Brisbane 30 October 2013 - Eh.... yeah, no

During our stay in Oz I have found Australians to be open, friendly, helpful and a lot of fun. They can also be very direct and forthright with their views. So why is it that so many respond with the statement, "Eh... yeah, no." when answering a simple, unambiguous question? And why is it that Telstra mobile stores do not have a simple procedure for reversing duplicated transactions? (After 30 minutes they gave up, leaving both transactions in the system and giving us $100 from the petty cash.) And just what is the point of modern art. These questions and more we sought to resolve on our first day in central Brisbane (Brizzie).

 

Enough said.

Brizzie skyline from the City Hopper, a free river
ferry service.

We are staying with new friends Gina and Wolf who live in a lovely suburb to the north of the city. Gina is sister to Paula, a good friend back in the UK. They have kindly agreed to put us up until 2 November when we fly to Perth. Today we caught a bus and took the 35 minute journey into the Central Business District (CBD), which sits within a large southerly loop of the Brisbane River, a few kilometres from the sea. The CBD has a great bus and ferry service, some of which is free so you can hop on and hop off at will. We used the ferry to see the city from the river. We never get tired of being on the water, probably because Fo hates walking so much.

Frequent costume failures but powerful nonetheless.

On returning to dry land we wandered down Queen Street, a largely pedestrianised road that houses many restaurants, bars and cafes. We were fortunate to catch a free performance by a Torres Island dance troupe. The dances were fascinating, even to an acknowledged arts-phobe like me. It was also not without humour as they kept having costume failures. Juices of all persuasion are very popular here and we downed a 'Morning After' during the performance. We felt very righteous as we sipped our carrot, apple and ginger which lasted only until we later tucked into paella at a food market by the river.



Old Government House, Brisbane

In the afternoon we wandered through another beautiful tropical garden before popping into an art exhibition at the Queensland University of Technology. The campus was adjacent to the gardens and quite possibly one of the most attractive we have ever seen. Sadly the art exhibition failed to excite. As previously hinted, I have a boredom threshold for all things arty and this typically kicks in after about 30 minutes. I know, call me a philistine but, unless I'm involved in its creation, I lose interest very quickly. And this is particularly true for modern art, which to my eyes always looks like it's been created by a year-seven art class. This particular exhibition featured the work of a Philippine husband and wife team who sought to show how difficult it was for them to journey to Oz. Regrettably my only response was that perhaps they shouldn't have bothered.

Painting by numbers? You decide.

After this we popped next door to the Old Government House which was constructed to accommodate the first Governor of Queensland, Sir George Bowen, and his family in the mid 19th century.  It's an imposing building that must have made quite a statement in its day. Today it's largely empty except for a permanent exhibition of the works of a well-regarded 20th century Australian artist, William Robinson. Fo enjoyed the surreal farmyard scenes but all I saw was yet more year-seven painting-by-numbers.

 

 

The Lamington; light, fluffy and
far too sweet - an iconic Australian.

One of Australia's famous culinary features is the Lamington, which may have been invented at the house in 1900 by the cook Armand Gallan (a Frenchman inevitably) during the time of the Queensland Governor, Lord Lamington. In an effort to create a novel high tea, the chef dipped some leftover sponge cake into a light chocolate sauce, then rolled the resulting cake in coconut. Other conflicting opinions suggest it was actually first created at the Governor’s house in Toowomba or that it wasn’t the chef at all but a kitchen maid who created it. During a particularly hot day she accidentally dropped the Governor's favourite sponge cake into some melted chocolate. Not a person of wasteful habits, Lord Lamington suggested that it be dipped in coconut to cover the chocolate to avoid messy fingers. Whatever the source, Fo loves it and I hate it – far too sweet.

Oh joy, more modern art.

By late afternoon we were pooped so grabbed an early sun-downer in a riverside bar before catching a bus back to base. Initial impressions? We like Brizzie.