Brecky in Brissie

When we checked into the Soho motel this time we took Brecky which made the daily bill to $101 for us both which is not bad being so close to town, having free internet access, which is the fastest we have experienced so far. The normal brecky in Brissie seems to be 2 eggs, crispy bacon, toast, flat white and juice, and then you add extras. Of course you get the usual deals as you walk around town and it always surprises me to see people sitting down to brecky after 11am; we are already thinking of lunch by then. It’s almost hurts how the Ozzies seem to destroy the English language, especially as I’m from Melton Mowbray where we speak real good Queens English, “me duck”. However, we have yet to go to the States who have had a little longer practice. As I expected, Brisbane, or Brisvegas as I have heard it called, is a lovely city, Claire preferred Sydney, but for me it’s Brissie all the way. I don’t like it; I love it!

Following Brecky we headed off to the South bank for a quick whiz around in the Brisbane wheel; we were both a little anxious to start with the sudden shock of height and glass windows. I used to be fine with heights until I went up the Empire States building when I was 25. We went up an elevator to the 80 something floor, and then took another one for over 20 more. Your mind starts to play tricks on you and I wanted to jump up and down in case it broke. I got out feeling like the whole building was swaying, but wrote it off because of the escalator when I realized that it really was swaying. A massive, solid building was moving around with the wind; and there wasn’t any wind, really spooky. I headed straight to the outside edge and looked straight down because I had never experienced a height fear until that point when BANG! My head exploded, and I staggered backwards, knocking people out the way until I reached a solid wall. Well a solid wall that was swaying in no wind at all; it all got a little too much for me. All I wanted to do was lie flat on my front (it was I little flatter in those days) and hug the floor, but embarrassment got the better of me and I just pressed myself against the not so solid wall. After what seemed like quite a few minutes I gradually sideways edged my way back to the metal fence with both arms out like a balancing bar until, once more I could see over the edge. I slowly recovered and became less frightened and eventually I was hanging over the edge taking photo’s which I still have in our attic. Every time since I get a bit scared, even climbing a ladder to paint, but before long, if I take my time, I quickly recover and become fearless once again. I have since been back to the Empire State building and they now have glass as so many people were jumping off the edge; probably because of their sudden fear of heights that they didn’t realize they had.

Anyway, back to the day, we got off the wheel and walked to Pier “A” right by the side of the wheel to catch our second boat trip in two days to Morton Bay. The first thing we saw was not the boat we should catch, but the boat that we had been yesterday and the second thing was the Captain with the handlebar moustache. We shook hands and I asked him if he did all the boat trips in Brissie. He said, was the lunch that good that you are coming back again today and I told him we were taking the Morton Bay cruise. He said that he was just trying to drum a little extra business and he would head off soon and our boat would be right along. He was right and we were soon off on our way for a 30km journey up the river to the bay. I was quite surprised how long we were travelling past city blocks and expensive properties before going under the double bridge and it all changed into an industrial theme. Its great that they have moved all the industry away from the city and build all these places and parks; this place is being very carefully planned. The heavy industry continues right out into the bay where we could almost see Morton Island which is an island that consists totally of sand, no rocks. They have quite big sand hills and you can go sand boarding down them. This island must be shifting with the wind; if we had more time I would like to have a trip around it but we will try to go to Fraser Island instead which is the biggest sand island in the universe. In fact I spent over an hour this morning trying to book a trip on the internet without success; we will just have to get to Hervey Bay which is closest place to it and see if we can find anything tomorrow.

Once in the bay, we swizzled around and headed back towards Brissie but somehow the journey back seemed so much longer without the excellent commentary that we had on the way there. It’s a really good value trip at $25 each for 4 hours and you get Devonshire scones and as much tea and flat white as you can drink. If you do this trip, remember to bring a pack lunch as they don’t sell any food; however, you can buy a beer or glass of wine for $5 a time. I guess they can’t be doing with all the “spanner”, or change problems with only three staff. The commentary did start once we got back to the new houses that had been converted from the old Wool factories. Once they had stopped using them they went from bad to worse as the squatters moved in and left graffiti and worse everywhere; the windows got broke and the weather moved in until they finally kicked them out for the renovations. In the main factory they have left some of the graffiti as a memento of its past which I wish we had time to see, its near the park with fig trees that I cant remember the name of. That should make it easy to find then.

Before long we were back in Brissie central a little too early to drop us off so we headed the other way to see the new bridge that was controversial because nobody liked the look of it and it cost $63 million. I quite liked it as it reminded me of masts with rigging when the old guy opposite me said that it was designed to look like that. They were a lovely old couple that didn’t move the whole 4 hours; even when I spilled the tea across the table all over his wife’s white trousers. Claire was quick with the micro fibre towel to help her mop it up but the damage was done. It did break the ice though and they talked endlessly after that. For the first 10 minutes about the micro fibre towel which she thought was wonderful; I guess she was just trying to be kind in swaying the conversation away from her tea stained trousers. Now I had no tea and thought about going down stairs to get another one but remembered Mark Avery, many years ago when he spilled two full pints over George’s trousers in as many minutes on our Wednesday night out. Better to go thirsty; but hang on, they do sell beer and that doesn’t stain quite as much.

Trip over, we had decided to see one part of Brisbane that we had so far missed called Fortitude valley where China town was hidden inside. We were starving, we had only had Devonshire scones since breaky and it was nearly 5pm so we went to the other adjacent piers numbered 1 and 2 and argued which one had the river cat going our way. We had seen these lovely catamarans shooting around and were told that they are really cheap at about $5 for the whole day anywhere. We decided on number 1 and were first on when it arrived 10 minutes later. They run every 12 minutes but we missed the first one arguing. Can’t say who chose the right pier but he’s a bit over weight. In no time we were at our destination and walked to Chinatown first but unfortunately it was shut for renovation. Claire wasn’t pleased with me, especially as I ate half her Devonshire scone and she was now far needier than me. It wasn’t long before we found all the buzzing pubs and coffee shops that the guide book promised and settled for one called “Rics café bar” which seemed to be part of three adjacent places; Rics, Fat Boys and RG’s, it all seemed to be happening at RG’s but there were more seats at the other two. Claire wanted to sit at “Fat Boys” but I managed to talk her out of it and into sitting at Rics. They were advertising steaks for $5 with chips and salad with any drink after 6pm. Unbelievable, what time is it? Claire is still on British time and I haven’t reset mine from Byron Bay; we worked out that it was 5.50pm and found a table. We had a quick one or two before they opened and ordered, not really expecting very much. When they arrived we were surprised that we ate the lot, which was easy as there was no fat, no gristle or anything; the plates were a little tricky, but what a great meal for $5, almost as good as Brecky!