So it was pointed out to me that I neglected to include some links on my last post (Lauren…).
Here’s a couple of videos that Lauren made of various things we did together whilst I was in Brisbane (Language warning kiddies!). The last one is my favourite 😀
You should subscribe to her on Youtube, she’s hilarious! (and I might be bias)
And as a little bit of self promotion, you can see more of my photos of Brisbane on my flickr site!
It’s been over a month since I returned to Japan after having a lovely few weeks in Brisbane for Christmas, and my lovely summer tan has finally disappeared under coats, scarfs and gloves. So, it’s about time I shared some photos of my Bris-Vegas adventures.
As always, a fair amount of my time was spent eating the things I don’t usually get to eat. Firstly Lauren took me to Guzman Y Gomez, a mexican (somewhat upscale) fast food restaurant chain from down south. It was beef nachos and margaritas all round!
And no trip to Brisbane is complete without a visit to the Pancake Manor on Charlotte St. I thought I could get through a regular stack, but my stomach had had too much pancake-y goodness 2/3rds through. Such a shame to waste good pancakes.
And of course there was the traditional (well, my family’s) Christmas day lunch of cold cuts of chicken and ham, smoked salmon, prawns and salad! The prawns were to die for!
Between eating I spent most of my time with family, meeting a couple of friends, looking at the sky (it’s sooooo pretty in Australia!) and even managed to go to the Gallery of Modern Art.
Unfortunately only a few weeks after I left, Brisbane and a lot of the state was flooded. Thankfully none of my friends or family were badly affected, but the long term effects are going to be difficult for everyone. In fact, financially it will affect the majority of Australians, so if you can spare, please donate to the flood appeal!
Okay, so, I know I’m going to get into trouble for this… But during golden week I snuck back to Australia for my grandfather’s 90th birthday. As I didn’t have much time, I only told a couple of friends, so I’m sorry if I missed catching up with anyone who wanted to. Trust me, my trip was far too short.
Going back to Australia means a few things for me, but eating some of my favourite foods is up there on my to do list. So here’s what I ate in Australia!
Firstly, the reason for the visit – my grandfather’s birthday cake. (no, wait… that’s not quite right….) The cake is a fruitcake with fondue icing. We had a friend make it, and she did a brilliant job with our instructions of a ‘cricket theme’. The bat, stumps, ball, and pads were all made by hand. She even rolled out liquorice to make the grip on the bat! And most importantly, it was delish!
We also went down to the Beerwah Pub for lunch, where I had a vegetarian lasagna, and stole some oysters Kilpatrick from my cousin.
Actually, most of my time was spent at Beerwah, where I was spoilt by my mother with a Roast Chicken dinner, and fresh scones. But during the little time I spent in Brisbane I was taken out to dinner twice by friends. Firstly was burgers at Grill’d, which live up to their reputation. Although I had a bacon and cheese burger this time, my all time favourite is the Big Queenslander, because all real burgers should have a slice of beetroot.
The other dinner excursion was to the Satay Hut, a Malaysian restaurant, at Southbank. We had a set for 2 people which included satay sticks, spring rolls, a curry, garlic vegetables, spicy fried seafood , and all you can eat rice. It was super tasty, but far too much for us, and we had to ask for a doggy bag. We also stopped at My Sweetopia to buy some cupcakes to eat later.
That weekend was Buddha’s Birthday, so we saw some of the celebrations at Southbank. And I took some funky photos 🙂
I also had fun with my iPhone driving through Brissy, and you can see some fuzzy (intentionally) shots in my new iPhone folder on flickr.
And apart from seeing my family, and a little shopping, that was my trip to BrisVegas!
well, its been a while since i last posted here, sorry!
As mentioned before I had a short trip to Aus to see family and get rid of a bit of homesickness. Plus my timing was really good, Tokyo had some 40 degree days whilst I was in Aus enjoying 25 degrees. Too bad the heat is still averaging about 35 now… NEway.
Going home was great, I saw my family, some of my friends and did *a lot* of shopping. Desperately needed new work gear. It was pretty busy with all that, so sorry if I didnt get to see anyone! as it turned out, my week in brisvegas was extended and extra 3 days because I managed to catch a bad viral infection, but i was sleeping most of that extra time.
So, back at work now. Its really hot here, so can’t really do much else. Did see a couple of movies this weekend – Oceans 13 and Die Hard 4. Both really enjoyable!!!
righto, well, my dinner is ready so ciao!
Seems I’ve caught soccer fever too…
Last week saw the Socceroos vs Paraguay in my hometown (alas tickets were not to be had by me). In my very qualified opnion (I watched the previous two world cups??? and a couple of roar home games…..) it wasn’t the best played game, but it was exciting and had a very good climax towards the ends. including the goal australia scored for paraguay…. oh I feel sorry for the guy that did that….. That game in itself wasn’t really important and didn’t really count for anything, but it was a good day.
Earlier this week it was Socceroos vs Bahrain, and this match *was* important – qualifier for the Asian Cup Quals. And Im really glad to say we did win 2-0, but I only saw the second half, and boy was it boring. I guess Sydney doen’t put the party on quite as much as BrisVegas!
Hearing about the Asian Cup upcoming next year I got all excited that maybe it would be in Japan. But that was just wishful thinking. How cool would it be to see Aust play in Japan??? But its being held in Indo, Malay, Thai and Viet. Ah well. At least we’ve Qualified! and there’ll be some pretty intresting soccer on next year.
But i must keep an eye out, you never know I might be lucky and have the socceroos play in Japan at some point in time…… 
yamaonna 