My three days in Brisbane...

Monday and Tuesday were spent relaxing, catching up on some sleep and picking up some last minute All Blacks gear. Not much happened, and no real fun was had but, it was quite relaxing and a little bit chilly.

On Tuesday afternoon, I headed to the airport and checked in for my flight to Brisbane, where I'm sure my brother would be waiting with open arms. Actually, he was scheduled to be at rugby practice and I would have to find my way to the formerly flooded Swan Terrace residence.

My plane was delayed due to the late arrival of the previous flight, the movies were okay on board and most importantly we were put in a holding pattern above Brisbane. My scheduled arrival of 5:40 p.m. was delayed until 8:00 p.m.

I jumped off the plane, grabbed my bags and headed for the Australian customs, had my passport stamped and my bags checked on the way into the country. I bought myself an Airtrain ticket to Windsor station, which I knew would bring me close but, not that close. The train station was empty, walked down a dark road and found a taxi to take me over to Andrew's place.
My late arrival had allowed my hero, my brother to be home when I got out of the taxi.

Tuesday night was chilling, with some dinner prepared by Andrew and dishes completed by me. I was able to meet some cool roommates and enjoy some more relaxation.

Wednesday involved heading to the Queen Street Mall to look around and check out the Brisbane city centre. We also took a trip in the 'Wheel of Excellence' ferris wheel for a view of the city, some lunch at Southbank and some nice weather.

In the evening, my old roommate and current next door neighbour of Mr. Hall, Julien Galipeau and the Swan Terrace crew went out for dinner and 'Jimmy's on the Mall.' We then hit up O'Malley's to watch game three of "State of Origin." The game was not worth anything but pride as the Queensland Maroons had already won the first two matches against the New South Wales Blues. The Blues won the game, and they clearly won the fight at the end of the game, knocking out a QLD player with a nice forearm to the face.

Thursday was spent with a trip to the large shopping centre and a viewing of Bruno. The movie was alright, in the words of Mr. Hall, 'unfinished.' Some very funny moments but, it didn't really go that far out.

Diana and I grabbed pizza for dinner and Andrew went to rugby practice. Nothing to exciting on the Thursday night.

Today, I did some laundry, cleaned up and packed my bags and waited for Andrew to return from the gym. While waiting, Julien and I had some time to waste. We did what we did best in Scotland, played some sort of sport. We went to the nearby park, heaven if you are a Netball player, hell if you play any other sport. The park is all netball courts, grass, blacktop, just netball everywhere. We had an Australian Rules ball... so we played Aussie Rules Netball 21. The 'Canadian' version of 21 - where you don't get to move from where you pick up the ball.

We quickly tired of that, as there was no backboard. It stunk.

We moved to Andrew's backyard. We found a soccer ball and started playing '1v1 clothes basket' soccer, until I kicked the ball over the fence. Game over. Andrew returned. Lunch time.

A quick lunch at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and then a trip back to the Queen Street Mall. We grabbed some essentials like a towel for me and some other gear before heading back home.

Julien offered to drive me to the airport and I am very grateful to him and Ashlynne (her four wheels) and lucky to know such great people.

I was also able to put in motion some plans to travel Great Ocean Road with Meaghan Bell of Stoney Creek/Perth fame. Just have to get the car and take care of the rest of the organization.

Checked in, chilling until boarding time and a sweet time with Danks in Adelaide.

MPH