Back in Brisbane

The sunrise over Brisbane on Monday was really beautiful. Even the city’s ugly buildings looked good against the backdrop. I wouldn’t normally have been up and about so early, but I’d woken at 4.00am Brisbane time. Most days I wake at about 5.00am, but because of the change between daylight saving time and regular time […]

It’s Like I Never Left

Back in Brissie for a few days… The first thing I noticed was sitting, waiting for a train at Roma Street, and about half the men were wearing shorts. “Oh yeah”, I thought to myself, “you can wear shorts in Brisbane in the middle of winter” That’s the thing about coming back to Brisbane that […]

Back In Brisbane

Every time I pay a visit to Brisbane, I invariably ask myself the question “should I return to live here?” Having grown up in Lismore, and having family here, Brisbane was a fairly obvious choice for me for university during the 1980s. The first three years I spent in Brisbane (1984-1986) were memorable. During the […]

Brisbane History with Beers

Even though I lived here for four years, and even though I have a family connection with Brisbane that goes back to the 1960s, the truth be told: I really don’t know that much about the history of Brisbane, and am even a little vague on contemporary Brisbane. Since I left Brisbane at the beginning […]

Changing Brisbane

“I don’t remember seeing those sky-scrapers before”, I thought to myself as I walked through the city. On my way to a meeting in another part of Brisbane today, I went for a brief “sight-seeing” excursion which took my briefly this afternoon into the city. I began the trip by walking along Coronation Drive, where […]

Puzzles and Parrots

As we left dinner at the very charming and tasty tapas bar “Vida” in Paddington (Brisbane, not Sydney), I asked my friends “What was the name of that cafe/restaurant in Paddington”. Was it Scribbles or something?”. “Scribbles”? No! Of course, I was confusing it with another favourite from the time, the legendary 1990s cafe in […]

Streets of Your Town

If you’re looking for somewhere good and cheap to eat on Brisbane’s south-side on a Wednesday night, I can highly recommend the Southern Cross Sports Club on Klump Road. For a total of $38.00, four of us – three adults and one child – were able to eat well. “I have to take a photograph […]

Working Hard

The taxpayer is sure to get good value from me this week, as I’m working straight across the road from where I’m staying. It’s literally a 60 second commute from my hotel room to my office. As a result, I stayed in bed a few minutes longer this morning which was needed because I’m “slightly […]

Welcome to Brisbane

There was a long queue for taxis at Brisbane Airport this morning. At one point, there was maybe 100 in the queue with no taxis. Thankfully the taxis didn’t take too long to arrive. Lucky for me, I was wearing shorts as it was pretty bloody humid. By mid-afternoon the humidity had gone. In its […]