Day 36 - Thursday 30th August

My contact lenses had really dried out on the flight, had to replace then in the immigration queue... must have looked like really suspicious, me poking myslef in the eye, blinking constantly like a crazy person! Collected my bags and went through more customs scans. Linda was waiting in arrivals, it was so nice to see her.... had been nearly 3 years! We drove back to hers, she lives with Paul (her boyfriend) and his mum, Linda in the Brisbane suburbs, place called Capalaba in Redlands district.

Grabbed some breakfast at hers, as it was only 9am or something silly then chilled out at hers for a bit. Later in the afternoon we took a drive into the city (via subway) to do some site-seeing, with Linda as my tour guide.

Linda took me to a drive through bottle shop! That's right, a drive through off licence that sells pre-mixed drinks! Bought a Jim Beam and coke!

Parked at Southbank and walked along the river into city, really liked Southbank, cool restaurants and bars, also got main made beach open to public in summer. Did a bit of shopping in the highstreet, lush - found solid shampoo (so good for travelling), city beach (surf shop). Met my first Ibis / dump bird too.... ugly things!

Paul cooked dinner for us all, then had an early night.

Day 37 - Friday 31 August

Spent afternoon sight-seeing again with Linda, went to Wellington Point, Cleveland and Raby Bay. From Cleveland point you could see Morton Island really clearly. You could also see the properties at Raby Bar (posh part of the suburb) with their yachts in their private marina. We drove through it so I could see houses up close. Linda showed me the guy from Savage Garden's house, Paul and the Eighth Colour boys had done some recording there. Got fish and chips (breaded fish) from 'Wello' and sat down by the sea, until it got cold.

Night out in Cleveland with Paul and Linda's friends Angie and Luke, both really lovely. Went to a nice restaurant/bar.... had mash potato! There was some really bad kareoke going on in the bar, which was a good source of amusement to us all! Went back to Linda's to grab my ID (apparantly everyone carries them in Oz) and planned to go to 'the Alex', only nightclub near them. But by the time we'd got back and had a drink waiting for taxi, none of us could be bothered!

Will be back in Brisbane after the weekend.