The older you get the more you appreciate that there are good and bad aspects to everything.

We love Tassie, this little island we have adopted as home (or, perhaps, they've adopted us, a couple of old 'Mainlanders'. We already reckon we're numbered among them now; only problem is, if anyone rolls down the neck of our shirt, we can't show the scar!). Full winter has started this week after several weeks of 'Indian Summer'. The weather has been magnificent, cool to cold nights followed by mild to warm days, lots of sunshine, incredible sunsets and even more amazing displays of the Aurora Australis. That all pretty well came to an end a few days ago. A massive long front stretches across the Bight from Cape Leeuwin and is bringing rain and wind and, in the next day or so, snow to the higher peaks. At the same time, it's watering all the Winter crops and filling farm dams. That's the counterpoint to the lovely weather we've had. Good and bad, you see...

It's not the weather I'm writing about, though. As a couple who used to travel like snails, carrying our home on our backs (motorhome, subsequently sold, replaced by a Pajero and... well, nothing else as yet), we have just spent a couple of weeks as tourists doing the motel thing. Now this is where we start to really talk about the good and the bad. I'll start with the good because it is as good as it gets. Any of you who come to Tassie with the intent of staying in motel accommodation, there are a few really worthy of praise.

Top of the tree are two places poles apart in character, one a modernisation of an old building in a historic town and the other pretty mush as rustic and rural as you will find. The first of these was 'Stamps of Stanley'. It is upstairs above the Post Office in the beautiful little fishing port of Stanley. Stamps... Post Office... of course you got it! It was warm, clean, comfortable and located in such a position as to see the storm waves sweeping in from the East (there had been strong Easterly winds), the long graceful curve of beach around Eastern Inlet to Black River and, as the sun came up, the sweep of the shape of the Nut - almost like a gnomon on a sundial - passing around the Green Hills. We only had two days available while there and would have appreciated more time. We were enchanted.

A slight deviation here for a moment. Just two minutes' walk along Church Street from Stamps is Chin Wag, a fabulous little tea/coffee shop. Barb, the owner, creates the best cakes I've ever eaten and, with the great cooks I've enjoyed in my family through my years, that's a gob full! Oh, and Barb quite enjoys a bit of a chin wag herself...

Another great place highly recommended is The Stables at Hawthorn Villa, an historic homestead at Carrick. The stables are upstairs-downstairs with a lovely bathroom, a kitchenette and sitting room below; taking the heavy pine stairs, upstairs is a loft bedroom with a queen and a single bed with electric blankets. Main heating is by heat pump. The whole is surrounded by superb old type gardens with a pair of towering Douglas firs. We had three nights there and again would hve liked more. The young hosts, Nicole and Innes are lovely and could not do enough for us.

Some of the other accommodation was pretty ordinary; some of it was all right but could have been excellent with a bit of effort. (Sound like an old whinger? Not really, just an old professional.) What I want to tell you about now has a humorous side. We stayed at another rustic old hotel. The room was all right, but only just. Main thing was that the bed was about as comfortble as you will find these days in hotels and motels. I reckon most are made of reo concrete and the pillows are the leftovers. Anyway, about 2:00 am, we were awakened by a rustling sound, not very loud, that sounded a bit like somebody trying to open a paper packet quietly. We flicked the bed lamp on and sat up, only to see a mouse about half way across the floor, dragging a packet of biscuits! Freaked the mouse but seemed to freak the better half even more!

One place we stayed (in Launceston; it used to have a big name but I'd better not mention it) was about as farcical as it gets. The night was cold, so we set the main room heater going, switched on a second heater, then flicked a switch to boil the kettle. Everything went dead! Obviously, everything was on one circuit breaker and we'd tripped it. No problem. Turn something off, locate the CB, reset it an get on with the evening. No CBs to be found; not in cupboards, not in wardrobes; nowhere. Phoned receptionist (200 metres away at another site) who came around to help. The bed had to be moved, then the headboard removed from the wall (I kid you not!), a panel removed from the wall and then the CB reset from within the hollow area behind the wall. Once done, heating came back on. Fine. But then came the reconstruction of the unit so we could settle down to sleep for the night!

As I said, there are good and bad. The good is always easy to cope with. The bad is generally not too bad provided you can cope with it in a humorous manner.

(Oh, and no, we didn't stay a second night at either of those two places...!!!)

Catch up with you again. Hope you get a chuckle out of our adventures.