There comes the time to return, but before my return I remain in Brisbane, because I can't miss the understanding of this beautiful city.

My return from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane, is also using the AirTrain, this time they collected me by taxi from my hotel and go to the Nerang station, then i take the train to "Brisbane" to Central Station, from where I went to the Pacific International Hotel.

I think Surfers Paradise is to rest, walk, and for the fun; while Brisbane is a city that seems very important in the economy of Australia and a city that is mainly for work or study, but also have places for entertainment and distraction and is also the city to connect to other places like Gold Coast or Moreton Bay to take advantage of beautiful places and walks.
Brisbane is a great city that has been built around the Brisbane River and the best way to know and appreciate this city is taking a ferry for a tour by this river and see the city, appreciating this that have the same name of the river "Brisbane".

From Brisbane Airport, I take the return flight by Qantas to go to Los Angeles, where I stay a few days before returning to my country.

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My main task here in Brisbane was to buy a car.  I was never interested in visiting Australia by bus, like most people do, jumping on the Oz-experience or the Greyhound.  Despite the fact that everyone tells you this is the best way to get around and have fun, it’s expensive, uncomfortable, you end up meeting a lot of travellers but not many locals, you don’t get to see everything you want to see and you constantly have to schedule your trip around bus timetables.  Also, I didn’t fancy the idea of stressing out over where I was going to sleep every night and how would I get there, so I ended up buying a busted up 18 years old Holden Commodore Station Wagon, big enough for me to sleep in.

I checked the notice boards of various backpackers hostel and in one place these two lovely Dutch girls approached me, with the intention of selling their car.  They said they were leaving in 3 days so they were very keen to ‘negotiate’ a good price ��" ‘bet I can rip them off in big style’ I though.  Oh no, never mess with the Dutch, it turned out that they sold me the biggest pile of crap I could possibly imagine… and it didn’t even have the proper registration documents!!   How did I fall for this?  Simple, I just didn’t do my homework and paid more attention to the girls than the car, they were nice though… what a muppet! 

Here’s a few tips for anyone who’s thinking about buying a car in Australia:

1)  Check in which state the car is registered and if you are in a different state, find out what documents you need to re-register it.  Also, if you are non-resident you will probably need to turn up in person at an office to sign the new registration (rego).

2)  Check that the rego on the car is still valid and that the seller has the latest document ��" you need this to re-register the car.  In most states the rego can be renewed online, which is what most backpackers do, but the document is sent to the address where the car was first registered, often a camp site or a hostel, so most backpackers don’t have it (like in my case).  If you don’t have the latest doc you will probably have to pay a full new rego.

3)  Make sure the car has passed a recent safety certificate.  This is the equivalent of a mot test in the UK but in some states you are only required to have one if you re-register a car.  It is very bizarre but apparently you can carry on renewing the rego for decades and never have to put the car through any inspection, so technically it is still legal to drive it even though the car is a ticking bomb… like mine :-)

Appallingly, I failed to carry out any of these checks and ended up with a big headache, trust those Dutch!!  I took the car to a garage for the ‘safety inspection’ and when I got it back they showed me a list of faults, I’ve copied it down because it’s quite funny in a sad way:

Items req: odometer doesn’t work; no headlights; no break lights; no numberplate lights; r/h reverse light; F wipers don’t work; hand break not disengaging properly; r/h/r outer door handle missing; r/h/f window channel missing; all door rubbers badly worn; rear wiper arm missing; spare tyre warn; rear washer bottle loose; steering wheel grip loose; bonnet release broken; bearing tops cracked; oil psi switch; sump gasket; t/c gasket; z bar bushes; rear main; panhard rod bushes; rear exhaust hangers; f exhaust missing; auto cooler hoses transmission leaks; engine mounts; gearbox mounts; cat converter cracked; F pads and rotors; R shock bushes; upper and lower trailing arm bushes; rack leaking into boots; F & R D bushes; F control arm bushes; F ball joints.  (That’s 35 faults!!) 

Can you imagine how much they laughed at me when I told them that I was planning to drive to Adelaide from Brisbane?  Oh yes, very, very funny!  I think one of them said that I had a better chance of getting there on the back of a kangaroo.

With no safety certificate, I thought I had no chance of getting a new registration, but my uncle proved me wrong.  He’s resident in South Australia (where the car is registered) and was able to get a brand new rego in his name without showing any documents at all!  Let alone a safety certificate! 

For my own safety, I spent the next 2 weeks making friends at the scrap yards and replacing what I could with second hand parts.  I also got some bits and pieces from a very nice Kiwi chap, Roger, who saw me working on my car in the street and offered some spares from an old Commodore sat on his drive, cheers Rog!  I think I managed to fix all major faults, but we’ll see when I’m on the road… I like surprises :-)  

Like most backpackers I’ve given my car a cheesy name, she’s now called Bella, she may be an old bag but to me she is still beautiful.  I’ve also bought a little mattress and Janet gave me some curtains, which Kerry, our neighbour, cut to size.  The result is pretty impressive, when I jumped in the back and stretched out on the mattress, it felt very comfortable, a bit claustrophobic but I can handle it, my own mobile capsule hotel!  

My final acquisition before I set of on my long drive was a Sat Nav.  I did a search on ebay and found a local Chinese dude who imported the latest affordable sat navs directly from Hong Kong, another bargain :-)  I bought one and picked it up personally.  It’s a pretty good gismo and I’m more than happy with it, apart from the fact that I had to learn a few Chinese characters to use it!

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Ok, I’ve decided to pick up my blog from here because I haven’t updated in a while and some friends have sent me email with concerns that I might have been abducted by the Japanese mafia, and my organs have been sold somewhere in south east Asia, for what they’re worth!  Sorry guys, all is good and I’m doing great, I’ve just been very busy and blah blah blah, just been bloody lazy really!

Brisbane

I’ve arrived in Brisbane on the 6^th of March and I’ve stayed at my auntie’s house for the fist four weeks.  I was only planning to stay 2 weeks, but it felt so good to be back in a proper home that I couldn’t help staying a little longer, and the hospitality was great.  However I picked the wrong time to visit, just in the middle of a major house renovation.  Builders and materials were everywhere and I could tell that my uncle and auntie had had enough!  The worse part is that the builders over here start working at 6 am because it’s cooler, so if you’re planning to have a lay in… forget it!  On the first morning I woke up to the crushing sound of tonnes of gravel poured on the driveway just below my window, then when I thought it was over the shovelling begun, for an hour, it felt like they were shovelling gravel right over my head!  Anyway, apart from having to put up with the builders, which wasn’t really that bad, my stay in Brisbane was great.  The weather was fantastic, a hot sun was shining most days just as I had hoped for. 

The city is lovely, very clean and organised with lots of parks and nice walks along the river.  There’s a mixture of old and new architecture, gold-hued sandstone buildings from colonial times sit among the classic Queenslanders on stilts (so I reed in my guide book) but the one thing you notice most, is the masses of tropical foliage dotted everywhere, giant gum trees, palm and eucalyptus trees.  Waking up to all this green, sun and tropical birds singing is great, it makes you feel positive and happy, which is also reflected in the attitude of the people, ever so friendly and welcoming.  I can’t help thinking of those horrible days in Swansea, waking up in the dark, wet and cold morning, jumping in my car and rushing to work through a nervous traffic, how grim!

Amongst some of the things I did during my stay in Brisbane I walked around the city centre and visited some of the museums and places of interest just like a proper tourist; went up to the look out point on Mount Coot-tha for an impressive panoramic view of the city, cheers Jan; went to a rugby match with my uncle Andrew and neighbour Pete and watched the cheerleaders, whilst the Brisbane Broncos played in the background against the Panthers;  got hooked on the ‘Pokies’ (slot machines) and lost loads of money, though I managed to win 15 dollars one night and paid for my stake, which by the way over here are amazing; and finally sampled some of the night life in Fortitude Valley, where all the trendy pubs and clubs are, and watched an impressive band, Wild Marmalade, from Byron Bay improvise drum ‘n bass with just a didgeridoo and a drum kit, the crowd of hippies and piss-heads loved it!

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I stayed there in September 2003 for 1 night, I booked it thru hotelclub.com, I chose it because it was one of the cheapest provided, and I only needed to stay for one night. The entire hotel looked shabby. Location was okay, about 10-20 minutes walk to shopping area. Complimentary undercover secure parking was a plus, because we drove from Gold Coast.

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I just had the most amazing day at Riverlife! The activities are so much fun and the staff is so friendly.. The location is just priceless! Definitely a recommendation for everybody who is in Brisbane!!

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Dad and Joanne came to visit me in Sydney. It was so great to see them! Despite the rain we did our best to make it a fun 2 weeks. I showed them all around where I live in Coogee for the first couple days, then we traveled to Brisbane for the weekend. Brisbane was great! It's really pretty and winds around a long river. You get to take water taxis in between different spots. That satisfied Dad enough for the trip, he was content to just ride along on the boat the whole day. On Saturday night Joanne got us tickets to see Phantom of the Opera. It was absolutely incredible... by far the best show that I have ever seen (and I had seen it on Broadway before). The seats were amazing too - 8th row! The second week we walked around Sydney and tried to get as many blue sky pictures of the bridge and the opera house that we could possibly get. On Thursday we traveled to the Blue Mountains in search of live kangaroos and a view of the three sisters (well known rock formations)... despite the cold and rain both were successful! It was a great trip and a great visit. Hopefully they will send me some of the better pictures so that I can add them here (hint hint :) )

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After my trip to Fraser I had a morning to kill the next day in Brisbane. I'd been told there's nothing really much to see as a tourist in Brisbane and for me it was pretty true. I saw most of the centre in a few hours and the only thing that i thought was interesting was the artificial city beach complete with 3 lifeguards ! 

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The next day was the day we would fly out of Australia, so it was a day of packing. We couldn’t fit everything so we had to leave a few more things behind, and we still had too much weight! We had almost 100 kg’s, but were only allowed 70 (20 kg’s for Merv, Reagan and myself, 10 for Jordan). Fortunately they let us through with it… We left the apartment around 6pm, and were due to fly out at 11.50pm, so we had quite a bit of time at the airport, but we wanted to make sure we were there early because the person who had booked our flights had forgotten to link our tickets so we would not sit together if nothing was done about it. I am happy to report that we did manage to get it changed. Reagan was asking all night about getting on the plane, but when it finally came time to board she was so tired she was falling asleep! We found our seats and were on our way to Malaysia!

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On Thursday we had Merv’s aunt and uncle Helen and Gary and their daughters Cassie and Kylie come over. They live just north of Brisbane, and we always catch up when we’re in the area. Gary is going to try and sell the car for us, as with all the stuff with repairs and insurance we did not have any time left to do it. We put an ad in the paper and if anyone wants to see the car they can deal with Gary, which we would like to thank them for again! Kylie has recently moved out of home so we gave her all the foodstuffs we didn’t need any more, and some other stuff too that might be useful. We had a great chat, it is always good to catch up with them, and we hope they will come over to visit us in Europe! That night we had James and Jodie over for dinner, I cooked lasagne and we had a Vienetta and some wonderful gelato that they had brought over for desert. James is trying to get into the army to fly helicopters, and he is going through some testing and stuff at the moment. If he gets in he will be away from home for quite a while, so Jodie has decided that she will use that time to travel to Europe, so hopefully we will see each other there. Maybe she can even work for us as a nanny! We had a great night, and were sorry to say goodbye to more good friends…

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We did get some time to relax though. Our friends James and Jodie offered to baby sit for us on the Wednesday night so we could have a night out for my birthday, which was really sweet. They used to baby sit Reagan for us sometimes while they were still living in Rockhampton, so Reagan knew them which made things a bit easier as she loves them both. We decided to go out to a Japanese restaurant for Tepanyaki, which is where all the food is prepared in front of you on a big hotplate. You do share the table with others, but it is definitely an experience! They turn it into a bit of a show and throw food at you, which you then have to catch. Not like me, I got egg on my top and rice in my lap… Afterwards we went for a walk and dessert on the riverbank, and then got a taxi home. We didn’t get to talk to James and Jodie much but they were coming back the next day for dinner…

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Because of the break in into our car in Sydney we had a lot to organise. Even though they replaced the window, they couldn’t do the window tinting there so that had to be done in Brisbane. We also had to get our front windscreen replaced because of a few stars and cracks we had sustained during our trip around Australia. Normally this is covered by insurance but there was a mix up in their system so that took a while to sort out. Then we also had to get the car detailed to get all the glass out, and so on and so forth. It seemed like Merv spent most of our time in Brisbane on the phone to get it all organised!

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We left pretty early the next day to go to Brisbane where we were going to relax…. (little did we know!)

The apartments we were staying at were the Kangaroo Point Holiday Apartments where we stayed in May this year when we went to see Merv’s grandmother. We knew what to expect, and they are quite luxury apartments very close to the city centre, with a nice outside area and two bedrooms, a dishwasher, full kitchen high speed internet access and a swimming pool, so we were ready to relax! Unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way…

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Blah, blah, 5am wake up, blah, blah, silence in taxi, blah, blah, slow, grinding check in, blah, blah, blah, coffee flavoured Pepsi, blah, blah, tastes like urinal cakes, blah, blah, at a guess, blah, blah, blah, on plane, blah, blah, terrible, terrible Hollywood film, blah, blah, geeky girl comes good, blah, blah, blah, want her dead, blah, blah, Brisbane nice from above, blah, blah, blah, Airport, blah, blah, blah, stonefaced security bloke, blah, blah, spread 'em! blah, blah, blah, woman with arse-like features, blah, blah, swabbed for explosive powders, blah, blah, blah, new one on me, blah, blah I'm clean! blah, blah, blah, quelle surprise, blah, blah, blah, departure lounge, blah, blah, loud American frat boys, blah, blah, "Sick! That's awesome dude!" blah, blah, please kill me, blah, blah, or them, blah, blah, blah, 4 hours wait, blah, blah, blah, Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn, blah, blah, no Aussie money, blah, blah, someone else's MP3 player, blah, blah, stomach moans for food, blah, blah, blah, Ray LaMontagne is ok, blah blah, but acoustic gets boring, blah, blah, blah, and I'm huuuuuuuuuungry, blah, blah, blah, first time Qantas, blah, blah, blah, terrible, terrible Hollywood film, blah, blah, just kidding - Juno - not bad actually, Feed me Qantas - feed me, feed me, feed me, feed me, feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Qantas!!!!!!!! blah, blah, business class first, blah, blah, not funny Qantas, not funny, blah, blah, blah, finally, sweet, sweet sustenance, blah, blah, blah and a spot of Shiraz, blah, blah, Not bad Qantas, I forgive you, blah, blah, limp up the aisle, blah, blah, limp back, blah, blah, blah, bit of Extras, blah, blah, most amusing, blah, blah 'specially that bit with the fizzy water, blah, blah, arrive Singapore, blah, blah, and so on, blah, blahsherty, blah, blah, blah....  blah.

I expect that you are now fully conversant with the myriad pleasures of the Fiji to Singapore via Brisbane route.

There will be tests.  

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Happy Birthday Mark!!
 
Greg- quite your whining!! Im struggling here too- My MN pasty whiteness wont go away! And I have had to deal with +/-80 degrees everyday. The sun is hot.
 
As for my snow-less week, things have been going good. I got an email on Friday night from mom #2 saying she thought I was overwhelmed and that they would make the decision easier on me and find someone else.  I emailed back and said I was was just observing and am shy at first anyway.  Things are good though.  Toni was happy of course that Im staying and Shane is still on holidays this week so I have him around to ask if I have any questions. Being a typical male he is never really that sure but makes a more educated guess than me (considering they are his kids).
 
I am definately enjoying my 2.5 day weekends, never sure what to do with myself though since I dont have to be anywhere to work.  I will probably look into some casual work for friday arvos though for some extra cash. 
 
Friday afternoon I just went up to the shops to get an icedcoffee and read, outside, to enjoy the weather.  Saturday I took the bus to the Indooroopilly (in-door-pilly. not sure where the extra oo's fit in) shopping centre. Supposedly the biggest in the southern hemisphere. It was 3 levels but unless I was missing something it was only between 1/4 and 1/3 of the MOA.  check it out here www.indooroopillyshopping.com.au.  Sunday I took the bus into the CBD (central business district, aka, downtown) which takes an hour. I met Carrie, the other families current nanny, near the Queen Street Mall (www.queenstreetmall.com.au) and we walked along Southbank, which happened to have a market and entertainment that we wondered through a bit. Our real destination was the Streets Beach (http://www.visitsouthbank.com.au/attractions/streets_beach) It is right along Southbank in the middle of the city. The link gives a good description. It is right next to the river, the lagoon is man made with lots of trees and tropical plants.  Looking into the lagoon you see the tropics but looking out to the river you can see the CBD, its pretty cool. Its not the ocean but its still entertaining.  We soaked up some sun, obviously not enough, see Greg's note above. After a nice stroll along the bank we went back to her house (read- family #2) to get a few things.  I talked to Trish and there are no hard feelings either way, they will keep me in mind for babysitting or if they need someone again when Im done here. Carrie and I then went to Jodi's house to make lasagna. Jodi is a family friend of #2's that is mine and Carries age.

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