Eagle Street Pier

This pier is home to a City Ferry stop but also Brisbane's two paddle steamers, The Kookaburra Queens, which are available for hire. This coming Saturday is Riverfire - a big fireworks festival on the river - and if you fancy getting a spot on the steamer and seeing the whole thing from the water, you can book a 4 hour (stationary?) cruise for $165 which includes a complimentary drink on arrival and a seafood and carvery buffet. Alternatively you can stand on the riverside with an eski and watch the whole thing for free!

Bikeway Cautions

The Bicentenial Bikeway around North Quay urging cyclists to be careful and S L O W. They should put these warnings on the roads around where I live.

Now With Wings!

Riparian Plaza, as seen from the ground.

Going out for dessert with Oriana

Oriana had the "lavender creme brulee with frangelico grapes and marble tuille". I went for the "'Spanish-style doughnuts with espresso ice cream and spiced chocolate sauce" (pictured).  It's really hard to take a photo of your dessert when you are salivating as much as I was.

We decided that the creme brulee was a bit eggy. But the espresso ice-cream made my eyes cross with pleasure. And the French waiter was gorgeous.

 The restaurant was Luxe in fortitude Valley.

CityCat coming in to dock.

Brisbane's Walk Of Fame

Yes, that's right. Brisbane is claiming responsibility for the Bee Gees. This plaque forms part of the (mini) walk of fame along Brunswick Street Mall in The Valley.

Loss

Australia woke yesterday to the horrific news that eleven people including eight kids had perished in an infernal house fire in Slacks Creek just south of Brisbane. They were from two families, one Tongan and one Samoan, and spanned three generations. As the day wore on, we heard about the father who had jumped from the upper floor and called to his wife to help their five kids jump onto the mattress he was setting up but she and all five kids were found later in the ruins all huddled together. Members of both communities arrived at the scene and started singing so beautifully in amongst all that agony. It was absolutely heart-breaking.

See and read more here.

Bottlebrush tree in the rain

Our recent rainy weather has been really welcome. Yesterday, briefly between downpours, everything sparkled.

Ah yeah, that's the spot!

Here's one from the archives. It's from Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Fig Tree Pocket. Koalas aside (of which there are loads), you can see a whole host of Aussie native animals there. Everyone loves feeding the kangaroos. Consequently they are so well fed they turned their noses up at the food we offered and instead lounged around waiting for a belly scratch.

I heard this story once about an American film all about Australia being made on Fraser Island, a couple of hundred kilometres north of here. It's a stunning sand island that would have made a perfect backdrop but for the fact that there were no kangaroos on the whole island. So desperate were the film makers to have shots of kangaroos bounding through the bush, they managed to cut a deal with Lone Pine and fly some kangaroos to the island to be film stars. Unfortunately for the film makers, the kangaroos were more interested in wandering up to the cameras and getting cuddles from the crew than strenuous bouncing around so the whole project was shelved.

Europe "Lite"

Park Road in Milton has a distinctly European flavour to it with French, Italian and Spanish restaurants all spilling out onto the pavement. During the World Cup, this is the place to come - thousands of football lovers from near and far gather for the big matches and party all night. There are Roman-style statues on the street and there's even a miniature Eiffel Tower replica on top of one of the buildings.

Koalas on Brunswick Street Mall Yesterday...

City Morning

This was taken back in steamy February, early in the morning from the 22nd floor of the Park Regis.

Castlemaine XXXX Brewery By Night

This is a shameless rip-off of a postcard I saw in a bookshop a few months ago. I don't think I've got it quite right but you get the general idea. I took it at about 5.30am on Wednesday morning which was a public holiday here and so I had to hang around in the cold waiting for the odd car to go past.

The things I do for this blog.

Marigolds in the afternoon sun

Dinner at Alegria

We went out for tapas last night in Milton at Alegria and the highlight for me was this salad. There was goats cheese, baby beetroot, radicchio, "petite herb" (I don't know what that is but it included fennel), green beans and really crunchy garlic croutons. 

 

Absolutely top notch!

 

Homecoming

As the moon rose on Saturday night, a few of us gathered to welcome the owners back to their house after a 7 month displacement across the road. 

At the height of the flood, they had canoed around the neighbourhood via back gardens and between houses - taking an unfamiliar route not dictated by paths. The water level here was about two thirds of the way up the windows of the upper floor. After the flood, the old wooden house had groaned and creaked and twisted itself dry. It became a higgledy-piggeldy house where no door fitted its frame, no wall was straight and no floor was even. From the vantage point of their little rented cottage across the road, they watched the builders come in and slowly, bit by bit, straighten the place back out again.

Now, they are back home and the place looks great. The walls are straight and, as we found out, the floor smooth enough to do the twist on.

Traffic Stopping Art (Number 55)

It's been a long time between drinks but here is another painted traffic signal box brightening up the main shopping drag in Moorooka on the south side of town. The artwork is by Elise McKenzie and is called Cooktown Orchid - which is the floral emblem of Queensland.

It's great, this traffic signal box painting lark. Anyone of any age can submit a design. The main criteria is that you live, study or work in the municipality of the box.

Head to Urban Smart Projects website if you fancy painting a box or finding out more about a box that's been painted already. To see the ones I've snapped, hit the TSBs label below.

Screen Love

Who would've guessed you could get 7 kids to sit quietly around a 6 inch screen?

Uke'n have a good laugh learning the ukulele

Last night I went to the WEE BUMS which is like the main BUMS (Brisbane Ukulele Musicians Society) but more of a sub group based in West End (hence WE ... don't know what that other E is there for - maybe because it's supposed to be smaller than the main?). Anyway. It's held in Blackstar cafe on the second Friday of every month and last night when we got there it was standing room only. Someone had a double bass and the rest - there would have been about 50 people - had all manner of ukuleles and were playing at all sorts of levels. A few people up front took it in turns to load up a song onto the projector with all the words and chords. Despite me realising that I was playing the completely wrong chords on more than one occassion, the overall sum of our parts was strangely harmonic.

Candyfloss Sunrise for Skywatch Friday

Happy Friday! This one was taken back in May and, as I remember, it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Enjoy your weekend and if you want bags of sky, don't forget to visit Skywatch Friday.

Now and Then

I know I've only just done a post on it a few days ago but here's another view of our sparkling new CityCat terminal.
Below is a view of the old building taken January 12th this year almost 24 hours before the river peaked. You can see the roof of the old bike shelter just next to the lower bough of the fig tree. The rest of the building is submerged. That green thing sticking out of the water in the middle distance is the roof of a steam roller which the council didn't get around to moving.

Heading Home

 

Late afternoon, Hill End Terrace.

Census Day 2011

The Australian Census of Population and Housing occurs every 5 years and is happening tonight all around Australia. This year is a bit of a landmark as it is the 100th birthday of the census. To celebrate, I decided to download the 1911 census and see how life was back then. I'm afraid there was just too much writing for the likes of me so instead I have provided you with the link in case you are interested and have a few days to spare.

Why the Vegemite? No clever reason... it was sitting there on the kitchen bench and I needed to add a bit more colour to the shot. I have grown to tolerate it spread thinly on hot buttered toast when I am extremely, eye-crossingly  hungry

Suitcase Rummage!

The first Sunday of every month is the fantastic Suitcase Rummage at Reddacliff Place. Vendors register and then haul their wares down here in a suitcase and set up shop. It's brilliant. Vintage clothing, accessories, home-made crafty things that you would never find in a shop... and all at knock down prices. I picked up two dresses, two hand made brooches and a bowl made out of an old Dionne Warwick record (I got there late) for $14. Bargain!

Read more about it or even register to be a vendor for next time (spots cost $10) HERE.

West End Citycat is Now Open!

It's been over 6 months but we've finally got our Citycat service back and a really fancy "flood-proof" pontoon.

How he hated that Monday morning commute

I found this one in the archives from back in May. One of the great things about the river around the city and Kangaroo Point is how well it's utilised. This section gets Citycats, ferries, paddle steamers, pleasure boats, the world's largest solar-powered boat, HMAS Endeavour (if you look closely you can see it in this snap)... and then you get kayakers, rowers and I've even seen someone on a paddle board!

Just as an aside, I was talking to a friend who mentioned that he often went for a paddle in the river if it was a nice day. Being English, I took that to mean that he took his shoes and socks off, rolled his trousers up and waded in to about mid-calf. I looked at him like he was bonkers. While the river is good to float on, you wouldn't want to go swimming about in it! Yuk! All sorts of nasty stuff went through it during the flood and I think it's probably still a health hazard... and the swirling under-currents can be deadly....  Anyway he meant paddle-boarding. Duhhhh.

Windmill Sunburst

The windmill at Oxley Creek Common forms part of the Rocklea Air Quality Monitoring Station. Sensors on the roof measure wind, solar radiation, temperature, humidity and rainfall.

Ethiopian Restaurant, Moorooka

Moorooka is home to a large and vibrant African community. The main shopping area is home to cafes and restaurants from different African countries, money transfer services, afro-hairdressers and fab clothes shops. This restaurant is down a little laneway and was smelling pretty good when I was there despite it being closed. I must come back!

Oxley Creek Common

Back in January this urban green space area, south of the city, was under several feet of brown river water. Being close to several industrial estates, there was a worry that the chemicals from there mixed in with the flood waters but it looks like they might have dodged a bullet. The plants and wildlife are slowly returning.

Memorial Wall

Sherwood Anglican Cemetery, Sherwood

August Theme Day: Postcard-worthy

 It's the first of the month and, as City Daily Photo bloggers, we all get the chance to take a picture along the same theme. This month's theme is "postcard-worthy". I think that had I remembered about the theme day sooner I would have gone for something a little naughty perhaps involving some well-endowed women strategically placed behind some tropical fruit but... well time eluded me (not to mention willing volunteers). So instead, here is a Brisbane sky, lit by the dying embers of a winter sunset. That's the city on the right and the observation wheel just visible under the Goodwill footbridge. And of course the mighty Brisbane River around which Brisbane is built.

Having a ball - wish you were here!

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