Ian Down Under

The National Maritime Museum in Sydney's Darling Harbour...



...is a relatively new building. It has two bits - a bit that's free to go in and a bit you have to pay for. As with anything operating under this arrangement, the bit you have to pay for far outwieghs the bit you don't in terms of interest.

The bit you don't have to pay for is the museum proper with its very worthy displays of colonial seafaring and culling of Aborigines... (A sign warns Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islanders that some of the exhibits contain depictions of dead bodies...)

The bit you do have to pay for is loads more fun!

You get to go on a proper submarine, HMAS Onslow (named after the recurring character in Keeping Up Appearances...)

It has all the things you expect of a submarine... narrow, cramped corridors full of inexplicable (if you're me) but highly important (if you're one of the crusty old sea dog guides who sits down there all day, interpretively) dials and meters and pipes...



You also get to go on HMAS Valiant...



...which is a daring class destroyer.

(I suppose being a cowardly class destroyer would be a bit pointless and contradictory...)

And it's in the strangest places which you come across things which hold particular memories for you. I certainly never saw this coming. In amongst all the other fascinating bits of ship, the quarters, the bridge, the weapons and the signs and messages which tell you so much about the everyday life on board before she was decommissioned, several decks below in the laundry was this...



...a Hoovermatic De Luxe Twin Tub.

You see, as well as having decorative plates, my Gran and Grandad had one of these, and I remember it really well. I had to lift the lid up on this one just to check. Instead of having the big agitator device in the middle which swooshed your clothes around, it had a circular pulstaor device built into the wall of the machine which looked so dangerous it would have your arm off - if you were stupid enough to put your arm in.

And I suppose it's one of those childhood things which acts as a key to so many other memories... Going round to stay with my Gran and Grandad on Friday nights; the fact that you didn't really use the front room unless it was the evening; toasting homemade bread on the fire with a proper toasting fork; Cubitz; Crossroads; hash; The Hymases next door and Olive across the road who ran the second-hand book stall on the market and her daughter who worked in Mrs West's Post Office; stewing steak; bunk beds in the bedroom with the Tom and Jerry wallpaper which doubled as a dark room and developing photos with the proper chemicals - perhaps that's why I take so many photos now - thanks Grandad!

You find these happy memories in the most unlikely places, even my Dad recognised instantly why I'd taken the photo, and they were all worth the bit you pay for.

By the way, if you think this makes me obsessed with washing machines...