Brisbane

After our nice easy arrival , lovely dinner on Eagle street pier alongside the river and great excitement at sleeping in a normal bed we had a shite night's sleep! The kids were up at 6 so we were pretty much ready to head out at 8!! We did go out at 9, the apartment is situated on Felix street so right on the river and in the CBD. We went on a massive long walk firstly through the botanic gardens which were lovely at that time of day and over the goodwill bridge to the other side of the river. It's such an amazing area. We walked through beautiful plants to a park, amazing trees which throw down their roots, there is Streets beach (streets is Walls icecream) and they've literally created a beach on the banks of the Brisbane River, there's also a toddler water play area  and a larger pool. Ellie and I popped to the bathroom, came out and three Japanese tourists starting paparazzi style photographing her! (The blonde hair) so I had to go into bodyguard evasive manovers and just moved her to walk behind me as I didn't want her to be aware of any situation, very strange! We continued our walk, back over the other bridge and into the queen street mall for lunch, we tried to get a juice to tide us over but wimped out and got a banana and mango dairy smoothie - bloody lovely! Once we were home I went to the gym and did 3km on the running machine, incidentally, I nearly died, then Jim went out for a run, Joey had fallen asleep mid snack so Jim and Ellie went swimming once he was back and I did nothing! Sat with my feet up, wrote a bit of blog (so not quite nothing), had one of my lovely Caramelo Koalas I buy by the dozen and watched neighbours! We had dinner in the apartment, put the kids to bed pretty early and booked the Brisbane to Sydney flight for in a week or so. The ever unfolding and very sad situation the Malaysian airways flight going missing is something we're keeping an eye on. We have planned to go to Kuala Lumpur after Singapore on the way back to Phuket and we aren't sure whether to book it based on the fact that they are talking about the flight going missing as potential terrorism act I'm concerned of repercussions if so in KL...we will inevitably do the safest thing but would hate to miss out on what is apparently a great city.

Monday 10th (a month today we land in Manchester :( ) and Ellie wakes us up sharp at six am (dam hour difference!) we were ready for action at 8:30 and left the hotel on a mission to get the bus to mount Coot-tha. The bus took us to the top with spectacular views over Brisbane, the coast beyond and Moreton Bay (the original settlement where the indigenous people were robbed of their land, water supply, food sources etc in a bid to create a penal colony (god I hope that's spelt right!), which was unsuccessful due to illness and disease and they had to move to what is now Brisbane, anyway...)  it was a lovely view and to just see the 12 or so spikes of the high buildings in Brisbane in the middle of the otherwise flat landscape was really cool. We headed into town, grabbed some sushi rolls for lunch and headed to the Cultural centre to go to the museum and science centre. Unfortunately the science centre was closed for a school trip so we went around the museum which was excellent and free! We looked around the dinosaurs and the horrible bug areas, the staff were amazing, they'd just come up and point you in the right direction or tell you about the bug you were looking at. It was a great museum; not stuffy and formal, really relaxed and encouraging. We headed home using the water taxi and went to the pool - it's heated! We put the bubbles on in the spa first, it was so warm, really really nice to spend time in, the lap pool was slightly cooler but even still, when we got out of the pool it the 28 degrees seemed freezing! We headed out for Japanese for dinner. We found a restaurant and sat down once we finished looking at the menu we wondered if we'd come across a Japanese KFC but we ended up with a delicious selection! one of my favourite meals yet, although Joey slept through a lot of it.

We've really enjoyed Brisbane, it's been a big surprise. It's clean, organised, they make the most of it all and not hide it away and protect it. You can absolutely make the most of everything here, the city seems like a real team effort providing loads for your family to do come rain or shine, although, thankfully normally shine and it all seems to focus around small, compact areas making it easy to enjoy it. Thanks Brisbane!