12 Mar 2011

Can someone please tell us – is there a banana shortage?  A few days ago we bought 4 bananas at a typical Sydney grocer and they came to $9.90 ($12.88/kilo, which is practically $6/lb).  These were not gargantuan bananas, just four, regular old bananas.  Then today, at the chain supermarket in Hobart, we bought no bananas, for these, too, were priced at over $10/kilo.  When did bananas stop costing 99 cents per pound?  Check that Dole stock quick – it might be time to invest.

Despite its inflated banana prices, we are enjoying Tasmania already.  This is mostly because we have picked up our wheels for the next 3 weeks and we can tell already that having these particular wheels will make a big difference in our daily quality of life.  There are sleeping quarters that do not require inflation, there’s a table upon which Gina can spread out her receipts and finances and journals, and best of all, there’s a refrigerator in which we don’t have to bag and label a thing.  Meet the man of our dreams – Go Cheap Charlie:

Charlie is special in other ways, too.  He’s a Mercedes, making hiring him possibly the closest either one of us will ever get to owning a luxury car.  And he’s got a manual transmission.  On this end of the world, that means he must be shifted with the left hand.  If we don’t return to the States ambidextrous, we will indeed have failed ourselves.