Historic village; amazing bathroom

Today, took a tourist bus (a van, really) to the historic village of Richmond. This included the Richmond Gaol (British spelling of ''jail''), the oldest still-existing prison in Australia. Not huge -- would only house 30-50 people or so. Pretty nifty, though, in that you can walk around in all the rooms, except for the two or three that have been converted to office space for the staff. The village of Richmond is tourism-oriented, but is still a functioning village: the town constable's home (and the jail) still connects to the side of the historic jail.

The Kid had her first solo ice cream cone, here. We chose vanilla, due to its low staining potential. Quite a mess! She enjoyed it, though.


Forgot to mention: Yesterday we also visited a historic mansion that was converted to a museum . Some upper middle class guy's house. A small stable in the back; a stable-guy's room in the back, a room for the cook behind the kitchen, and a sleeping room for the nanny back behind the nursery upstairs. Like the Richmond Gaol, you could walk through 90% of the house -- which is niftier than most ''historic homes'' that I've been to in the states, where everything is behind red velvet rope, and you can only peer into the rooms from the doorway.

This is the cook's table in the kitchen. Sturdy! Notice the legs mortissed into the surface of the table, and the nice thick slab for the table surface. Excellent for kneading bread, I'm sure -- but my first thought when I saw it was ''Dang! That'd make a sturdy workbench!!!''

Sadly, I don't remember the name of the mansion, although it's somewhere along Sandy Bay Road, on the water side of the street. I bought a postcard (AU$1.50, money goes to help maintain the site), but I'm not sure offhand where I put it.


The longer we stay in this ''used-to-be-a-business'' hotel room, the more secrets I discover. For one thing, I appreciate the roomy 'fridge. Unlike most hotel room 'fridges, this one actually leaves you room for your own stuff -- not just the overpriced ''mini-bar'' contents. This one had the entire top and middle shelf empty: what you see is what we bought at the grocery store -- directly across the street! Haaaan-deee! :) (And economical!)

It's especially handy if you're travelling with a small child. We have orange juice, grapes, yogurt, and milk for the kid; Diet Coke for The Lady; and lemon squash (tangy, lemony soda pop that you can't find in The States) for me -- which I water down to about 20% of the original.


I also discovered two handy characteristics of the room's bathroom: One is that you can see the t.v. while sitting on the toilet -- handy for if you really have to go, but you're watching a public broadcasting-type station with no commerical breaks.



The other is that when you're in the shower and you leave the door open, you can carry on a conversation with someone who's lying in the second bed, watching t.v. -- thanks to the combination of a loud voice and the full-length mirror on the closet door:

(Bonus shot of The Kid running into the bathroom, wondering why Daddy is standing in the bathtub with his clothes on.)

The place is the Mayfair Plaza Hotel. I'm sure there's other places more reasonably priced, but it's still pretty unique. Oh: laundry room = yes, but swimming pool = no. FYI.


--GG