big trees with branches, which hung over the pair of swings. At first I thought we were in Princess Park, but after a few seconds I found it didn’t fit the description Mum gave me. This park wasn’t big. I asked Mum what park this is. She said that this was not Princess Park and that she would find how to get there on the map. Once we finished playing bubbles and swinging on the swing, we set off again. This time Mum knows where we’re going.

After a few minutes we had to climb a hill. It was a very high hill. Ayesha was already tired even though she hasn’t reached a quarter way. When we reached the top, we were on top of a hill looking down on a big patch of grass. Between the grass was a path that went down to the playground and the toilet. It took us only just a few seconds since we ran down the hills. When we reached the bottom we saw a school playing with the equipment. It was school time for the people in Hobart (of course it’s school time in Sydney too). I didn’t want to go on the playground now. It was all too crowded. So I decided that I would wait till they leave and then I would play. They left five minutes later however, so I didn’t have to wait long.

As soon as they were gone I got up and climbed the stairs to the first level of what looked like a ship. In the first level of it there were two small slides. Both near the point of the ship. They were both the same shape and colour, yellow and wiggly. I went and tried them once each. I really wanted to try the extremely long slide. The slide was on the highest level of the playground. It may be the lookout tower on a real pirate ship. To get there I had to first climb the ramp to the second floor. Once I was up there I saw stairs that go to a higher level. When I got there I was under a shelter and there was bars on the each side. At the top of the slide there was kind of like a shelter that covers the top half of the slide. The slide was so steep, it looked scary when I was looking down. I sat down at the top of the slide, pressed my hands to the side of the slide and went sliding down. The slide wasn’t bad. It was fast, but not too fast and it was slippery. I wanted to try it again, this time I want climb the net to get there. The nets were at each side of the ship and it would lead you straight to the second floor. While I was climbing up I accidentally hit the pole at the top for a safety rail. It hurt but I had something worse before and compared to that this is nothing. I reached the top and looked down. It still looked scary but this time I know it’s not scary. I slid down the slide, this time I didn’t hold on. It was so fast! I had to jump a bit at the bottom. It was great.

After a few more rides at the slide, I went to the hammock. The hammock was really wobbly but it was relaxing once I got used to it. Twenty minutes later we stopped playing and went home. I had no idea where we were, but Mum looked like she knew. So I just followed her instead asking questions like I normally do. We went out the gate and down the same hill we went through when we came up here, but instead of turning right, we went through forward. Halfway through our trip I couldn’t help it and asked Mum how much further to the hotel. She said it was not that far. I didn’t ask any questions after that. A few minutes later it started raining. We all quickly went to the nearest shelter. We put our rain jackets on and went walking home.

We all had a rest and waited for Dad. We went to this restaurant for dinner, where they had delicious food. Ayesha , Mum and I went back to the hotel while my Dad takes photos. I slept right away in the nice comfy bed, ready for tomorrow when we go to Cradle Mountain.