Brisbane Revisited

Ah.... To be back in Brisbane, after about 6 - 8 years (last visit according to Passport was in 1997, although I alway thought that it was in '99).... The city still looks familiar, and yet unfamiliar... There were of course some changes, like some new buildings, or refurbishing the old buildings, and yet when you walk through Myer's Centre, the shops seems have changed.

There seems to be more Asian food, especially Japanese and Korean food; Of course mixing with the usual Chinese - Hong Kong style - food that has been there since my year of study there. There are even new flea market, now at King George's Square which apparently is still not as busy as those in Riverbank and Southbank. Thought of going up to Mt Cootha to have a bird's eye view of Brisbane CBD and it's surrounding area, but in the end - the stomach was growling so much that food takes precidence. Actually, I think I chicken out due to the sudden unfamiliarity of the roads... I always thought that since I have walked and driven around Brisbane previously, driving would have been easy. Well, my "incident" with looking for the Mariott's car park has shaken my foundation. Heh.


It's a sad thing that I did not have the Sunday afternoon to move around Brisbane. Could have spent the time more fruitfully, but well, duties calls. Had to work. Imagine, working on a Sunday afternoon. The worst part was that we took the whole afternoon from 2 pm till after 6 pm, with only about 10 mins of grace to get the server working as to what it's almost is!!! It was good enough for the demo, although later the customer seems to be more interested in getting their questions answered than to see the demo. There were some areas which the system are good for, but was not highlighted... Anyway... Had another seafood entree with (finally!) a Prime rib of beef... Sad to say, the beef was overcooked! Ask for medium, you get medium well to almost well done - and this does not happens in 1 place only. Had the same issue when I was in Melbourne. Somehow they seems to have problem in getting the beef cooked correctly. It's always overcooked!!!


Well, now that I'm back home, I seems to be avoiding seafood, well, except for Salmon. Had that in the last 2 days of Chinese New Year because of "Lo Hei". My last chance to have that dish before the Chinese festive season ends. It's a good thing that I came back early for this trip, it would have been a waste to have miss that dish which is taken at most 15 days in each year. Ok, I am a fan of it... but not the restaurant's version. We decided that it's just too expensive to have it there... The ingredients are sold widely during this period, so making it easier to do it at home. You could have 3 plates, with lots of the fish slices, with the price of 1 plate served in the restaurants. I have no idea why I like it so much... Maybe it's because I have come to like sashimi so much that raw fish is no longer an issue with me - Yeah, I used to avoid it when I was young. Now, I am almost taking sashimi at least once a month.


Right, getting back to the subject, got distracted by the raw fish part... Yeah, I was avoiding seafood because almost every other meal, it's a seafood meal!!!! Hey, what do you expect when you are staying in Gold Coast! So, now that I am back, need to stop so that I don't overload the cholesterol! Well, had seafood (again!) buffet on Sat when I reached Brisbane.


Anyway, it's sad that I lost contact with quite a lot of friends, whom I believe are still in Brisbane. Had a walk from Mariott to King George's Square. It was still the same, except that on Monday morning, there were loads of tourist from China there taking turns to have their pictures taken with the kangaroos statues; along with the flock of pigeons and some kiwis (!!) apparently. Had some photo opportunities, and then walked toward the botanical gardens. It happened that QUT's Gardens Point campus (where I spent my year studying) is situated next to the botanical gardens, so it was killing 2 birds with 1 stone. They seems to have added some new buildings there, like the Garden Theatre; along with Z building. I don't recall Z building while I was there. Oh yeah, they name their buildings after alphabets! Well, almost all - except for the library.


Come to think of it, could have drove to the street where I used to stay in, but I guess the morning is too short to revisit everywhere that I have been to - Milton, where there are cafes; Toowong and and St Lucia, UQ's campus is in St Lucia and they have nice sandstone buildings; High Gate Hill and West End, stayed at High Gate Hill and used to shop for groceries in West End's Woolsworth. Of course, not forgetting Southbank and Riverside... Did not even have time to visit Koorong, in the next suburb which I forget what it was... Somewhere near the cricket ground... Think it's call the 'gabba or something to that effect....

Oh well... Let's hope my next visit will not be after another 6 - 8 years.....

Walk, Walk, Walk

My feet is hurting like mad now, with my almost whole day in MovieWorld. This brings to mind that I have walked like at least 2km daily this week. I had walked from the hotel to Broadbeach Mall for lunch (and back); To Surfers Paradise Mall for dinner twice (and back); To Pacific Fair (1 direction; took taxi back. Could not take it as I was walking to Surfers for dinner that day) as well; Now around MovieWorld. Not forgetting walking from Brisbane Mariott down to Queen St Mall (and back) where I forgot that they are closed early as it was Saturday today! It slip my mind that they only open late on Friday!!!

So it seems that I have been doing a lot of walks during my overseas trip. I walked around Hochheim looking for dinner (in winter weather!!!); It repeats in all other trips that I had - KL, GuangZhou, Seoul, Freiburg, Cologne, Heidiberg, Melbourne. I think I walked the least in Bangkok - but then again with only 6 hours left in the late night, who thinks about walking when all you want to do is to sleep?

Therefore it's no wonder that I need to get a new pair of shoes; except for the fact that it's very expensive to get it locally; almost 2 times the price as compared to US (despite the 1.7 exchange rates!!!) Anyone heading that way???

Tired... Very tired... Oh, by the way... Brisbane do look a little different and yet a bit familiar, after almost 8 years now... On that another day...

MovieWorld Revisited

Just came back from my trip to MovieWorld. It has changed a little since the last time I was there, which is almost 11 years ago. They had new exhibits like Matrix and Scooby-Doo, but they removed the other shows like Calamity Jane Western (Stunt) Show. Police Academy Stunt show was still a favourite of the crowd apparently. It has been so successful that they had not change much of the format. The format is still the same as that from the last I saw it. As usual, a greeter was there to entertain the crowd while they wait for the show to start and well, I get to be part of the entertainment - not that I volunteered for it, and for most part of it I was on the phone trying to get my flight changed so that I can get back to home on Monday instead of next Saturday. So I guess I totally ignored the person, but I do know he was there walking along with me and blowing his whistle all the way till I got a seat. At least he did not interrupt my call; which is what the Bettlejuice character did to another person.



Talking about that, they had modified the Batman ride - Batman Ride 2 (But still ride in a module format). I had to worry about my bag in The Scooby Doo roller coaster ride... With the ups and downs... Had a chap who apparently had been on it before and give some indication in terms of the ride, like when it was going down and then up... Had it in reverse position as well... Kind of interesting and it feels like the Space Mountain ride as well... You can't really see the rails, so you really don't know what is coming up. Oh yeah, the Batman show was there as well, only with newer characters like Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, along with Batgirl and Robin. They were also wearing the slicker version of the costume from the last Batman movie - Batman & Robin (I think). They had added in a new show based on the Matrix movie.



The co-ordinated fights right in front of the Daily Planet (which most of the shows are set, except for the Police Academy one). "Marilyn Monroe" sang about 4 times for the day at that spot; "Austin Powers" had his dance there as well. You still get to take pics of the cartoon characters like Bug Bunny (which I could not catch!!! Dang!), Tasmanian Devil, Tweety, the Loony Tunes Bunch; along with Scooby Doo cast as well. I spotted Flash, Green Hornet, Thor (except that Thor was a male while the character was a female... Hmmm... His counterpart, I supposed) as well as Wonder Woman - League of Justice as they call them. I supposed it's the cartoon League of Justice where the characters are found. Hmmm... I got to brush up on my knowledge in that cartoon as I don't recall Green Hornet to be in... Wait, or was it Green Lantern??? Whatever...



Anyway, now my skin is giving off heat and it's bright red as a lobster... Boy, do I get a tan!!! Well, my legs need more of it... It's still rather white (pale is a better word to use)... But it's being white the "in" thing now??

Well, that's my weekend. Tomorrow still have a demo to prepare and go for. Demo on a Sunday evening??!?! Oh well... That's how it goes...

Travel, Travel, Travel

Most people travel for holidays with lots of photos and stories to tell. Me? I travel for work. So that means I got less photos and less stories to tell, unless it happens when I was working.

Which is why I am now sitting here with sunlight streaming in from my balcony in Gold Coast typing with an hour before I was supposed to wake up. I guess I forgot that my balcony is facing East which means I get the sunlight in the morning. Not that it's bad, just that it means I got only about 6 hours of sleep from last night, couple with only 2 hours of sleep (7 hours flight 4 hours watching movies, 1 hours of shifting due to space of sleep) from yesterday... I feel like a zombie now.



It sad, but well... I am not going to be writing about the shopping or the thrill rides that I can get at the 3 worlds (actually there are 4, but the fourth is the Wet 'n Wild World which I would not step into at all!) Instead, it will be what kind of customer I will be facing. Isn't it pathetic? I guess, most people will give to just to travel (with plane tickets paid for, meals taken care of) as it sounds good isn't it?

Yes, perhaps. But not when you are not able to get to places where you can see and feel. It's more of snatched moments (like yesterday) of shopping, short moments of experiences that you get instead of the full blown treatment.

Oh by the way, quit complaining about the hassle you faced with immigration. At least most of the time you don't have to spend at least 1 hour waiting and crushing with crowds in the queue... Man, if I thought I had it bad in Melbourne (waited half hour to clear with only 1 plane load of passengers but at "unearthly" hours like 9pm), boy was I not prepared for this... There were 4 plane load of passengers and only about 6 booths opened. Imagine the crush of passengers, the long queue waiting just to go pass those booths... While in the queue, heard the announcement that the luggages will not be coming out till the carousel is cleared of luggages. Now how do you expect the carousel to be cleared when the passengers are stuck at the immigration queue??? Mind boggling issue, isn't it??? I hate that feeling that I should not have complained in my last trip. I tend to find that I will face even worst situation in the next trip. Sigh, well, it happens again.

Oh well... Time to go. Need to get ready as my stomach is growling for food... Breakfast time!!!