For 24 hours Launceston looked like the little sister to Prague - dressed in her best finery for a winter ball.
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Only cities with great architecture are made even more beautiful by snow, and those of us here on Tuesday, August 4 were lifted by a rare beauty.
London is a clunky, boxed streetscape.
All diesel and mush.
Prague, Paris and now Launceston become elegant when dressed in snow.
The snow.
Was it a dream?
Did it really happen?
The slow, deep sound of snow beat down on our dormer window.
At 2am a grey shadow of heavy snow was cast onto our bed.
The sight, from the bottom of our stairs to our courtyard, was straight out of a Walt Disney snow globe: Lemon tree. Maples. Fig and our daffodils stood knee deep in waves of meringue. Real winter.
The feeling, for me, was like the first year I woke on Christmas Eve and saw a red stocking, bulging on my bedroom door handle. The moment of belief in a miracle.
The snow was that miracle moment ... that is the reminder that we are so much smaller than we think.
For a just one day, one in 100 years, nature changed Launceston's beauty with a gentle softening of our streetscape and mountains.
Our parks were sweeps of beauty.
Those parks, our parks, the soul of our city, took on an elegance of sparse trees and snowy expanses, like postcards from Prague, they highlighted for any doubters that we are blessed.
For 24 hours our minds wandered and we were distracted by joy and reminded that happiness can be simple.
On another matter ...
So, you got drunk, woke up and realised you'd missed your annual trip to Noosa?
Did you feel ripped off or grateful when Premier Peter Gutwein announced Tasmania's borders would stay shut until December?
Reasons to be cheerful?
Here's the deal - Tasmanians who can't afford to go to Noosa have lost nothing.
Those who would normally spend their dollars in Queensland or the Northern hemisphere are instead shopping for new cars, installing new heating and have already booked and paid for the Three Capes or Overland Track walks.
They're filling our cafes and restaurants and the latest data shows our economy is in relatively good shape.
I'd argue that the collective morale was lifted by the unexpected announcement (gift?) that we will stay in our COVID bubble during spring, in time to emerge for summer.
Dare we dream that we've survived the first COVID winter?
I got cranky when some local and interstate journalist/experts tried to spin Tasmania's next three months into a depressing economic and social scenario.
I call out their sensationalist, exploitative bull...
And, another matter ...
The supermarket checkout person is one of my favourite people on the planet.
Like us, they come in all genders, ages and stages of life.
Except middle aged men ... wtf?
They can be the awkward teenage boy in his first job, or the hustler of a 30-something mum, who carries herself with cocky confidence and a big heart of caring conversation and never afraid to share an opinion.
They are all colours and most ethnicities.
They can be shy, boisterous, frazzled, zoned-out or sometimes just totally exhausted, but they keep going.
At Matson's my favourite supermarket, the young woman on my checkout asked how my day was going?
(The night before six of us consumed about the same number of bottles of decent Tassie pinot.)
"I've got the worst hangover, this'll be it for me today, I'm headed home to bed."
Was there a special occasion?
No. Just a Friday night dinner.
Turned out she was a bit of a cook and we shared stories of carrot cakes and beer and I left with a smile.