So there I was, sitting in a cab in the middle of Hobart this morning about 7 am, gazing with some noticeable jaw-drop at the skyscraper cruise ship sitting the other side of the road, when both the cabbie and I went, in unison, “Oh my God!!!”
Sitting on the top deck was a MASSIVE television screen – the size of a football field, I am telling you (well, at least the size of 6 or 7 billboards – it was, truly, massive).
There we were, sitting in our iddle bitty cab at the stop lights, craning our necks, watching tv atop a liner in the middle of Hobart. My mind literally could not process it – I had to ask the cabbie if that was what I thought it was.
I can’t understand why someone wants to go to sea to watch tellie. My lord, what a bunch of brain dead sods we all are if this is what modern life has got to. These liners are full of shopping malls, cinemas, pedicure salons, whatever, and I just wonder “Why?” Why go to sea if all you are doing is … shopping? Getting your nails done? Watching tellie? Even when you are out on deck?
Does no one now want to catch the tea clipper and stand in the prow in a gale and get soaked and heave up and down 30 feet and laugh at the sheer, wonderful joy of life as you cling on for dear life (the crew are always forcing themselves up to me and asking me if I really don’t want to go below decks; I did this on a boat during a gale in the North Sea once and it remains the time of my life)? People want to watch tellie on a rock steady deck that looks like a mall instead??????
Lord heavens, viva la revolution and the coming of the red brick wall against which we can all be stood. Mindlessness reigns supreme.
The one thing I absolutely love about Hobart is that the wharves are right in the heart of the city by the chemist and the deli and the coffee shop and the shopping malls. Literally 4 metres across the road. I mean this morning we had to swerve to avoid the cruise ship. Really. (Search for “constitution dock, hobart”, to have a look on google maps; the big ships dock at the top and bottom of those series of wharves – very, very deep water.)
You’ll never know what you will find there … today it was a cruise liner, but it just might as well have been a US warship or aircraft carrier, a polar icebreaker, or one of the replica big wooden sailing ships. It is always an adventure going into town.
Just before the most recent Iraq war the US navy had bought a number of landing craft from a Tasmanian manufacturer. One day I went into town and the US navy was doing practice invasion landings at constitution dock. No one in town bothered very much. LOL
Recipes coming soon. 
You didn’t tell us what was showing on the tellie Sara. All I can say about this & the election – only in Tassie *grins*
:-)Guess it depends on how much time you spend at sea. When I was doing 2 weeks on/2 off (I was fisheries biologist at the time)the magic wore a little thinner after a few years. Not wore out, but I was always glad to wash in fresh water, and have real milk in my tea again. And to smell things that weren’t salt, diesel and fish. But cruise-liner passengers don’t really want to experience the sea. It’s a hotel with bragging rights as far as most of them are concerned.
PS – this late warm weather must be interesting for your veg. I’ve got lettuces going to seed here on flinders, and cucumbers still growing.
Sorry. World’s largest TV belongs to the Dallas Cowboys here in the US. Stupid thing cost as much as the Football (American) stadium itself.
Oh come on Sara…. you wouldn’t want to miss the footie when you’re on holiday, would you?
(Laughs maniacally and runs away….)
This is one of my all time favourite posts from you! I am always that person up the front in the wind and spray, even if it is just the commuter ferry on the Brisbane River. I think I may have been a ute dog in a former life. 😉
And no! No tv on the boat! It should be in the articles.
Too true I live in Dallas, Texas. And the tv in our stadium is massive.
Don’t forget the occasional appearance of assorted black and sinister looking whaler-chasers with the big scars on the front! Always easy to spot- just follow the Federal Police vehicles.
One regular sight, the Aurora Australia, is the Antarctic resupply vessel. Called by some the ‘orange roughy’, it has been know to give its crew and passengers a maritime experience the exact opposite of the big ‘cotton-wool-princess’ cruise liners.
Also, I’m told that when the really big liners are in, they’re actually the biggest building in the entire city.
My body is cringing at the thought. Like you Sara I too love being in the bow and feeling the breeze and the waves, mainly cause I am being seasick..lol but I love boats, and sailing. Just wonder now if we have discovered why all the whales are beaching themselves they are escaping home and away or neighbours..lol
Sara!! I soo hear you on this one but this is coming from a tallship crewmember. We ‘get’ the ‘being at sea’ thing…
Have you been out on the Lady Nelson? If not, and you’re feeling up to it, I totally recommend you do. Do you get to the Wooden Boat Festival? I’m thinking Enterprize will be heading there for the next one – if so you’re more than welcome to come out for a sail on her. I’d be honoured as I’m sure the rest of the crew would too. I’ll let you know when we’re heading there next xox