Quiz night at The Granada Tavern

We’re not a family of snobs and we certainly don’t think we’re better than others, but let’s just say there were many, many mullet haircuts to admire at The Granada. Many. And after observing these for a few hours, you know, not all mullet haircuts are created equal.

We gave Hamish the opportunity to come up with a name for our team. His go-to name for himself in any game is The Enchanter (it’s a MineCraft reference) – he immediately suggested ‘The Enchanters’ as our team name. He then proceeded to change it to ‘Coolio’ based on a Spotify playlist he and Matt put together a few months ago. When the Quiz Master (Steve) came around to take our registration and team name, Hamish changed it to ‘Club Coolio’ – it stuck.

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Hamish also suggested a team chant, with hands in the middle of the table and calling out ‘Club Coolio’ – this also stuck. Fortunately for us, the first points up for grabs were based on the best self-introduction by each team, as judged by Steve. Club Coolio had points on the board before a question was even asked.

There were 8 teams at the start of the quiz, but by the end, only 6 teams remained. Over 4 rounds of random topics, we remained within the top 3 at each score check. It was an extremely close contest with us going into the final round in third place.

The two Dunbar boys were getting very nervy as the final questions were answered. Hamish could barely contain his excitement as the scores were read out. We won! *cue Hamish jumping up and down

The other teams were very gracious in their defeat coming over and congratulating us. Steve took our photo for the QuizzaMe FB page and Hamish collected our $50 voucher. Our practically undefeated run of trivia continues.

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MONA

A few months ago, Jess and I decided this was definitely on our ‘to-do’ list whilst in Hobart. Jess booked return trips on the Mona ferry in the POSH pit (drinks, food and away from the riff-raff). Ensuring value for money, we managed two glasses of bubbles during the 25-minute ferry trip. Lovely start to our day.

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Mona is truly an impressive place. The grounds, the scenery, the chickens, the staff, the vibe…it doesn’t matter if you’re into art or not, you just make of the exhibits whatever you like. There’s an app which kinda explains some of the art, but it also doesn’t give you an overall idea of what the art is supposed to mean. Which I suspect is the point. My brain doesn’t particularly work well in this non-structured, loose situation, but I just went with the flow and tried not to over-think what everything meant. The three of us had different favourites:

Me – Blank book library

Matt – Strobe room

Jess – Little girl with cake and knife

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We all agreed the free-range chickens roaming around the outdoor dining space were fab. On the trip home, we braved the cold and went out on the deck. Our sweet treats were devoured pretty quickly and again, we managed two glasses of wine in 25 minutes.

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Mt Wellington & Bowling (written by Rod)

Hamish and I are having a boys’ day out whilst the others head to Mona. We start with a drive up to the summit of Mount Wellington. I have wanted to do this drive for a long time. Mount Wellington is quite unique the way it rises almost directly above Hobart some 1270 metres. The drive starts off pretty cruisy; nice gentle curves and slopes, with plenty of passing room for oncoming cars. After a while it gets scarier, with sheer drop-offs on a narrow, winding, climbing road. I keep an eye on Google Maps, telling me how far to go, as my knuckles turn whiter. As we approach “0 km” I realise that this is only to the boundary of the park. There are at least another 2 kilometres of this road to go. Thankfully there is very little traffic and we arrive safely to see a snow-drizzled summit. It’s cold, but we explore a bit and take in the stunning views in all directions. On the way down, we break the drive with a toilet and coffee/cake stop at “The Springs,” which is about half way down the mountain. It is a stunning day and this is just about the most peaceful and picturesque picnic ground I have ever seen.

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Before too long we head to the local bowling alley, via Subway. After a couple of fairly low scoring games we spend some quality time in the arcade section before waiting 30 minutes for some churros from the café. Unfortunately this means we no longer have time for a visit to ‘Bounce.’ Hamish is a bit disappointed, but we fill in a little time with 2 drives over the Tasman Bridge (there and back) and a walk along the river bank with a brief stop at a playground, before heading back to the docks to collect Belinda.

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Salamanca Market

This morning we headed into the very chilly city to check out the famous Salamanca Markets. We basically snacked our way around the market, devouring such treats as:

• Hot chocolate
• Bao (beef, pork and vego)
• Potatoes on sticks
• Tastes of peanut butter

I bought a few gifts and again, realised what a small world it is when one of the stallholders asked where I was from – actually he asked where the gift was going to end up –  I said Wangaratta, Victoria. He replied with ‘oh Wang! – my Dad used to live there, my brother lives in Myrtleford, I used to live in Bright…’ you know how these conversations go.

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As I write this draft, Rod and Hamish are at Bounce – Hamish has been easy to travel with, providing there are plenty of snacks and activities. Jess and Matt fly home tomorrow afternoon from Launceston and we leave Devonport Monday evening. We’ve packed up a bit this afternoon and I’m about to cook dinner for us all; the fire is going and we’re all pretty relaxed. Might manage one more blog before I call it quits for another year or so. Ciao.

Oh, and there’s been further conversations, over dinner mind you, about stopping at Campbell Town for a final pie from Banjo’s.