Visit

My last visit to Tas Uni was in 2006, with my wife. We visited Jane Franklin Hall, walk down the corridors of the "Engine" building. I showed her where the main lecture hall was, where we had our design classes. In the lobby where it used to be an empty for us to chit chat, they have put the Rolls Royce Avon engine on display. I look through lecturers' rooms and found only the names of Brian Cousins and Dr Walker. I read in the Tas Uni newsletter that Eric Middleton had retired. I presume so has Dr Jose Montes.

Jane Franklin Hall now reminds me of an English garden - more flora. The steep winding road is still there. But it used to be "sunnier" - my first experience of Australia was how I had always imagined it to be - sunny, hot, green, quiet, a quaint smell in the air.

At the Geology Building, the large seismograph is still there, faithfully plotting every tremor it has been tracking in Tasmania.

The union building was a real change. The bookshop is larger. Where STA used to be, it is no Post Australia, where the cheery staffers help mail my big parcel home. The Ref now offers sushi. I am sure the traditional meat pies are still available although we did not look for them. The Ref ladies have probably moved on. Upstairs is the now the Union office - ie where we used to hold all our International Nights, Singapore Nights, Malaysian Cultural Nights is now the offices of the Union.

Where we used to cooked the food for these events is a meeting room! Poking around, I found the photographs of past TUU Councils - familiar faces like Lal and Mohd Ali were there!

There were noticeably more Korean students when I walked around.

Morris Miller Library has a "No smoking within 10 m" sign. The Union has a "No smoking with 1 m" sign. Notebook computers were a common sight within the library.

The flats where I used to stay - along Sandy Bay and at Ashfield Street - are still there but Sandy Bay itself is busier now - Korean eateries, Chinese eateries. The large Sandy Bay car park is now a large shopping complex. Sandy Bay News Agency is still at the same spot. Wing & Co is located at the same place.

So what else did not change? The tunnel leading under Regent Street to the Union Building! Graffiti filled, the stale smell of yesterday's beer.