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Kangaroo
At the Koala sanctuary. I've left all my best photos in Norfolk.This is going to be a weird one - an entry that covers three months of my life, in one go. Time behaves strangely when travelling - the moments go so quickly, the stimulation of meeting and seeing so many new people and things. The differences in cultures that you're continually exposed to, the intensity of relationships that build up in only a matter of days. Its life at it's most concentrated. Two weeks can stretch out unimaginably. In the year since I left, I write this almost to the day, I feel that I have had more experiences both good and bad than in the rest of my life combined. I don't know if it is true, but if any one were to ask me to talk about myself, most of the material I would draw from would be from that year.
When working, especially if it is a type of work that you have experienced before, the moments stretch out, arriving at 9 and waiting and waiting until 5 - which just seems to stay so far away. The weeks tick by, living for the weekends which flyby in a heartbeat.
The first week working was pretty
Possum
Ahh so cute. bad. I picked a fairly quiet hostel so that I could scout for a flat and get some sleep. The city central backpacker's hostel had a reputation for drunken 3am corridor parties - so I didn't stay there. My 27th birthday was one of the worst for years - though good at making friends in hostels, I hadn't made any at this point. I watched a little TV, did some work on my laptop and went to bed early. I hope one day to have a good birthday - I can't recall one that has been enjoyable yet - it probably just gets worse as 30 looms and then slips by... sorry terrible habit self pity.
The job I took in Brisbane was producing a sports betting website for Jupiters Technology and the sister company Centrebet. The design had already been produced, so it was mainly a case of writing the code that would take the front end, integrate it with the backend already running against the previous version of the site. The project title was Web3. The description in the last few sentences summarises what was workwise an intense project with areas that required quite novel thinking to
Brisbane
I think Post Office Square meet the design requirements - I don't think I can write that in normal English and will leave the business jargon there.
People -
Juds: I took a flat share with a great guy - one of the characters that I'll remember the rest of my life - his hobbies, picking up women, drinking and Chevy V8s. Lived in the city because it was cheaper paying city rent and driving 20k out to work each day than getting taxi's to near work twice a week after nights out. A huge amount of fun - nights out were never dull, learnt how to approach women cold in a bar - which I had never been any good at before. Still wasn't good at it but made myself do it so as not to look like a wuss. His best mate was a Mancunian - Nutsy, with Man U's emblem tattooed on his chest. Second time I met him, he was nearly arrested, sent home in a cab - but still managed to catch us up for a drink at the Vic late on Sunday. You're only 30 once.
Miguel: Met Miguel at work, timing for both of us worked out really well, we both needed a good mate at the time. An Argentinean Australian the guy appreciated activities such as salsa, pool and drinking. We went out a lot - celebrated his 29th birthday, a few days later he told me it was actually his 28th. We crashed hens nights, went to every club in Brisbane, played pool and drank too much on Tuesdays, salsa lessons on Thursdays, egged each other on with getting dates/chatting girls up and generally had an awesome time.
Alicia: Met Alicia at salsa lessons - she taught some of the classes. She became my surrogate little sister for my time in Brisbane. Alicia used accompany Miguel and I on some of our nights out. She used to shake her head at our antics in a way that suggested she wanted to look up to us as older wiser and more mature, but couldn't do as we weren't.
Workmates: Tom, Tim, Greg, Ati, Chris, Adam, Scott, Chopper, Phil, Michael and Steven. Fantastic bunch of people to work with - always up for a beer 4.30 sharp on a Friday and then depending on inlaws/baby sitting or other halves a trip to the Public services club was on the cards. One of the great things about Brisbane is the way that a natural pub-crawl would happen just about every Friday, starting one end of the city working over towards the Valley.
People of special mention: Tam - only hot systems administrator I've ever met - met her at salsa and couldn't believe her what she did for a living... offended her by setting a test on my laptop to see if she was for real. She says I've inspired her to travel - and I think that's great - I've offended and inspired someone 😊 rather than just offended and disgusted, annoyed, disappointed or embarrassed.
Places:
The Flat: Overlooked the city, thought 15mins walk to work but as I was always 5 mins late must have been 20. We kept it clean and tidy because ladies aren't impressed by a messy house - quote from Juds. I had a mattress, shelf and a fan as furniture and was quite happy.
Work: The old library a maze that required three scans of the access card to get to the nearest toilet.
The city: These are my favourite bars:
Auroas - great for cheap pool and hens nights.
The Vic - really good covers band on a Sunday night and lots and lots of pissed people.
The Exchange - pretentious bar in city centre - fantastic looking chicks though.
The valley:
Family: You have to wear trainers, T Shirt and jeans to get in and have spiky hair. Well it worked for me anyway - the slightest sign of a collar and you're overdressed. One of Australia's best clubs apparently.
The GPO: Bit of a fancy place, not as picky as the Family but still will use the overdressed underdressed routine if you're not looking good. $6 vodka and redbull doubles - nice.
Casablanca's and the Stadium: Scene of salsa lessons and latino nights. Lots of fun but as my mates have commented you have to like salsa to like salsa nights.
Highlights:
Laura visited - and we went to the Koala Sanctuary - just about the only touristy thing that I did in my whole time in Brisbane.
Matt and Hamish visited - we got drunk. I got very drunk and had a bad hangover. They carried on travelling up the coast and have a website here.
My leaving do: I sent this itinerary to everyone at work - and didn't get escorted from the building.
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Hi,
I'm leaving - back to England and then who knows. I'm having a big night out in Brisbane to remind me of the good times I've had here.... this is the itinerary - subject to change.... so get the passes for the evening from the wives/husbands... or bring them along.
Friday 16th May 2003 - be there or not be able to recite crazy stories on Monday morning.
Ali
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All the things I want to do on my leaving do.
Stage 1) The work type pub-crawl.
Dress code - smart casual - shirt, no trainers, id required if having own hair and teeth.
4.30 pm - Beer at work - and crisps. (chips).
5.30 pm - Over to the public services club - freak viewing and maybe play pool - eat nothing.
6 pm - Somewhere for safe food - not sure - possibly kebab house.
6.30 pm - Victory! - chat to divorced 30 somethings - complement on breast jobs, spill beer on 18 year old girls. Dry ginger and vodka drink of choice - one jug of beer for spilling required.
8 pm - Auroras - play pool and crash hens nights...
9.30 pm - over to the casino for dakaries - only $3! - one of each flavour - careful of the ice-cream headaches.
10.15 pm - Exchange - not really sure why - never liked the place - but seem to have gone there a lot.
10.30 pm - start of stage 2!
Stage 2) The valley type scene.
Dress code - Trendy valley type clothes (guys) or anything really (girls). Those that want to go to Family will need - trainers, t shirt - new not slobby (no huge logos), jeans - spiky waxed hair (guys).
10.30 pm - my place - change into trendy valley clothes .... er - back to work to pick up trendy clothes in a bag for those that don't live local ....you can change at mine - Spring Hill.
11 pm - GPO - Red Bull and Vodka Time !! - or possibly the sun bar.
12 am - Brazilian Touch ($5) - salseras y muchos bailando.
2 am (ish) - Family ($12) - anyone left?!? - more dancing --- must be wearing trendy valley clothes at this point! - also must not be toooooo drunk.(fussy door staff).
4.30 am - Mt Cutha for dawn - if anyone can drive - otherwise dawn from either the press club or my apartment.
6.30 am - sleep? or coffee or dragging weary carcass back to the suburbs and lots of explaining to significant others.
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I managed to do most of it - didn't get to the Family spent until 6 at Fat Ric's instead, saw dawn from my apartment and slept virtually all of Saturday. Pretty much sums up my experience of Brisbane. It wasn't a time of high culture and visiting museums, more of experiencing nightlife and work Ozzi style - lots of fun...
I left on the 19th May 2003 - so I've dated this diary with that day. I haven't yet built travelblog to cover periods of time... especially not three months in one entry.
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Ali
Ali Watters
Salsa Brisbane
I've noticed a few people looking for Brisbane Salsa details on this journal - here is the Yahoo Group for Brisbane Salsa http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Brisbane_Salsa/