Flying south

In the words of the art (edited ) I am curious to explore Brissie

Why is it that it's only when you have people over or visiting that you really take the time to appreciate where you live and what it has on offer?

Why should all the cool stuff only be reserved for visitors or tourists?

It's with this in mind that I decided this weekend would be the start of a completely un-organised, non-routine and sporadic (knock, knock, are you still reading or have you already nodded off after all this excitement! ha) attempt to try a new activity or day out of my new home town - Brisbane.

The idea is that we'll try and explore a different activity each month.

The idea came about for two reasons - I was walking past the Brisbane Eye (or The Wheel of Brisbane for those factual people) on Friday and I saw/heard a very young kid yell out to his mum 'weeee, mum this is the funniest thing I've ever done.'

This got me thinking, why is it that this kid has been up there and I haven't. I have visited London a number of times (having an English husband does that to you!) and still yet never been up on the London Eye.  Secondly, the kid's excitement got me thinking about how every time I move I always have an attack of regret/guilts that I haven't done more in the place. You know what I mean, stuff you only ever do if you have the tourists knock on your door, you know visit the zoo, museums, beaches, funky cafes go and see a show.

All of these events (still there? riveting stuff I know), led me to coming up with this non-original idea to explore our home town.

So here goes. Today, armed with hangovers, lack of sleep and a rainy day, we opted to make the first day less stressful and more about sitting on our buts.


We went up on the Wheel. It was a great day for it. It had just stopped raining so when we up ($15/adults) the city looked really fresh and clean. We were told we would get to go around four times and were pleasantly surprised to go around about 8/10 times. I was too distracted with the view to count...

It was great...but by the last go I was ready to get off. Would have been magical at night with the sky lit up and twinkling...but was still amazing and highly recommend it. It's a great way to view this great city from a full 360 degrees.

After that we went for a wander down to the South Bank markets. Haven't been there for years. While there is a lot of touristy crap (sorry market vendors if you are reading this, I meant the other vendors not you), there are some cool stalls. One we found and stayed at for a while, is the vintage poster stand. Really well priced and boxes segmented in travel, Britain, old Australian posters, movie posters, fashion and beauty...some real gems and not badly priced. We got the three beauties (see below) for the vintage poster wall for $25.

After all the walking and searching, we ended up heading home via Red Hill's absolute gem Real Food Botanica. Every morning they make gorgeous desserts and treats that are all gluten free. I was in heaven...we got the passionfruit cupcake and the raspberry and white chocolate muffin.  Whether you are gluten intolerant or not, pop in and see them....beautiful food. botanicarealfood.com.au.

Until next time, I'll continue scouting out some gems and share them with you when I can be bothered or using this as an excuse not to vacum or do something mature like.

x