Hot in the City

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Had a lovely sleep and luckily seem to be on Oz time now. I managed to stay awake last night and we went out for drinks into West End. I stuck to lager- well, Pale Ale which seems to be quite a popular drink over here. We got in at around midnight and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Charlie woke me up  with a brew- Tetley tea- home from home! And made some poached eggs on toast (he's well trained)
We had leisurely stroll to get the bus into the city of Brisbane, but not before missing one as Charlie had forgotten to bring his injection so had to go back ( he's diabetic ) I keep asking him how he manages to get through life with his lack of organisation and planning- and I now realise just how lucky I was that he made it on time to pick me up from the airport. I sense organisation is not something that happens often in his life! Charlie pointed out some different buildings and what was what- this was the more ' built up' city that I was expecting. We stopped for a coffee and had a stroll through a nice park full of Ibis ( weird looking birds with long beaks- not the hotel chain!)
We got on the citycat which took us right down the river. It was interesting to see the flood levels and how bad it had got back in January. A lot of repairs were going on still, and some city cat stops were still not open as they were mid repair. Charlie was telling me that you sometimes get river dolphins that swim alongside the boat, and more worryingly, Bull sharks that swim in from sea. Apparently attacks are not uncommon on swimmers that frequent the river (why would you?!) we got off at the UQ stop (University of Queensland) so he could show me around campus and where he works - and when I say work I put that loosely! He is coming to the end of a pHd to do with Conflict resolution and peacekeeping, and lectures on the Masters programme here at the uni (stuff all far to clever for me to understand) still it was good to see where he worked and studied. It is quite a large campus with lots going on, and we sat and had some lunch by the lake in the sun which was nice.
Back home, we sat out on the porch, Charlie jamming on his guitar, people clapping and giving the thumbs up as they walked passed- a very laid-back lifestyle indeed. I fell asleep in the sun, which was still quite warm today despite the winter approaching.

That night I went to watch Charlie play football for his local side. He did say I didn't have to, but I thought I'd give it a whirl. By this point the temperature had dropped a bit, and I couldn't help laughing to myself thinking I'd regressed back to being 14 again, except this time I'd been getting Charlie to play me songs on his guitar (years ago it was the piano) and once again I was stood on the sideline freezing my t*ts off watching Charlie play football, except for this wasn't Hedon Rangers playing on Westlands, it was Toowong FC in Brisbane- and definitely no chip butty on the way home from this one! I sat with a lot of the girls who played on the womens team, it was quite a social event here with many people bringing wine and bowls of curry to devour as they watched the match. A lot of the girls found it amazing that Charlie and I knew each other from as long ago as School, and were asking if I had any embarrassing stories to tell them. I cant say I did, which they were a bit disappointed with! Toowong won the game 3-2, Charlie scoring the winning goal. ( I missed all this and thought they had drew 2-2- obviously I can't have been that interested! ) 
We made our way back where his housemates Will and Terry had fired up the Barbie. Will is originally from Washington DC, but had lived in Hawaii for 10 years before moving over here to study. Terry is an Aussie from New South Wales, and the 3 have lived together for around 2.5 years. After a delicious meal, we made our way to a bar in West end to meet more friends ( like I said, this place is very social) I met a group of med students Charlie knows, who had just had an exam today and were coming to the end of their course, so wanted to let their hair down before travelling onto other places the next day. One was going to Malaysia, a couple of others were going down to Byron Bay, one was visiting from England after working via South Africa- I was finding it difficult to keep track!
I got refused entry into one bar because believe it or not I didn't have any ID on me(!) they must have been hot on it that night as there were Police around which I was told was unusual for this part of town. Anyway, I managed to slip past the next lot and get served before calling it a night at around 12.              

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Comments

[becky florence]

Awww look at you both! Say Hi to Charlie for me xxx