Busy Brisbane

I can only describe Brisbane as a BUSY, busy, busy place – a conglomeration of ongoing roadworks and so many, many people. As the politicians keep saying, “South East Queensland is bursting at the seams” – and it sure is! Chris was convinced that what should be 2 lanes on the motorway have been squashed into 3. You have to have all your wits about you when you negotiate motorways, highways, bridge crossings, tunnels and endless traffic circles.

Where we stayed was 45 mins south of Brisbane and where we visited my friend Marilyn (from res days) was 45 north of Brisbane. Driving between north and south allowed us to see the numerous suburbs with an ever eclectic array of different homestyles. I would hate to be relocating to Brisbane as I wouldn’t know where to start to choose a place to live.

We spent a lovely day in the city walking down the South Bank with its beautiful design of parks and pools along the river and then catching a river cat looking at all the buildings and places along the river. We met 2 great ladies who had just flown in from NZ for the weekend – Tina and Vonny! Tina had a great sense of humour and we spent a good time laughing and joking. Not sure if we’ll meet them again but would be nice if we did!

We spoilt ourselves getting tickets to a QPAC production of Jesus Christ Superstar. We absolutely loved the singing, dancing and grunge style costumes. We could have sat through it all again when it ended. I also couldn’t resist popping into the Valentino exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art -I loved looking at the beautifully styled dresses and could imagine Nat wearing a few of them! I must say Brisbane has a fantastic cultural precinct and if I lived in Brisbane would make very good use of it! The lighted buildings along the river at night were beautiful.

The day we went into the city we caught a bus from one of the myriad of bus stations –oh my goodness …..the bus went way over 100km an hour down the motorway. I just held on for the ride. The one good thing was the designated bus lane on the edge of the motorway. We just went flying past all the traffic stuck in gridlock! It was really cheap too because we said we were pensioners!!!! and they didn’t even ask for a seniors card!!! Oh dear me!! I was hiding behind Chris. They didn’t see Mrs (Varicose) Vain behind him!!!!!

Being settled at a home for a while made me a bit homesick and, at times, we both seemed to feel a bit "grumpy"!- I think we prefer being out of the hustle and bustle of cars, people, shopping centres and the general madness of a big city! We are really looking forward to travelling through northern NSW and continuing our discovery of new places we haven't seen before. Hopefully the "grumpiness" goes away.