Settling in

This one might be a bit of a long one - sorry.

Last few days have been mostly taken up with exploring, and slowly killing ourselves with alcohol. In the event of my untimely demise there is a strong possibility that I may not need embalming.

It all started innocently enough on Saturday night with a game of Canasta. This is an activity usually undertaken with the Darkinses, and as with most Darkins related activities it would be rude not to have a few scoops to mark the occasion. As we had invested in a bottle of Havana Club at the trusty duty free we thought Cuba Libres would be appropriate. So we sank a few of those. Then thought as we didn't want to drink a whole litre of rum in one night we would switch to red wine. Then happily finding ourselves still awake at midnight we decided to decamp to the local where the West Ham v Arsenal game was playing (Stu being a Hammer and me being a very dedicated wife). Naturally, watching football involves drinking beer (can you tell where this is headed yet?).

Turns out as well that this pub is the meeting place of the Brisbane Hammers for most of their match watchings. At some point in the second half I lost the will to live, ability to walk and talk etc, so decided to head home. I had the intention of leaving a key for Stu on reception so he could get in whenever he came back, but for reasons which are somewhat hazy I didn't. I then realised some time later that he wasn't there, so went out looking for him. The pub was all shut up, so I came back again, and the very nice man on reception in our apartment thingies asked me if I was looking for a drunk pommy. I confirmed that was indeed the purpose of my search, and it turned out he had just let him in. We are neither of us any the wiser as to where he had been, or how we had managed to pass each other.

We decided to carry on with the cuba libres - after all what use is a half full bottle of rum to anyone? Might as well empty it and get it in the recycling. Awaking at 2pm the next afternoon with a herd of wildebeest stampeding in my head I realised the folly of this decision.

So there we were on our first wedding anniversary, absolutely hanging and with no inclination to do anything but hide from the day. But we dragged ourselves kicking and screaming out, and went to the Jade Buddha on Eagle Street Pier for the barbecue option - and very nice it was too. No anniversary news to report though due to our absolutely death like states.

Easter Monday was slightly more successful - we went out for a great big walk round the South Bank (very nice - wee market on and it's where the city beach is which is slightly surreal but nice), then over to the Botanical Gardens, which was a bit of a blast from the past as myself and Alison Flanagan once hired Rollerblades for the afternoon and chose that location to demonstrate to Australia a lack of co-ordination the likes of which had never been seen before. We then headed over to Kangaroo Point (which is on the short list of suburbs that we would like to live in, in the event that we win the lottery at some point in the next few weeks). Refresher in the Story Bridge Hotel and then got the ferry back over to town for a bit of a wander. I'm hoping that has satisfied Stuart's sight-seeing demands for a little while as I am far too fat to be enjoying such exertions.

Anyway - I'm boring myself a bit now, so I'm sure I must have lost your attention by now. I'm off out shortly to visit some of the old stomping grounds from my previous visit to Brisbane 6 years. How very nostalgic of me! Stu went off to start his new job today, so fingers crossed for him everyone! Below is a wee album of a few bits we've seen/done so far if you haven't totally switched off yet.

Robinsons Down Under