Sheap shearing show at Lone Pine.
Brisbane Forest Park
Friday 3/16, my Terrestrial Life course took a field trip for the day. It started with me and Dane running late to catch the bus, and sprinting to the stop, only to eventually find that things were running 45 minutes behind schedule. Glad we ran. NAHT. Upon entering the park, my group first took a tour of the mini aquarium, where I saw my first platypus ever. I don’t know where I picked up the notion, but I had it in my head that platypuses were exotic or at least mildly entertaining creatures. After a few seconds of watching, I found that my initial excitement was unwarranted. It’s like a swimming cat with a bill.
The outside part of the tour was really cool. We got a great view of the neighboring town before heading to the actual forest. The trip focused on the difference of rain forests and eucalypt communities. There was a pretty well defined spot where behind you is rain forest, and ahead are eucalypts. Some notes:
1. Leeches are freaky as crap. And surprisingly resistant to being pulled off. I got hit twice.
2. Talking about how you just found out that the grandfather you grew up with is not your actual grandfather, so you found out on your great-grandfather’s death-bed, is not an appropriate side note to make while in the middle of lecturing a bunch of students on flame resistance in trees. The awkward pause that followed was…awkward.
3. Any talk about the wildlife in Australia always ends with how poisonous everything is. If it’s so poisonous, why does it look so damn approachable?
As soon as I lost my job, my wife put me to work. Doing the dishes. What could be worse! But then I noticed something. While I do the dishes, my wife doesn’t bother me or ask me about paying bills. She figures, ‘oh, he’s being productive.’ The kids say, ‘dad looks miserable, let’s not screw this up for him!’ It’s my peace, my zen. No bothers. The best part: when nobody’s looking, you just throw the clean pile back in the dirty pile, ‘oops!’, and start again. I’ve learned to extend the process to a good..three or four hours.
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| — | Greg Sullivan |
Taking Brisbane by storm
3/8 What a great weekend! Thanks to a trip to the mall on Thursday, I now have money in my Australian debit account (as opposed to the open, empty account I’ve kept for the past two weeks), floss, and a football. Something about the purchases made me feel fully moved in for the first time. I never knew there would be so much symbolism in off-brand dental string. The two pictures at the bottom also show some of my sightings.
3/9 Friday, Allie Michels and I headed to Kangaroo Point, a naturally formed cliff located pretty centrally in the city. What a view! I’ll definitely be coming back to do the actual climb. Just opposite the cliff was a middle-aged, perfectly stereotypical Aussie bloke practicing tightrope walking, who was more than happy to give me a go. With the aid of my hand on his shoulder, I made it up and back a few times while he talked to us about his love of climbing and Australia in general. As he put it, “the best paht about cloimbing, is you can woalk up to any cliff with yo’ equipment, find any othah bloke, walk up to ‘im, and say ‘eh. Wanna climb?’ Except for the French. Never the French.” I didn’t bother to do any investigation on the later comment.
It was a day of walking. We took off from Kangaroo Point and walked along the river towards the city for about two miles, as we passed some of the coolest city street art. We crossed the Story Bridge, a Brisbane landmark serving as a scaled down and less aesthetic version of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. But a landmark nevertheless! Retracing our steps and then some from the other side of the river, we walked into the city and stopped for lunch before triumphantly taking the City Cat back. Successful, beautiful site-seeing day. All photo credit goes to Allie J Thanks!
At this point I must thank one of my best friends from home, Salah Czapary. Friday night, Salah set me up with his extended family local to Brisbane, who took me out for dinner. It was great to get a night away from uni life and get a peek into more authentic local life in Brisbane. The gourmet pizza dinner was topped off with a walk next door to the legendary ice cream shop of Brett’s Wharf. This coming from an ice cream connoisseur: it was hands down the best ice cream I’ve had. A big thank you to Salah and the Jarrahs for a great night out!
3/10 Allie and I got an early start and hit the West End farmers market. Regardless of whether or not this was my first experience at a farmer’s market, I’m still going to confidently say this is the best one in the world. I forgot my camera, but will definitely be back another Saturday morning and return with pictures. Got some great home-made licorice, honey & cinnamon, and HONEY NUTS (sugar+cinnamon roasted almonds)! Also sat down and enjoyed some great street performers entertaining the market-goers.
The Brisbane Comedy Festival is an ongoing event for the month of March, with a show just about everyday, and Saturday night we saw Greg Sullivan at the Powerhouse, a really cool venue in West End. Greg Sullivan had his 14 year radio career end abruptly last year with a layoff, but is still and Australian mini-celebrity, and has started a new career as a stand-up comic. He had a great act about family life.
3/11 Sunday, we joined in on the cultural day drinking that is Australia and bar hopped. Good time.
