I can't help but notice that my lack of blogging seems to stem from just after Gene & I broke up last year. It's almost as if when we broke up I couldn't find any words to write. No way of really saying what I thought and I really didn't feel a need to share how I felt as frankly that would have been boring.
So almost a year on I guess I'm still trying to find myself. Not so much remember what it's like to be single, but discover my independence and learn to enjoy it.
Okay, random burst of self-reflection over (phew!).
Let's just say that there wasn't a great deal of reading in May & June... Combined reading list for those months include:
1. The Dragon Queen
2. Pardon My French
3. Growing Up Asian in Australia
If only event management plans counted in the list... but as thick as some of them were, they're not quite books.
June consisted of many weekend trips from Brisbane to Melbourne & Sydney. Visiting family, farewelling friends and celebrating a birthday. It's a good thing I don't mind flying really. After the last weekend away the Festival really started to ramp up production. Defintely my favourite part that's not the actual Festival.
July saw the start of the Festival. We worked hard, we played hard. There were many opening nights and closing nights celebrated. It was good. Was lucky enough to see some shows which was rather novel. It was all over in a haze of beer, gin & wine and before we knew it we were bare-foot bowling on a beautiful sunny August day.
It would be hard to believe that only a fortnight ago I was sitting in the sun watching people bowl... except that I landed back in Melbourne on Saturday. It was not sunny. Luckily it wasn't too cold either. I keep telling myself that it's "the same temperature as Brisbane at night... but brighter".
Right now I'm in Sydney enjoying the sunshine and 20˚C days... well I was, it's supposed to storm tomorrow. Still trying to work out what I'll do tomorrow... am thinking it could be a good day for a museum or possibly the aquarium. I may yet fit an antique fair in.
I must admit I'm in a bit of a strange mood tonight. It's been a bit of a odd day. I woke up with a migraine and feeling a bit out of sorts. Did a bit of shopping. Had a nap. Woke up when my phone rang. It was Dad. My grandma in Singapore has stage 4 cancer. I pondered the fact that my Mum's family has had and excellent health history until now when both my Mum & Grandma have cancer. I'm starting to think that my random (morbid) thought that I'll die in the water is possibly incorrect and that it's more likely to be cancer. Strangely I'd rather the water but I'm trying not to dwell on that as I don't particularly want to die at this point in time. When I get bad news that I can't do anything about I turn to depressing music to soothe my woes. So after a good hour of depressing tunes I headed out to have cocktails with a few friends. Dinner followed the cocktails (although perhaps it should have been the other way around) and I must say I'm in a much better mood having gone out.
So to summarise... I had a fabulous time in Brisbane and miss the lifestyle up there although it's still not really my city. Am restless, reflective and honestly I think I'm a little angry with myself. Akrasia, what can I say? Do better. Rocks. Anyhow, no point dwelling on that, just have to keep moving forward. Right?
Less disjointed post next time, I promise.
Showing posts with label Brisbane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brisbane. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Two months in a nutshell
As seems to be the case far more often than I'd like it to be, I've had good intentions of writing but failed to put those intentions in to practice.
April in Brisbane passed fairly quickly and uneventfully after I worked out how to ring the bell on the bus.
My "silver jubilee" was pleasantly quiet and spent doing grocery shopping, laundry and studying French. Just what I wanted really. A normal day catching up on things that I wouldn't otherwise get done during the week.
I've read far less in the last few weeks than I had when I initially arrived. Big crocheting projects like blankets and jumpers saw me spending much more time in front of the television. I'm still very much in chick flick viewing mode but I am hoping to move into arthouse again some time during the week.
A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne visiting Mum & Dad and it was sooooo good to see them. There was much excitement in the house. I've never seen the dogs run around quite like that when there isn't food involved! It was a short visit as I had to head back to work but I'm glad I went down to see them anyhow.
There's a bit of traveling about coming up next month with hi-jinx in Sydney, and another trip to see my folks before the crazy festival life takes over till mid-August.
I had planned to write more but I'm going to save that for another day when there's more to tell.
April in Brisbane passed fairly quickly and uneventfully after I worked out how to ring the bell on the bus.
My "silver jubilee" was pleasantly quiet and spent doing grocery shopping, laundry and studying French. Just what I wanted really. A normal day catching up on things that I wouldn't otherwise get done during the week.
I've read far less in the last few weeks than I had when I initially arrived. Big crocheting projects like blankets and jumpers saw me spending much more time in front of the television. I'm still very much in chick flick viewing mode but I am hoping to move into arthouse again some time during the week.
A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne visiting Mum & Dad and it was sooooo good to see them. There was much excitement in the house. I've never seen the dogs run around quite like that when there isn't food involved! It was a short visit as I had to head back to work but I'm glad I went down to see them anyhow.
There's a bit of traveling about coming up next month with hi-jinx in Sydney, and another trip to see my folks before the crazy festival life takes over till mid-August.
I had planned to write more but I'm going to save that for another day when there's more to tell.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Numerical Update
611 days ago I left Brisbane and just 4 days ago I returned.
3 of those 4 days were spent with a fever averaging 38˚C. Yesterday I drank 1.25L of water and 1.15L of flavoured still mineral water. I also slept for 12 hours. I'm feeling much better and the fever is almost gone :)
It took me 1.75 bus rides to work out how to get the bus to stop without actually having to call out to the bus driver (or in the case of my first bus ride, continuing for an extra three stops). Apparently I managed to get the really old buses twice on my first day. All other buses have had the red stop button I'm used to.
I've only been working at the Brisbane Festival for 3 days and today marks 100 days till the festival opens.
While I've been up here I have read one book, gotten lost once and been to the doctor once. I've made an appointment to go back to get my third and final (yay!) Gardasil vaccination.
Since arriving in Brisbane I have received 22 text messages from people I know, one text message from someone I don't know, 12 messages via facebook and many emails of which 2 were personally addressed to me.
I have to be back in the office in 10.5 hours and given that I need at least 45 minutes to wake up, 10-15 minutes to get to the bus stop (which is not that far away but the traffic lights, and the traffic, are a little kooky) and another 20 minutes to get to work, I should probably go to bed now.
For those interested it took me 34 minutes to write all this because I kept getting distracted by a Skype conversation regarding donuts.
3 of those 4 days were spent with a fever averaging 38˚C. Yesterday I drank 1.25L of water and 1.15L of flavoured still mineral water. I also slept for 12 hours. I'm feeling much better and the fever is almost gone :)
It took me 1.75 bus rides to work out how to get the bus to stop without actually having to call out to the bus driver (or in the case of my first bus ride, continuing for an extra three stops). Apparently I managed to get the really old buses twice on my first day. All other buses have had the red stop button I'm used to.
I've only been working at the Brisbane Festival for 3 days and today marks 100 days till the festival opens.
While I've been up here I have read one book, gotten lost once and been to the doctor once. I've made an appointment to go back to get my third and final (yay!) Gardasil vaccination.
Since arriving in Brisbane I have received 22 text messages from people I know, one text message from someone I don't know, 12 messages via facebook and many emails of which 2 were personally addressed to me.
I have to be back in the office in 10.5 hours and given that I need at least 45 minutes to wake up, 10-15 minutes to get to the bus stop (which is not that far away but the traffic lights, and the traffic, are a little kooky) and another 20 minutes to get to work, I should probably go to bed now.
For those interested it took me 34 minutes to write all this because I kept getting distracted by a Skype conversation regarding donuts.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Miscellaneous Blah
Well, the MySpace website is down so there is every possibility that this post won't get mirrored.
(insert long pause as Sarah gets distracted by another un-named blog)
Just discovered this fabulous site which I think all my wonderful procrastination loving friends could benefit from. dearinter.net - consensus life coaching. Check it out. It seems pretty new but I'm fairly sure it'll take off rapidly.
I'm currently less stressed about work as I've turned down two jobs in the last few days. It's nice to know that people remember I'm Melbourne-based. It's just unfortunate that I'm confusing them by being in Brisbane.
Last night we had an early night and decided to do a load of washing. I also decided it was a good time to watch The Talented Mr Ripley. I quite enjoyed the film. I just wasn't expecting it to be anywhere nearspan> as long.
Today I commented on Nick's blog with the quote Life is no fun when you're hunted by the things you feel from the Finn brothers' song I hope I never (which I also thought was called something else). Anyhow, I love that line. It's a definite favourite. In fact I love that song. It's just that I thought the line was Life is no fun when you're haunted by the things you feel. Which I much prefer... I guess I don't feel so much hunted by feelings. More haunted. I find they're less aggresive. My feelings just pop up when I least expect them to, out of nowhere. (I was going to elaborate on my thoughts but I the surrounding music of Beyonce is not conducive to my musings).
Life's tough isn't it?
(insert long pause as Sarah gets distracted by another un-named blog)
Just discovered this fabulous site which I think all my wonderful procrastination loving friends could benefit from. dearinter.net - consensus life coaching. Check it out. It seems pretty new but I'm fairly sure it'll take off rapidly.
I'm currently less stressed about work as I've turned down two jobs in the last few days. It's nice to know that people remember I'm Melbourne-based. It's just unfortunate that I'm confusing them by being in Brisbane.
Last night we had an early night and decided to do a load of washing. I also decided it was a good time to watch The Talented Mr Ripley. I quite enjoyed the film. I just wasn't expecting it to be anywhere nearspan> as long.
Today I commented on Nick's blog with the quote Life is no fun when you're hunted by the things you feel from the Finn brothers' song I hope I never (which I also thought was called something else). Anyhow, I love that line. It's a definite favourite. In fact I love that song. It's just that I thought the line was Life is no fun when you're haunted by the things you feel. Which I much prefer... I guess I don't feel so much hunted by feelings. More haunted. I find they're less aggresive. My feelings just pop up when I least expect them to, out of nowhere. (I was going to elaborate on my thoughts but I the surrounding music of Beyonce is not conducive to my musings).
Life's tough isn't it?
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Brisbane Update
The season has changed and the festival's going well. Yesterday was aptly proclaimed Horror Day and it was possibly the busiest we've had all festival. The morning was spent trying to flatten the rather horribly rolled tarquet in the sun and lay the stuff so we could rehearse. We fell a bit behind but we may not have been at 100% as most of the crew had been out drinking with the crazy Alaskans for their final night drinks the day before.
After a bit of lunch we were much better and we battled our way through three plots, three dress/tech rehearsals and opened the first show 20 minutes after the last tech run. I've called my first show in four years which was kind of exciting. I was calling the show blind because I hadn't seen it before and there were cues written on pages 4-8 but not on the first three or the last ten. It went well though and there were no obvious mistakes. All shows went smoothly and were not in one way disturbed by the brawl outside the pub next door or the rooftop running backpack person who the police were trying to catch.
Today was a much easier start at 13:00. We were woken this morning at 9:17 by a phone call from one of my shows but that was rapidly sorted out. We were then treated to a televised church sermon which thoroughly confused me as I've been having trouble working out what day it is. A Saturday sermon apparently.
Tomorrow we're going to visit Timea and her folks in Fern Gully (if there are not environmentally friendly forest folk I'm not going to be impressed). Then it's more shows and then three bump outs.
We're excited to find that Nick's coming up to Brisbane to visit us next week and have been speaking to our accommodation to work out beds so all's going well.
Work is rolling in all at the same time - as it does - which is a weight of my shoulders as I've been going through my usual nearly-the-end-of-my-current-gig stress.
There's a couple of hours left before we have to go back to work for our next shift so we're going to play some network games to pass some time. Geeky yay!
After a bit of lunch we were much better and we battled our way through three plots, three dress/tech rehearsals and opened the first show 20 minutes after the last tech run. I've called my first show in four years which was kind of exciting. I was calling the show blind because I hadn't seen it before and there were cues written on pages 4-8 but not on the first three or the last ten. It went well though and there were no obvious mistakes. All shows went smoothly and were not in one way disturbed by the brawl outside the pub next door or the rooftop running backpack person who the police were trying to catch.
Today was a much easier start at 13:00. We were woken this morning at 9:17 by a phone call from one of my shows but that was rapidly sorted out. We were then treated to a televised church sermon which thoroughly confused me as I've been having trouble working out what day it is. A Saturday sermon apparently.
Tomorrow we're going to visit Timea and her folks in Fern Gully (if there are not environmentally friendly forest folk I'm not going to be impressed). Then it's more shows and then three bump outs.
We're excited to find that Nick's coming up to Brisbane to visit us next week and have been speaking to our accommodation to work out beds so all's going well.
Work is rolling in all at the same time - as it does - which is a weight of my shoulders as I've been going through my usual nearly-the-end-of-my-current-gig stress.
There's a couple of hours left before we have to go back to work for our next shift so we're going to play some network games to pass some time. Geeky yay!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
New Lodgings
We finally realised that Somewhere to Stay was not quite the cheapest place around and while pay day is Thursday we decided to tighten our belts a bit and try and save some cash - hopefully resulting in an even better 5.5 days holiday at the end of our trip. So I spent much of yesterday calling various hostels and inns and getting quotes.
Did anyone else not know that the Bledisloe Cup was being played in Briz Vegas last night? Anyhow, it turned out that last night was a bit night for Brisbane with two football matches, the opening night of A Dolls House and the inaugural Brisbane Festival Fringe Theatre so cheap decent accommodation is like hens teeth.
Today we finally decided on a $120 per week fully self-contained apartment. You may have noted the use of past tense there. We checked out of our lodgings, taxied to the apartments to be greeted by no one. We even wandered around the building. We tried to call the managers but they were't answering. In their defence they were sounding pretty crook. Anyhow we ended up chatting with one of the people staying there who we knew from the hostel we'd just checked out of (they were in the check out queue before us). She said that if we couldn't get hold of them we should probably move on because they just checked in and chose between the two available rooms. The room they picked was apparently in poor condition and they were in the process of scrubbing it down. They waited 1 hour for someone to let them in and if they were us they'd just slip away. We decided that having spent 30 minutes looking for someone to let us in that this might be the right idea.
In true movie style when we were standing on the kurb it started to drizzle. There had been sunshine just moments earlier! We hailed a taxi and headed on to the next place Valley Verandas where we're staying now. It's such a cozy little place! It's costing us $100 less per week than the previous place and although it's a share bathroom the bathroom's quite lovely. The shower door is broken so it floods a little in there but the wonderful gloriously hot showers make up for it. We've got a double room with a private balcony overlooking their outdoor garden area. There's a great and clean wardrobe, TV and (Gene's pretty excited about this) a DVD player. We finally got to watch the end of the Dr Who episode where Rose goes back to 1987 to meet her Dad.
We're now on the other side of Brisbane to where we were previously, North instead of South. Much closer to China town - we ate lunch there. China town also seems to be the adult shop district which was a little odd. The random shops seem to fit in there though and there's City Safe surveillance cameras about. It seems that there may be a few more up hills on the ride home but no quite as severe as the one leading up to Somewhere to Stay.
Tomorrow we're going to head down to the Gold Coast, Mermaid Beach to be specific. Hopefully the weather will be on our side!
Did anyone else not know that the Bledisloe Cup was being played in Briz Vegas last night? Anyhow, it turned out that last night was a bit night for Brisbane with two football matches, the opening night of A Dolls House and the inaugural Brisbane Festival Fringe Theatre so cheap decent accommodation is like hens teeth.
Today we finally decided on a $120 per week fully self-contained apartment. You may have noted the use of past tense there. We checked out of our lodgings, taxied to the apartments to be greeted by no one. We even wandered around the building. We tried to call the managers but they were't answering. In their defence they were sounding pretty crook. Anyhow we ended up chatting with one of the people staying there who we knew from the hostel we'd just checked out of (they were in the check out queue before us). She said that if we couldn't get hold of them we should probably move on because they just checked in and chose between the two available rooms. The room they picked was apparently in poor condition and they were in the process of scrubbing it down. They waited 1 hour for someone to let them in and if they were us they'd just slip away. We decided that having spent 30 minutes looking for someone to let us in that this might be the right idea.
In true movie style when we were standing on the kurb it started to drizzle. There had been sunshine just moments earlier! We hailed a taxi and headed on to the next place Valley Verandas where we're staying now. It's such a cozy little place! It's costing us $100 less per week than the previous place and although it's a share bathroom the bathroom's quite lovely. The shower door is broken so it floods a little in there but the wonderful gloriously hot showers make up for it. We've got a double room with a private balcony overlooking their outdoor garden area. There's a great and clean wardrobe, TV and (Gene's pretty excited about this) a DVD player. We finally got to watch the end of the Dr Who episode where Rose goes back to 1987 to meet her Dad.
We're now on the other side of Brisbane to where we were previously, North instead of South. Much closer to China town - we ate lunch there. China town also seems to be the adult shop district which was a little odd. The random shops seem to fit in there though and there's City Safe surveillance cameras about. It seems that there may be a few more up hills on the ride home but no quite as severe as the one leading up to Somewhere to Stay.
Tomorrow we're going to head down to the Gold Coast, Mermaid Beach to be specific. Hopefully the weather will be on our side!
Friday, July 14, 2006
Day 6 - Brisbane Festival Opening Night
It's actually a little cool in Brisbane today, a first for our trip. Apparently it's going to rain this weekend so I guess our good weather spell is over for now. Still, according to the weather report it's going to be 21 degrees today. Today is the opening night of the Brisbane Festival (yay for Spiegeltent!) and the Fringe section is opening tomorrow night. Today will be a day of rehearsals - plenty more rehearsals than shows get in Melbourne, or at least it feels that way - and then it's off to Spiegel to join the Opening Night Party.
We've discovered that we're the eldest of the Fringe crew so that's always a little odd. I'm never among the eldest in social or work settings! Tuesday was "crew bonding night" as I mentioned before. Last night we had a bonding session in the bar with some of the Alaskan crew. They were marvelling at the sun going down last night as they're in the middle of their Summer where the sun dips slightly but doesn't actually go down. It sounds awesome! I want to go and check out their 3 months of 24 hour night. I love night time.
While I'm on the topic of drinking two things I have to mention...
1. I'm very excited that the bar downstairs sells their rather palatable happy hour wine at $3 while their beer costs $4.50. More often than not I end up with the more expensive option because I don't like the cheaper beers that end up on happy hour menus.
2. Hazzar for the Spiegeltent's beer being supplied by the Belgian Beer Cafe. The beer should be good.
We've been dining on sandwiches lately in an attempt to save money but I decided it was time for a treat last night so we went to good ol' Sizzler. We ate all that we could, Gene moreso, and I was most happy with my cheese toast. Damn I love that toast. I should make it at home. Anyhow, it was great to eat until we were totally stuffed, even if that hurt a little. Pay day isn't till next Thursday so we're footing close to two weeks of costs before we get paid. It's a little painful to have to pre-pay everything but we're doing okay! Don't have the time to spend money anyhow, too many rehearsals to be had.
It looks like we don't have many full days off during the festival. In fact we have two (so not every Monday off it seems). We have this Monday off (which is unfortunate given our saving plans) and the Monday before our contract finishes (which is weird because we finish up on the Tuesday). I'm still thinking of getting a car and heading down to one of the putt putt places. Maybe a rainforest. It's hard to pick. Depends on the weather I guess!
Well I've got to head off to a tech rehearsal and make sure Gene's up before I head off - lucky bastard gets doesn't need to be in until 17:00.
Happy Bastille Day to all and we'll have a drink for you at the Spiegeltent tonight! (A lot of drinks but we'll spread them out perhaps...)
We've discovered that we're the eldest of the Fringe crew so that's always a little odd. I'm never among the eldest in social or work settings! Tuesday was "crew bonding night" as I mentioned before. Last night we had a bonding session in the bar with some of the Alaskan crew. They were marvelling at the sun going down last night as they're in the middle of their Summer where the sun dips slightly but doesn't actually go down. It sounds awesome! I want to go and check out their 3 months of 24 hour night. I love night time.
While I'm on the topic of drinking two things I have to mention...
1. I'm very excited that the bar downstairs sells their rather palatable happy hour wine at $3 while their beer costs $4.50. More often than not I end up with the more expensive option because I don't like the cheaper beers that end up on happy hour menus.
2. Hazzar for the Spiegeltent's beer being supplied by the Belgian Beer Cafe. The beer should be good.
We've been dining on sandwiches lately in an attempt to save money but I decided it was time for a treat last night so we went to good ol' Sizzler. We ate all that we could, Gene moreso, and I was most happy with my cheese toast. Damn I love that toast. I should make it at home. Anyhow, it was great to eat until we were totally stuffed, even if that hurt a little. Pay day isn't till next Thursday so we're footing close to two weeks of costs before we get paid. It's a little painful to have to pre-pay everything but we're doing okay! Don't have the time to spend money anyhow, too many rehearsals to be had.
It looks like we don't have many full days off during the festival. In fact we have two (so not every Monday off it seems). We have this Monday off (which is unfortunate given our saving plans) and the Monday before our contract finishes (which is weird because we finish up on the Tuesday). I'm still thinking of getting a car and heading down to one of the putt putt places. Maybe a rainforest. It's hard to pick. Depends on the weather I guess!
Well I've got to head off to a tech rehearsal and make sure Gene's up before I head off - lucky bastard gets doesn't need to be in until 17:00.
Happy Bastille Day to all and we'll have a drink for you at the Spiegeltent tonight! (A lot of drinks but we'll spread them out perhaps...)
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Day 3 - First Day of Work
First day of work today and it was pretty cruisy. We decorated the foyer of the Metro Arts Building which was good fun. We'll finish that off tomorrow after the cafe closes so that we don't annoy their customers too much. Wow does the food at Verve (the aforementioned cafe) smell good! The scent of bacon and eggs in the morning when you've missed breakfast and have already started work is just too cruel.
A bit of unloading gear and a whole lot of spray painting today and that's essentially it! Tomorrow is going to be a semi-paperwork day for me with some schedule stuff but I love that so I'm looking forward to it.
We had drinks at the Verve this afternoon/evening and the happy hour specials were lovely. The beer was Peroni which I have been assured is quite drinkable and I had the house white which was more than palatable - although I may have just been thirsty as Gene wasn't a big fan of it.
Spiegel is on its way - it's half up in King Georges Square so I'm quietly looking forward to many a night there. There's an archway that we don't quite remember but hey, it has been awhile since we've been there.
Last night we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, the name of which escapes me, and the food was great. It's about a 10-15 minute walk from our place and kind to the budget. We had dinner with Gene's family from Brisbane which was great. It's nice to see some familiar faces.
I was originally planning to post some pictures but I seem to be having technical difficulties with the SD card drive on this computer. Having found the network cables though I'll just bring my laptop in one day instead and that will make life much easier.
Still enjoying Brisbane and I can't see that changing anytime soon. It was yet another warm day today that even the locals were in t-shirts so I felt a bit better about the whole t-shirt thing. There are some Alaskans here for the festival and they're also a little confused by the appearance of scarves and furry coats in this weather.
Wish I could send a little sunshine back home. Miss you all!
A bit of unloading gear and a whole lot of spray painting today and that's essentially it! Tomorrow is going to be a semi-paperwork day for me with some schedule stuff but I love that so I'm looking forward to it.
We had drinks at the Verve this afternoon/evening and the happy hour specials were lovely. The beer was Peroni which I have been assured is quite drinkable and I had the house white which was more than palatable - although I may have just been thirsty as Gene wasn't a big fan of it.
Spiegel is on its way - it's half up in King Georges Square so I'm quietly looking forward to many a night there. There's an archway that we don't quite remember but hey, it has been awhile since we've been there.
Last night we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, the name of which escapes me, and the food was great. It's about a 10-15 minute walk from our place and kind to the budget. We had dinner with Gene's family from Brisbane which was great. It's nice to see some familiar faces.
I was originally planning to post some pictures but I seem to be having technical difficulties with the SD card drive on this computer. Having found the network cables though I'll just bring my laptop in one day instead and that will make life much easier.
Still enjoying Brisbane and I can't see that changing anytime soon. It was yet another warm day today that even the locals were in t-shirts so I felt a bit better about the whole t-shirt thing. There are some Alaskans here for the festival and they're also a little confused by the appearance of scarves and furry coats in this weather.
Wish I could send a little sunshine back home. Miss you all!
Monday, July 10, 2006
UDO - Unexpected Day Off
It's my second day in Brisbane. Today I find myself armed with a two bananas and a plethora of tech gear with nothing more to do than explore the Brisbane. There was a small but important typo in my contract which means that I'm not insured for work until tomorrow so I got the day off after our safety & fire induction. I'm kinda wishing I'd brought the spare camera battery now. In fact I may yet ride back to the hostel to drop off my shifter, tape measure, leatherman (plus attachments), and mini-gerber (solstice). So perhaps I'll get the new battery.
Brisbane seems to be a wonderful sleepy kind of city. Admittedly this is largely based on our day out yesterday, which I am aware was a Sunday, but even this morning riding into the CBD for work during peak hour wasn't anywhere near as crazy as the Melbourne peak hour traffic. It's a great city to ride in and I'm glad Gene insisted on bringing the bikes. There seem to be bike lanes on most of the city roads and they're all fairly consistant in width. It's not a particularly generous width but it's enough to ride your bike in without being wide enough for cars to pretend they're bicycles.
Our hostel room is pretty good. It's got everything we need including a fridge and ensuite. We fell asleep to the dulcet tones of the didgeridoo and clapping sticks on our first night while last night there were just people talking and drinking. They seem like a great crowd.
I'm going slightly nuts over the number of times I've been asked in the last two days if I've seen a koala before but I guess that comes with the Asian appearance and the tourist maps of the city that mark us as being from out of town.
Yesterday we decided to take a ride into town so we could work out how to get to work at the Metro Arts building. Turned out to be an easy 15 minute ride with only one hill of note. We then enjoyed a huge lunch at the Pig 'n' Whistle in what I think is the Queen Street Mall before heading towards the famous South Bank. We detoured through St Georges Square in the hopes of seeing Spiegeltent being assembled but it would appear that it hasn't arrived yet and we're just a little too keen.
We visited the famous South Bank in the mid afternoon where we were greeted by a corvette meeting. Plenty of shiny cars that didn't really grab our attention. We briefly toyed with the idea of paddling in the wading pool. By wading pool I mean the 1m deep pool. Gene commented that it would be fine, we'd only be in waist deep until I pointed out to him that I'm only 1.5m tall and would be in far deeper than my waist. It wasn't quite warm enough anyway.
While we're on the topic of temperature... the weather here is gorgeous! Particularly after the bleary Melbourne weather we left. I guess that's another thing that's marking us as tourists. We're in t-shirts and shorts while the locals are in coats and scarves. Anyhow, we're making the most of the 23 degree days and soaking up as much sunshine as we can get. It's also soothing for the soul to not be in total darkness until 17:30.
Being the tech-geeks that we are, we were almost immediately distracted by the Suncorp Metway Super Screen at South Bank. A great outdoor venue with a good looking (and tidy) rig. I took photos. The rig was on chain motors for easy of rigging access. We were most impressed. The speakers weren't on chain motors though so less easy to move, but probably don't need to be moved much anyhow. We also discovered that the screen could swivel but I think I've been geeky enough for now. They were playing Mythbusteres if anyone cares.
After our brief moment of geekiness we discovered the art & craft market there where I bought a Snuggle Pillow because I miss my nice dense head-moulding pillow at home and this works in a similar manner for less cost. Mum if you're reading this, it's filled with tiny polystyrene balls, kind of like bean bag balls but the size of your glass bead from teddy bear making days. Easy to clean and easy to travel so I'm happy. I slept much better last night with it than I did the night before. Gene watched a couple of buskers but had heard most of the jokes before so we headed back to the markets. Not before I managed to find a couple of brochures on Putt Putt golf though! We're going to get a car and check out some places when we have some free time. The courses up here look like lots of fun and car hire's not so bad.
Supermarket shopping was nothing to write home about but I was very excited to find bananas for a whole three dollars cheaper per kilo at the fruit shop. No savings at Coles, I think they standardise the prices there.
Last night was a quiet night consisting of roast chicken for dinner, Dr Who (thanks Nic) and plenty of sleep. Tonight we're catching up with Gene's Auntie Vicki for dinner in the West End. Tee hee, I'm still amused that I'm staying in the West End. Always wanted to go to the West End but was thinking more England way than QLD. One step at a time though!
Wish you could all share the lovely weather with us!
Brisbane seems to be a wonderful sleepy kind of city. Admittedly this is largely based on our day out yesterday, which I am aware was a Sunday, but even this morning riding into the CBD for work during peak hour wasn't anywhere near as crazy as the Melbourne peak hour traffic. It's a great city to ride in and I'm glad Gene insisted on bringing the bikes. There seem to be bike lanes on most of the city roads and they're all fairly consistant in width. It's not a particularly generous width but it's enough to ride your bike in without being wide enough for cars to pretend they're bicycles.
Our hostel room is pretty good. It's got everything we need including a fridge and ensuite. We fell asleep to the dulcet tones of the didgeridoo and clapping sticks on our first night while last night there were just people talking and drinking. They seem like a great crowd.
I'm going slightly nuts over the number of times I've been asked in the last two days if I've seen a koala before but I guess that comes with the Asian appearance and the tourist maps of the city that mark us as being from out of town.
Yesterday we decided to take a ride into town so we could work out how to get to work at the Metro Arts building. Turned out to be an easy 15 minute ride with only one hill of note. We then enjoyed a huge lunch at the Pig 'n' Whistle in what I think is the Queen Street Mall before heading towards the famous South Bank. We detoured through St Georges Square in the hopes of seeing Spiegeltent being assembled but it would appear that it hasn't arrived yet and we're just a little too keen.
We visited the famous South Bank in the mid afternoon where we were greeted by a corvette meeting. Plenty of shiny cars that didn't really grab our attention. We briefly toyed with the idea of paddling in the wading pool. By wading pool I mean the 1m deep pool. Gene commented that it would be fine, we'd only be in waist deep until I pointed out to him that I'm only 1.5m tall and would be in far deeper than my waist. It wasn't quite warm enough anyway.
While we're on the topic of temperature... the weather here is gorgeous! Particularly after the bleary Melbourne weather we left. I guess that's another thing that's marking us as tourists. We're in t-shirts and shorts while the locals are in coats and scarves. Anyhow, we're making the most of the 23 degree days and soaking up as much sunshine as we can get. It's also soothing for the soul to not be in total darkness until 17:30.
Being the tech-geeks that we are, we were almost immediately distracted by the Suncorp Metway Super Screen at South Bank. A great outdoor venue with a good looking (and tidy) rig. I took photos. The rig was on chain motors for easy of rigging access. We were most impressed. The speakers weren't on chain motors though so less easy to move, but probably don't need to be moved much anyhow. We also discovered that the screen could swivel but I think I've been geeky enough for now. They were playing Mythbusteres if anyone cares.
After our brief moment of geekiness we discovered the art & craft market there where I bought a Snuggle Pillow because I miss my nice dense head-moulding pillow at home and this works in a similar manner for less cost. Mum if you're reading this, it's filled with tiny polystyrene balls, kind of like bean bag balls but the size of your glass bead from teddy bear making days. Easy to clean and easy to travel so I'm happy. I slept much better last night with it than I did the night before. Gene watched a couple of buskers but had heard most of the jokes before so we headed back to the markets. Not before I managed to find a couple of brochures on Putt Putt golf though! We're going to get a car and check out some places when we have some free time. The courses up here look like lots of fun and car hire's not so bad.
Supermarket shopping was nothing to write home about but I was very excited to find bananas for a whole three dollars cheaper per kilo at the fruit shop. No savings at Coles, I think they standardise the prices there.
Last night was a quiet night consisting of roast chicken for dinner, Dr Who (thanks Nic) and plenty of sleep. Tonight we're catching up with Gene's Auntie Vicki for dinner in the West End. Tee hee, I'm still amused that I'm staying in the West End. Always wanted to go to the West End but was thinking more England way than QLD. One step at a time though!
Wish you could all share the lovely weather with us!
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