Hide and Seek Hobart - A Plan for Winter

Officially winter has arrived in Australia. The Australians claim seasons begin on the first of the month, therefore winter arrived 1 June. However I refuse to acknowledge it until the Solstice. To me that is when winter begins.

So as it is just around the corner and my Penguin Library is getting up to date, the blog has been rejigged a bit I now need some interesting winter things to put into the blog during our short colder days.

I was in Fuller's Bookshop the other day and I saw this little book called Hide and Seek Hobart by Dale Campisi & Michael Brady. Evidently it is part of a series of various cities around Australia who also claim their own book. There is a Hide and Seek Sydney and a Hide and Seek Adelaide...anyway you get the picture.

Also whilst cleaning the front library room I came across a partially used calendar. It is one of those page to a day calendars and this one was given to me by a friend. Each day there is a different "bookish" quote from some famous author. Some of them I have heard of and some of them I haven't heard of.  OF course the front room is cold, the calendar sat on my desk and many days passed when I didn't go into the room and now I have about half a year's worth of pages unused, unread.  I usually use the back of these sheets that I tear off as notepaper but I seem to be over run with recycled notepaper as I tend to tear up all kinds of bits and piece of paper from the mail and make notepads from them.

What to do with them?  Then on a long motorbike ride I undertook today I started to get creative. Riding my bike quite often offers me creative ideas as I enjoy the country side that is so beautiful here and I am alone inside my helmet with no distractions outside of huge log trucks whizzing past me. I do pay attention to those.  I thought, "Well you have this calendar with book quotes that are fun and you have this little pictorial book of Hide and Seek Hobart and you love Alex's Book Jar (here) so let's combine them all onto the blog! "  I got quite excited whilst traversing a country road along the River Derwent and I almost tooted at a couple of Black Swans swimming nearby.  

I will open the book to Table of Contents and write one page number for each entry onto the back of a calendar page, fold them up and put them in the jar.  Then maybe once a week or maybe twice a week I will reach into the book jar (maybe now it is a Hide and Seek jar) and pull out a numbered calendar page.  

I will then go to that page number in the book, hop onto the scooter and take a ride to the location given. I will be sure to be packing my camera with a fresh battery.  Many of these places are art galleries, book shops, theatre, and heaps of coffee shops.  I will visit the place and my priority is to work out if any of these places relate to reading or owning books. If not I will look for art work and/or food. 

Now move forward several hours and the Hide n Seek Book Jar is filled with the Table of Contents and ready to go.  The camera's battery is charged I plan on choosing from the book jar Monday morning first thing.  

Now fast forward into the future and you will get to travel to some interesting little spots around Hobart through the winter.  I have not looked closely at the pages of the book because I want to be surprised.  I only used the Table of Contents.  So I am thinking the blog will feature the following things:

1.  The top of the page will have the quotation from the calendar page with author's details. 

2. Will be the name and location of the place visited    

3. Will explain the experience of visiting this place and whether it could be or is a literary place or not.  Or how is it connected to the arts if not overly bookish.

4. Then there will be a photo or two of what the place looks like and what I like about it.
As I would like to promote tourism in Tasmania, especially as it is winter and the quiet season I think it would behoove me to be as positive as possible. Unless someone chases me out of a place with a I stick if I don't buy anything.  

I think as I'm not going anywhere anytime soon I will put the Travellin'  into Travellin' Penguin in a productive way in and around Hobart and take my friends with me who follow along.  

I might add I also put four Random bits of paper into the jar.  Random means - I get up and I visit a place in and around Hobart that I have never been before of my choosing.  I am looking forward to seeing parts of this city I have not visited before. 

On a final note- this book is screaming for an update and I see on the web page there is an update page and no doubt sequels may follow.  If I find this to be a successful winter venture I may continue it into spring.  Spring in Australia begins 1 September. Spring in my household begins 22 September. So I have several months to try this out.  I am really looking forward to sharing our beautiful and quirky city with you.  Thoughts??