Dress Code

I know I have written about it before, but I need to write another post about my uniform. Since I retired, I have pretty much lived in t-shirts, shorts and, depending on my mood, either flip-flops or sneakers. When I am in the mood, I accessorize with a baseball cap.

When we flew in from Adelaide the other day, LK said to me that she was a little surprised that I wore a t-shirt and shorts for the plane ride. "I thought you might have put on a golf shirt with a collar," she said.

I explained to her that people simply do not get dressed up to take a plane ride nowadays.

But today my uniform failed to pass muster. We went to the Cascade Brewery to take the tour. But they won't let you in if you don't have long pants. And, to top that off, they won't let people wearing flip-flops or sandals on the premises, either. Something about safety in the workplace, they claimed, but I have my doubts.

Nonetheless, there is one thing of which I am certain. Today I wasn't dressed well enough to get inside a beer factory. Funny enough, in a way I am a little proud of that.

I should add that Robert and Jaki were also on Mr Blackwell's Worst Dressed for the Beer Factory Tour List. Only LK was wearing both long pants and shoes and, of course, she was the only one who didn't care one way or the other if she got to see how beer is made.

Mind you, if it had been a factory showing how diamonds are cut, polished and set, she would have told us to find a way to kill an hour while she went on the tour. But watching boiling pots of malt and barley was never going to entice her.

The good news, though, is that the grounds of Cascade Brewery are still a fantastic place to wander around, even if you can't smell the yeast. By the time I took this picture, we were already in a good mood despite not taking the tour.

The brewery has lovely gardens, and we all strolled around enjoying the bright sunshine of a late summer day in Hobart. OK, we were killing time before we went to sample the beers in the visitor center, but it sounds better to say we were admiring the plants.

They have a little cafe there and picnic tables outside, so we ordered lunch. Well, and another beer, too, and we had a most enjoyable time at a place that had pretty much told us to piss off when we said we were there for the tour.

They even had some cool stuff on display like the old bottles they used when they sold ginger beer and dandelion wine.

And LK was particularly smitten with the picture of Fatty Armstrong they had posted. Fatty worked at Cascade around 1900.

She took a picture of Fatty's picture and couldn't wait to show it to me. I don't know what this means, but deep in my heart I am hoping that something has snapped and LK now gets turned on by guys with three or more chins. Here's hoping.

After the brewery we went out to our house at Kingston Beach. We wanted Robert to see the house and to get his input and thoughts about the renovations we are considering. Robert and Jaki worked hard measuring and diagramming, while LK talked with our 90-year-old tenant to make sure she wasn't upset by a carload of strangers lobbing into her house armed with tape measures and pencils.

I contributed as best I could, which more or less meant staying out of everyone else's way.

After all that, we drove up high above Hobart. The Mt Nelson Signal Station has a drop-dead panoramic view of the area and it is stunning to see. LK took a Flip video so you could get the sense of it, and when we get a connection that works better I will upload it to YouTube. Until then, here's a sample:


Tomorrow we pack the car and head north. First stop, lunch at Launceston. Final destination, the Bay of Fires in time for sunset. Should be great.