re: The view from my "office"
I love raspberries!! Haven't spent enough time in Tassie... How are the wine tour plans going RF?
Good question! I have been waiting for the dates for Dark mof_ to be announced, as it would be vastly optimal to have the Tassie wine tour during it. Still no dates, but its around the winter solstice, so will look closely at this soon.
What no Tassie cherries.We were eating them at Christmas-2 kilos smuggled out!
Oh, cherries. Just too common to mention, really
. This year we didn't get the early December hailstorm that usually wipes out much of the crop, so the place is groaning with 'em.
Another note about Taste of Tasmania. This year, they 'proudly announced a world first' (everyone starts cringing). The thing went 'cashless' ("as a trial" - oh, sure). The CBA waved some techno magic in front of the Hobart City Council (who run the event) and convinced the gullible twits that their small biz tablet with card tap/swipe would be the ducks guts, and no cash would be exchanged. And, happily, council was able to charge stallholders 10% off the top of every transaction to help pay for the event.
Result - a bunch of stall holders dropped out, not able to cover the extra 10%; in practice, the system kept crashing on Day 1; today, Day 2 every stall holder I asked said that they were down 'considerably' due to the time to process transactions. About 5 taps to enter a single purchase; swipe card and pin, or tap, let it think, then issue a receipt. Versus hand over a note and get change. Remember these are small stallholders (its what makes the Taste special) - not bloody Myers. Smart people, those at the CBA. Spotted some country hicks who wanted a 'world first', without questioning why no-one else had done it. But they got their 10%, so it'll be here to stay, you can bet.
But that issue aside, a fantastic occasion.
