Life in Brisvegas

Yo yo mofo's!!! How are you all?!

So I've been living in Brissie for a while longer with my crazy aunt, Mary, and its been a fun packed few days in the sunshine state of Queensland!

On Wednesday, I headed into Brisbane, into the South Bank area, which is the cities culutral backbone of the city; full of art galleries and performance arts, museums and the state library. South Bank is also a big recreational area, where lots of individual sporting activities take place eg running (there are so many runner's, as the climate makes it great), kayaking (which I hope to do soon), rock climbing and alot of personal training sessions occur, we saw one, and it looked pretty hardcore :O and a manmade beach, awesome!

 To get to South Bank we caught a City Cat, which is a ferry that goes all along the Brisbane river, and is just such a beautiful journey, where you are travelling along the river combining nature, man and technology with high office skyblocks, companies situated along the river and very wealthy people who can afford property right by the river, amazing homes (lucky bastar....., lol). Many people use the City Cats to travel to work, so its kind of like the tube system in London, but instead of the underground, it's on the river (which is so mucher better and so serene, as well as less croweded and sweaty) I couldn't think of a better way to start the day, the water makes me feel very at peace!

After the very enjoyble journy, we arrived at South Bank, where we went on the Wheel of Brisbane, which is like a mini London eye; allowing us to see all the sights of the city such as the Gabba (cool name, huh?!), which is a big sports stadium where cricket and aussie football rules are played! Mary and I then did a very long walk, around 6km, along the Brisbane river, which was, oh, so beautiful with the sun shining and the calming presene of the river with various plants and fauna along the way, such as weird birds with hook like beaks, called Australian white Ibis' and some form of creepy lizards, ha! We continued up some smallish cliffs, to the top of Kangeroo Point (no kangers are around the area, so it a kinda random name for it, lol), where there is a spectular view of the city, overlooking the Brisbane River, towards the CBD, looking at skyscrapers, and the many bridges which connect the city around the river. South Bank also has the Griffins University, which is such an amazing location to go to uni, so there were lots of students about, why couldn't Oxford Brookes have been there, lol!!! Mary and I then continued on and walked over the Storey bridge, which was breath taking, although cars go over it too, which causes the bridge to viberate alot, which makes the bridge feel like its moving/!

 One part of Aussie life I'm still adjusting to, is how dark it gets, so quickly, by 6pm, its pitch black, this is because Queensland don't do daylight saving, like the UK, which I really appreciate alot more now! This also makes Oz people to enjoy the sun more, so alot of people are active early in the morning eg running/doing sports before work or after, before it gets dark early, and making the most of the weather. Not having daylight saving does have its advantages though, as when it gets really hot in the summer above 30 degrees, by 6pm, when it gets dark, it get much cooler! So the Aussie's are a bit smart that way!

So on Thruday Mary and I went to the local RSPCA, as Mary wanted to get a dog! And wow, I have a never seem so many goregous dogs (apart from Lottie, nothing can beat her)! They all seemed so lonely and desperate for human companionship! There were so many we could have taken home! Unfortunalty we left empty handed, as alot of Australian dogs, epecially, the kelpie bread and cattle dogs, have very strong legs; and are likey to jump over high fences easily; and to be never been seen again by there owners. Hence why there are lots of dogs at the RSPCA, so its required to have fences of around 6 foot which we didn't have :(  So unfortunalty we couldn't take home Odie (we soo wanted him) or Maggie, Jack or Gizmo, sad sad times! But Mary is now on the hunt for puppies instead (as you can train them not to jump over fences), fingers crossed we find some very cute ones-and soon!

Thrusday afternoon we headed into Brisbane CBD, and explored the city, which is a very busy, lively place, full of cafe's, coffe shops, restuarants and lots of shops! Sadly I didn't spend anything :( We then explored the Botanic gardens, which were so peaceful and elegant, which such different plants and trees than the UK, obviouly because of the climate (pics to follow)

In the evening we headed to Fortitude Valley, known as the valley, which is the place to party (we didn't do that though.....) and instead ventured to China Town for dinner. Thrusday night we stayed at the Treasury hotel in the centre of Brisbane, a five star hotel baby, living in luxury!!! A huge hotel, lots of space, beautiful furnishings, top service and top notch food! If only I could live there, keep dreaming eh?! Ooo, not to mention the grandest and most comfortable beds ever, was sooo hard to get up this morning!

Next door to the Tresury Hotel is the Old Tresury building, which was the former treasury building (hence the name, clever, huh) for the government, and is a very old builing in Australian terms, a very grand and impressive historical architeture of the city! But the most exciting part of the building is that it is now a casino, open 24 hours a day, woohoo! So I had my first experience at gambling. I played on the slot machines first, called pokies over here, and won a bob or two, whlist drinking a vodka and coke, oh what a life! It all seemed rather alien at first, but as I got used to it and won some money, I got more into it, maybe a bit too much.... No wonder why so many people are addicts, ha! I then went into the main room and played roulette, where I bet 2.50 bucks on my lucky number 2, and won 100 bucks, so now 2 is even more my lucky number! So I had a rather awesome first gambling experience and went home around 150 bucks richer (Mary won 3 three time more than me), drinks on me, or should I say on Mary, ha! But remember guys, gambling is addicitive, and you don't always win, so be careful...... HA!  

I've been trying to put pics up here, but have been struggling to at the moment, and Mary's laptop isn't helping, as it's a bit crappy :O Shhh, don't tell her I said that..... So hopefully you will see some up soon!

Until next time, Angus x