Brisbane

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So I arrived last night in Brisbane, and met up with Paul who I met in sydney. We went to a 24 hour pancake house and had the mother of all pancakes !!! mine was apple studel with ice cream .... OMG it was worth the trip to Brizzie just for that.

Up early to be greeted with cloud and spit spots of rain !!!!!!! I was truly stunned ..... as someone said before me "One was not amused"

We decided to go on a 3 hour trip around the city with a guide, funny guy who obviously wants to be on the stage as he was very annimated and made it interesting. Lots of "history" if you can call the last 190 years history. Apparetly Brisbane was the part where the real bqad boy convicts were sent, as Sydney was over run with them ..... few scousers there no doubt.

Afterwards we went for a walk through the botanical gardens along the river, which were very pretty and took lots of arty farty photos (or tried to) then a lazy lunch. I dont know if I've mentioned it but ive belcome a true Ozzie in as much as I walk at the speed of a tortiose !!! honestly I'm going to get overtaken by zimmer framed pensioners when I get back !!!!

Now as Paul has a fear of heights he thought he could possibly conquor this by booking us on the Brisbane Story bridge walk, which I gave top marks for !!!! Its a 250 ft high walk over the bridge that takes about 2 hours in total. We were booked on the 4.40pm walk the last one of the day. But we got lost on the way, paniced and had to get a cab, very quickly !!!! - arrived 15 mins late - went flying in though the door, and gave our appologises and made it by the skin of our teeth. On reflection this probably helped Paul by :

A- not haveing time to get all frightened
B- hoping we'd be too late to go on it !!!

So we were given some very attractive grey and pale blue boiler suits, harnesses to attatch ourselves to the guide rope, transmitter radio and headphones to keep in contact with the leader, straps to keep our specks from falling off and last but not least a hankie with elastic to keep around your wrist. we looked just like the ghost busters but without the lazer guns !!!! soooo attractive (NOT)

We were given the safety talk then signed a waver incase we fell off and died. Finally we were off !!! 8 of us in total, it was day light when we started the assent (terminology for going up) and the views were fabulous, lots of stops for photos and sightseeing. The weather was beautiful by this time thank goodness, I wouldnt like to do it in the rain. Paul was fine, no probs at all ..... next is his home city of Sydney bridge then who knows ??? Everest maybe ???

After all this excitment we were starving so time for a well deserved meal, we went to the Brisbane casino, didnt play (sorry Marilyn) just ate. So a full and adventurous day all in all.

hopefully tomorrow will be sunny I dont want my tan to fade !!!

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