Streets

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Yummy breakfast came and went, a couple of the Rydges staff are equally enthralled to see how we are getting on with our toil, they were delighted about our driving licence success, and as we wandered down to sign in for breakfast, smilingly, asked how things were going. We have had to extend our stay at Rydges, as we are taking longer than anticipated to “time adjust”.

Today we decided that we would go down to Streets beach and catch some sun, it is about 30 degree’s the sun is very bright, and the sky is very blue. When we got down to Streets it was already quite busy, loads of families had brought their cool boxes and picnics along to spend a day at the beach.

We set up our pitch and grabbed an hour of sunshine, that’s enough at the moment, so we take some shade and have some lunch.

Some street performers are just changing over, “Steve London” packs his gear up and another guys sets his up, he juggles and stuff like that. But we don’t hang around too much longer the street performer seems not very enthused by his job so was taking quite a while to set up.

Another 10 minutes in the sun and we pack up and head back to the hotel to do some bits and pieces like renting the car, and finding somewhere to live.

I am trying to finish my book, I have been reading for a week, “Russell Brands - My Booky Wook” he is definitely a troubled soul, which led to his recent faux pas with Jonathan Ross on Radio 2.

We get changed and go out for dinner, we walk past Streets beach and notice there are still a lot of families there BBQ-ing at the places provided, they work on a first come first serve basis brick built BBQ, seating area, lighting and everything I thinks its really great.
There are loads of people who have brought picnics out and just laid up a cloth on the grass. It is dark now it seems to be a strange scene something that we don’t do in England, when it gets dark it tends to get cold so we all go home.

We are really in the mood for Italian, finding a restaurant on the riverside, that has live music, not really to our taste, but hey!! It’s the food we are after. To put in to perspective, Caroline had Spaghetti Bolognaise, and I had Chicken Carbonara, Garlic bread to share for starters and a couple of drinks, it came to aus$50.80 which converted to the exchange rate we use, to rationalise costs, aus$2.30 to the pound came out at £22.08 for dinner plus a tip(not bad).

On our way back we stop to look at all the people still having fun and we are puzzling how there doesn’t seem to be any trouble, the only thing we can come up with is the PUB effect. Pubs don’t seem to exist the same as the UK, I know the Auzzie’s are meant to be great drinkers, but, it just seems so different, it just seems more family orientated, perhaps it is the location that lends itself to the behaviour?

We stop by Streets Beach pool, and dangle our feet in the evening water which is still quite warm. Some people are still swimming and playing in the water it’s around 21.30 hrs, they look like Fijians, or Samoans, all playing around in the water. Strangely some seem to be fully clothed.
As we are watching, a huge Bat flies over, we have seen them before and try to size the beast, we reckon its wing span tip to tip is between 3 to 4 feet, more like a sheep with wings. When we were in Sydney last, these fruit tree’s had 1000’s of fruit bats, roosting in the daytime. But in Brisbane we have walked past this tree by the hotel that drops these blue berries/fruits the size of walnuts.

Batty has a flying friend, he/she is not alone and they both give an aerial display, I was hoping one of them would swoop down and carry off a small child.

We head up and grab a take away coffee as we pass the vendor, and walk back to the hotel, I collect one of these walnut size fruits/berry’s and proudly ask reception if they know what it is. They haven’t got a clue, therefore I will need it do some searching on the Internet.

Though we are tired, we decide to do our washing at 22.30, at the Hotel laundry, and send our pants to paradise. We had to ask someone from the hotel to come and unlock the laundry room as our washing was locked in. It seems that they lock it overnight for security reasons; I am not convinced that someone would want to run away with our pants. We conclude just after midnight, and fall in to bed whacked!!

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Photos

Hungry Ibis
A white Ibis is looking for his lunch!

Streets Beach
This beach is a manmade haven for Queenslanders in the centre of Brisbane.

Streets Beach
Located on Brisbane's Southbank near hotels, the University and Convention Centres.

Streets Beach
These pictures are taken on a Sunday - it is amazing to see so many families out enjoying this hot weather and beautiful location.

Streets Beach
I think Andy is impressed by the igloo's that people use on the beach to shade themselves

Streets Boat Pool
Described as a boat pool but I seen no boats!

Streets Beach
Andy took the selection of photos for today's blog

Singing Led Zeppelin
These two buskers looked about 15 years old, they played a Led Zeppelin track, the quitar playing was excellent, but the voices need a little bit of work.