Textures of Brisbane, a set on Flickr.
On Saturday, we’ll leave Brisbane for a long drive up the Sunshine Coast to Mackay.
During our stay in Brisbane, we’ve fallen in love with the architecture, the coffee shops, and the people.
It was hard not to be snap-happy in a city that is simultaneously old and emerging. Here’s an album of the textures of Brisbane that caught my eye. We look forward to returning for festivals and family.
This afternoon we took in the gourmand quarter of Fortitude Valley. We browsed Taste, a cooking store straight out a high-end house & home magazine and then made our way to James St. Market, which was stocked with decadent desserts and fine groceries at (disappointingly) high prices. Even their floral section was exorbitant. We could only afford bread, namely a seed-fed loaf and an olive loaf.
Walking back to our suite through Fortitude Valley revealed an extensive sprawl of textile and home ware producers, not to mention creative professionals. We serendipitously stumbled upon a discount art warehouse, where we picked up A4 sketchbooks, Stabilo pens and charcoal pencils at very reasonable rates. I’m excited about the different paper sizes here. It seems that the post-card size is popular in Brisbane, given every shop and cafe here displays them prominently at entrances and counters. I’m charmed by the post-cards, some of which actually have address lines. Watch your mail box; you may be receiving one in the coming weeks.
Back at the Oaks Charlotte, it was a veritable feast of vegetables. To start, I chopped and simmered my way to Carrot Ginger soup. For our main, I sautéed and baked for an hour until the quinoa stuffed red peppers were ready to devour. Both recipes came from the Whole Foods iPhone app. They have a feature where you can search recipes from what’s ‘at hand’ in your pantry and fridge. As I had a kg of carrots to use, I found this incredibly helpful. I even made a carrot/apple/walnut/raisin slaw for dessert. After tonight, we’re going to have incredible vision and…orange skin.
It was the ideal Saturday. After a slow morning of breakfast and reading, Chris and I continued our exploration of Brisbane and connected with Chris’s (formerly) long-lost family.
We caught the City Cat ferry to New Farm to take in the 2high festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse. A showcase of dance, music, film and photography, the 2high festival was a hub of young, artistic energy. We enjoyed the bright colours and the fresh perspectives. Chris was especially amused by use of Glados, the voice from Portal, for one of the instalments. We’re both smitten with the building, which was hosting the festival and a wedding in the top levels.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon touring the University of Queensland. The UQ student union plaza was well-designed and well-resourced, their athletic facilities were extensive. The campus lakes were home to ducks, eels, and much to our delight, turtles. There was an avenue of Jacaranda trees, much like the rows of Cherry Blossom trees on West Mall at UBC. The ground was purple with fallen flowers. We were enchanted to say the least.
We enjoyed a delicious meal at Wagamama with Chris’s aunt, cousin and his girlfriend, meeting them for the first time ever and liking them instantly. Dot (Chris’s aunt) was hilarious and personable, Mason (Chris’s cousin) is a fellow ex-pat and Anna (Mason’s girlfriend) was great to talk with about all things Aussie. Anna shared lots of great shops and links with me, including the upcoming Good Food and Wine festival and the Brisbane anti-gravity yoga studio. For dessert, they introduced us to Freestyle Tout where we split three desserts among the five of us. We were thrilled to connect with them; it was so comforting to spend an evening with family.
I have been temporary blinded by taking these photos of the Brisbane sunrise, the one reward for waking up too hung over to sleep any longer.
It all began yesterday evening. After an afternoon of productivity at the beautifully designed and user friendly State Library of Queensland, Chris and I dined at Verve cafe/bar, otherwise known as ‘The House of Cider’. At 6pm, Verve was chock-full of young Australians. The walls were deep red and the music was independent; I even heard Metric’s ‘Dead Disco’ at one point. The bathrooms were up a series of fire escape-esque stairs in the back alley. The grunge and the energy animated Verve.
We started with our 500 mL bottles of cider; Green Goblin for me, Henney’s dry cider for Chris. We snacked on pan fried bread topped with feta and olives while taking in the crowd. I enjoy the outfits. Chris enjoys the droves of attractive women (everywhere). We dined on roasted pumpkin pizza (primarily me) and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto wrapped in veal (primarily Chris).
Post-dinner we wandered to local 711 to sample the Australian chocolate bars. Both ‘Moro bar’ and ‘Picnic’ were lack lustre, leaving me wanting for real dessert. Instead we bought more liquor, namely Cooper’s Sparkling Ale and Little Creature’s Bright Ale.
Now, the age-old question arises: why is it so easy to consume massive amounts of beer? Was it the saltiness of dinner or the stack of crackers I consumed while watching the last episodes of Samuari Champloo with Chris on the couch in our suite? Was it the Friday-night buzz that pulsed through the city? Or was I subconsciously showing Australians that Canadians are competent beer drinkers as well?
Regardless, I was certainly worse for wear this morning. At least I have hot water and lemon to cleanse my aching liver. Apparently I need some beer-conditioning if I’m going to keep up with the folks down here.
I’m back for another week’s guest post and we’re still in Brisbane. It seems like Katie’s determined that this won’t be my last time; I chalk it up to the intense pressure from all my adoring fans (I know you’re out there).
What was shaping up to possibly be our last day in Brisbane began with us picking up our new and frightening Queensland drivers’ licenses from the department of transport.
Greetings from South Bank
We’d gone into Leighton’s Brisbane office to meet with the HR rep that has been taking care of all my on-boarding and took a field trip to get certified to drive over here despite still looking the wrong way when I cross the streets. I don’t really understand the justification behind a lack of driving test for people who come from countries where they drive on the proper side of the street but hey, it’ll save us some time. For some reason, Katie photo came out looking like she was about to crush someone’s skull and I ended up looking (more) like the wolfman due to some strategically placed shadowing. We said goodbye to our rep after handing off the last bit of documentation to make sure the cash would finally begin to flow into my emaciated bank account and went on our way, beginning to plan our trip up the coast.
We ended up back at Bleeding Heart cafe, intent on getting some items checked off of our to-do lists. As the lady’s pointed out before, Brisbane doesn’t do the coffee-shop working culture. There was a working plug-in (one of the only places we’ve found with such a thing) and the promise of wireless access. Only the former seemed to be in working order. I’ve concluded that Vancouverites are completely spoiled when it comes to getting online away from home; either Brisbane’s citizens are exceptional at planning out when they’ll need access or they just do without. Considering what we’ve seen so far, the latter seems more likely. Whereas we’ve lost much of the distinction between personal and work time in North America, it’s alive and well here. If there’s a late-night work/coffee shop around for freelancers and the sort, it’s well hidden.
Notwithstanding my sense of entitlement to free internet, the coffee was solid and the iced-coffee-cum-milkshake Katie had looked thoroughly drinkable. I managed to start getting into some serious car researching while the lady chipped away at One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I was deeply engrossed in my internalized debate as to whether or not Volkswagen’s Golf Wagen was uglier than it’s nearest competitors when Katie, apparently reaching her limit for sitting still, insisted we begin walking. To where was no consequence – this lady was antsy.
Our wandering arrow fell onto Adelaide Street where among the mid-day throng, we found an organic-non-processed-something-or-another store and a Japanese bakery. For a minute it almost felt like we were back in Vancouver. We continued our wanderings further along, stopping briefly in front of a church to catch our breath and think about what we’d need for the next few days travelling north. This was brought to an abrupt halt when I received an email letting me know that, due to Mackay being the coolest and most popular destination on earth, there was not a single room for hire in the city and, as such, our stay in Brisbane would be extended by another ten days.
Now, I’m not complaining about more time in Brisbane; this city is a real treat. What I was disappointed about was the delay in finally getting settled into a real home again. Our apartment here is nice, but we both know that it’s a temporary stopover. It felt a little bit like a cruel tease to be on the brink of that next step, only to be told that we’ll need to take a seat for just a little bit longer.
So what did we do? We continued on, if a bit deflated. We returned home, hit the gym, watched some episodes of Samurai Champloo (almost done…), then got gussied up for a night on the town.
My watering hole from heaven
We grabbed a couple of tickets to the Poetry in Film Festival, hosted back down in the same Fortitude Valley cinema we’d been to a few nights before and decided to do dinner beforehand at a Spanish restaurant by the name of Ortiga. A few doors before the restaurant, we spotted an interesting grindehouse-esque poster promising a zombie massacre later that night. Taking a step back, I realized we’d stumbled onto the Mana Bar.
Let me explain the concept here. It’s a small-ish facility, large enough to house maybe 50 people. On the walls hang five large-ish LCD screens, a massive trophy case containing video game collectibles from through the ages, and, behind the bar, sit a dozen consoles powering those screens. You buy a drink, take it to a table, put it down, then play games all night with your fellow patrons. If someone had asked me how to design the perfect bar, this would be it.
The film festival and the restaurant were enjoyable, but returning to the Mana Bar really made my night. We met some interesting characters (as one will at a place such as this or an event such as PAX), won some, lost some, but consistently had fun. I’ve insisted that we return there on a busier night to see it in full swing. Who’d have thought that 8 PM on a Wednesday would be slow?
I’ll return for another episode of Chris Blathers On sometime after we get back to that bar.
Chris
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