Drivers

A little further digging has revealed that we can do our diver's licences (convert from SA to Tas) on Flinders. (Although it is not just a formality, as it would be if we came from approved countries. Grin trust me, this is a good thing. A South African licence's value ranges from PDG, to which 'which lucky dip did you get that out of?' depending on where and how recently it was obtained. The real thing is still pretty good I reckon. And surviving the not-real thing (ie as possesed by most of the 'taxi' drivers or part-time evangelists (they make their passengers and quite a lot of other road users pray. A lot.)) does make the rest of us careful and defensive drivers. Besides, after Mount West, Mooi River district, (infamous for it's traffic jams on the dirt track out to us. There have been three cars on it. TWICE) Whitemark (pop 170) is a bit more my style than the wild heart-racing metropolis of Hobart. Yes, actually I have been to New York. And Chicago with my co-author Eric Flint. Five lanes of traffic each way and he likes to look at you when he talks to you. And what's worse... they all drive on the wrong side of the road. OK so in reality I have driven in Johannesburg and in Durban, about 5 times or more the population of Hobart and the evangelists and pedestrians such as you will not see outside of India or Africa. There is something about the pedestrian who has never driven themselves: an inability to understand that a car or ute can't just stop like a walking person can. And they pwn the road. And they throng. But a new vehicle and a new set of small rules to obey -I am glad I don't have to do it in a strange town, straight off. Also I have to learn Tasmanian rules. I wonder if these are like Africa rules. Fast at goats, slow at cows. So what's the right response to wallaby? Don't drive after dark?

We also had our little runaround with my son's passport. Boy genius lost it. Anyway, he got a new one... which they sent to Pietermaritzburg 10 hours drive from where he and the receipt are, and where he applied for the new one. Ah well. The way it goes.