We have landed in Australia and based ourselves
in Brisbane for the next month.
The Meriton Apartments are nearly new and well
located near the central part of the city, being the tallest building in
Brisbane – this helps when navigating our way around!
From our 21st floor apartment we
have stunning views across north Brisbane and all along the river, which is
quite spectacular.
Our first week has been spent in a familiar
pattern of sorting out phones and transport (well at least Patrick’s has, he
does it so well!) and generally familiarizing ourselves with the city. It is very clean and bright but the temperature is a
little on the low side, however, we have to keep reminding ourselves it is winter
here. Although around 21C it creates a dilemma in the mornings….is it a shorts
or jeans day? This has taken a little while to get used to after the last 2
months of very warm, shorts all the way weather, but it has clarified, as if we
didn’t know already, that we both prefer to spend our time in a more relaxing warm
weather climate!
Still it has been a good excuse to go out
and buy a new jumper, somewhat annoying when I have a number now stored in
various locations around the world from UK to HK!
Getting around Brisbane is relatively easy,
we have a GoCard similar to the HK Octopus card but it is limited to Buses and
Ferries….and doesn't include 7-Elevens.
However our best find has been the CityCycles which are essentially, the
same as London’s Boris Bike’s and can be taken and left at over 150 locations
within the city. The only challenge is to make sure that our journey is less
than 30 minutes at a time which is free and Patrick gets grumpy if we exceed
this…..he is so ……tight economical. J. However you can actually
just park your bike, wait 2 mins and take it off again so it’s pretty good and obviously
helps to keep track of where the bikes are, really good way to see more of the suburbs.
The cycling coupled with walking and the
gym/swimming (now and then) does mean we both feel healthier than when working
and even more importantly we can indulge in all of the lovely goodies they have
to offer here, lots of tempting patisseries, juice bars, the biggest sandwiches
you have ever seen, vegetarian, French, Italian, etc., cuisines to sort all
tastes.
But really the bikes are a great way to explore
the river paths and one of our favorites so far has been the South Bank which
is the cultural center of Brisbane, where the Theatres and Museums are located and
is a lovely place to relax by the beach, Yes, the beach…..they have created the
only man-made beach in Australia and it is a great place to just sit and enjoy
the sunshine and people watch. It is a bit bizarre as you have people in bikini’s
and swim-shorts on the beach with people in overcoats walking past….like the
early days of a UK summer!
We went out to dinner to a place along the busy
waterfront that had a Brazilian buffet, all new to us as it was as much as you
could eat, but the chefs came round to the table with all the different meats
on skewers and carved you as much as you wanted, there were some additional
side dishes and healthy(ish) options such as hot pineapple basted in coconut, yum!
Tasty baked polenta slices, garlic toast and Chinese greens, we passed on this
option! This particular restaurant had the meat cooking on rotating skewers in
the window during the day and we’d walked past it thinking “that looks good and
would be nice to try” and then in the evening whilst on our way to another
restaurant, we somehow found ourselves back here, so it was obviously meant to
be!
The cafes and restaurants are all quite
amazing and the challenge is to choose which one as they all look so good! Plus
we have found the “Bottle Shops” and quite literally, wine is cheaper than
water…..hallelujah!
There is plenty to do and see here and our
task for this week is to work out which day to go to …..Australia Zoo, which is
on the cards. This is the zoo Steve Irwin set up and it was in the news last
week as a Tiger decided to have an extra supplement of Zookeeper with his
dinner….
So if there is any monkey business this
could become a blog for 1…..haha…..
Catch up next time….and feel free to email
or add any comments….
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