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Huge apologies for the length in time since our last update, our thoughts were that there was little to report as most of our time here in Brisbane has been taken up with working. But in actual fact, now that we look back there have been so many things to tell you about that we are going to have to try and condense it somewhat.
Ollie has been able to keep his job at Wilson's tackle even through all the order mix ups he has done, sending out the wrong number of bait hooks to customers etc, and in fact they seem so impressed with him that instead of just the 20 hours a week that was offered when he first started, for the last 5 weeks he has been working there full time! Much to Ollie's annoyance as he quite liked having a couple of days off each week. Times have been fun at the warehouse too, with encounters of a dead bat in box of tackle, bearded dragons hiding themselves under pallets, and just this week an encounter with a Green Whip Snake, a venomous snake, but thankfully is not considered dangerous! Especially as when Ollie's colleagues caught the snake in a fishing net, they released it next to our parked camper! Where Ollie had left the window open!!!!
Sasha's search for work was somewhat slow at first, starting with a promising opportunity to work at a Travel Agents in the City, which turned disastrous when working a half-day trial, Sasha soon become very, very aware that the packages that they were selling to fellow backpackers were all a con! So politely explaining that she would not be returning, Sasha reported the company to the ACC (an even more watered down version of the ASA) for their misleading advertising, and also to the Fair Work Australia for their decision not to pay her for her half day.
Sasha then landed a job with Australian Agricultural Company Limited, the largest beef cattle producing company in Australia. Many of Sasha's Trading Standards colleagues will chuckle at the thought of her back in an Ag role after her lack of enthusiasm for the subject during her studies, but you'll all be glad to know that she actually has nothing to do with the Ag side of the business! She is actually working on a project to help identify various telephone accounts, and her four week stint with the company looks like it will last for a full 12 weeks!! Sasha has now diversified a little and is helping the HR department to rewrite some of their policy documents, as well as continue on the original project! As part of a day's work, Sasha also got the opportunity to fly to the outback to deliver two computers to a cattle station! She would have liked an overnight stay but it was in fact just a jump onto an internal flight on a teeny tiny plane, deliver computers to a real life cowboy in the arrivals hall, then walk through to departures and get the teeny tiny plane back! The return flight offering free flowing wine and plenty of bar like snacks!!
So apart from our weeks being filled with necessary working to build up our travelling fund again, we have been able to enjoy some fantastic weekends in beautiful Brisbane.
Two weeks to make note of are the two great weekends that we got to spend with Sam and JJ before they headed on back to Sydney and then back home to the UK, the first fabulous weekend was spent at a free festival on Southbank Parkland called the Regional Flavours Festival, the Saturday was dedicated to the tastes of Queensland wine, and so we all did our best to ensure that we took every opportunity possible to sample as much as we could, all for free!! As well as all the food samples on offer too! And then day two was dedicated to the tastes of Queensland beer! Ensuring we got there early we headed straight to the taste tent to learn about the beers first and received our three samples, and then we hit the exhibition tents only to find they were all the same as the day before,! Oh well, back onto sampling the wines of Queensland it was then!! All finished off with a giant tub of Ben and Jerry's each, which retail for $11, and we all paid $1 each!! Yep, we all felt very sick that evening!!
Our second weekend spent with Sam and JJ was on the Gold Coast at Surfer's Paradise. Sam and JJ had found an unbelievably amazing deal for a two bed apartment overlooking the surf, which worked out cheaper for them than staying in a hostel! So being the opportunity grabbers that we have become, we jumped at the chance to go and stay with them for the weekend and not only experience a proper bed for two nights, but also a sofa, an oven that you are not sharing with a hoard of backpackers, and a GIANT TV! Sasha and Ollie took full advantage of the chance to fatten up our two hosts and whipped up two home cooked dinners for them, plus ploughed them with plenty of alcohol to boot! We had a fantastic time exploring surfer's paradise (the boys particularly enjoying the scantily clad ladies on the beach), and we took a trip to Tamborine Mountain where we felt like parents making the kids come out on a trek! We drove out to Witches Creek falls, promising Sam and JJ a view of a spectacular waterfall, only to find that after half an hour's hike the fall was just a mere dribble! It seems that it is only a "spectacular waterfall" in the wet season!! Whoops! And so we then had to hike back up the steep mountainside forest back to the car! And then it was onto Gallery Walk, Mt Tamborine's strange little shopping precinct, made up of cafe's, deli's and of course, what street couldn't be without one, a German Cuckoo Clock shop! The absolute highlight of the weekend was however on the Saturday evening when Sasha suddenly saw something out at sea. With all eyes focused on the water, we soon were given a spectacular display by a couple of whales that were passing by on their migration, fantastic! (Ollie was especially pleased as it saved on spending out for a whale watching trip!)
Back in Brisbane and we have been able to attend two great festivals; the Brisbane Festival and the Brisbane Oktoberfest! The Brisbane Festival was a month long festival in September. We attended the opening night where we were presented with the most amazing firework display, which included fireworks and lasers all synchronised to music, and took place over the Brisbane river. Later in the month we treated ourselves out to a fancy meal and then soaked up some more of the Brisbane Festival, watching a laser show over the Brisbane river, which again was just mesmerising.
The Oktoberfest was great fun, a little expensive, but fun all the same! We were lucky enough to acquire half price tickets, which in real terms meant that we could afford to buy two beers each instead of one! The beers were priced at a hefty $10 a pint, and if you wanted to drink from a plastic stein (which was a pint size) you had to buy that separately for $8. So two pints down us, as well as a very yummy spicy sausage each, all topped off with a giant pretzel, we enjoyed the oompah band, Heidi's yodeling, and a sing-a-long to Edelweiss while it was being played on the Cow Bells, ok, maybe we need to rephrase that . . . we enjoyed the oompah band and then Ollie had to endure Sasha singing along with Heidi the yodeler, yodeling a sound of music medley, with Edelweiss on the Cow Bells!
Our greatest achievement has been winning the Meat Raffle that was organised by the campsite that we are staying at. Foolishly we purchased the tickets before seeing exactly how big the meat tray actually was, totally not expecting to win we payed our $5 for 6 tickets, it was later that evening that we received a knock on our camper door, to find Kevin, the campsite manager, announcing that we had won! Problem was, he had had to drive the meat tray round to us as it was too big to carry!! Included in the tray was 12 sausages, 6 pork chops, 5 lamb chops, 1 kg of mince, 5 chicken schnitzels, 8 chicken drumsticks, and 8 beef rissoles! We are now into our third week and still we are getting through the meat!! Thank god Ollie is a meat eater now!!
We have got five more weeks here in Brisbane before we start our journey back down to Sydney for Christmas. But we still have some great things planned for while we are here! One big one on our list is our Sky dive that we will be doing in the coming weeks!! After searching for the best deal across Australia, Sasha came across a special offer to do a 14,000ft tandem jump for just $200, and so we have bought the vouchers, and now just need to book it in!
Excitingly we have also booked our flight home!! We can officially announce that we will be leaving Oz on 26th March, flying to Kuala Lumpa, where we will then take six weeks to explore Asia, before arriving back in the UK on 14th May. We have loads planned for this leg of our journey, but we will save the details until closer to our leaving date!!
- comments
The Parentals The usual great read, thanks very much for keeping us up to date.
Random stranger Trying to find out what kind of prices to expect on beer at the brisbane oktoberfest was nigh impossible until google spat up this wee entry. Cheers ... I mean prost.