We spent our first week here in Brisbane staying with our friend James and his flatmates Dave and Ellie. We met James back in Central America in 2004, where we formed a bond when he lent us money for the bribe to get throuh the dodgy border crossing between Belize and Guatemala. We also shared one of the most surreal experiences of that trip, the bizarre Todos Santos drunken horse race.
James lives in a typical 'Queenslander' style house, made out of wood and raised off the ground on stilts, with a storage (party?) area underneath, and possums in the roof. We spent a few fun evenings with James & co, eating barbecue and drinking beer, playing guitar hero and Traveller IQ challenge while reliving our Guatemala experences.
After a few days exploring Brisbane, we went on a day trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Australia Zoo is really hands-on and you are encouraged to feed the elephants (which slobbered over our hands) and stroke the kangaroos and wallabies which roam free in an open enclosure. You can also stroke the koalas, but they aren't as cute as they look – apparently baby koalas eat their mums' poo! The excuse for this is that they can't digest the poisonous eucalyptus leaves themselves, but still! As we were leavng, Graeme almost wet himself with excitement when he spotted the original 'Crocodile Hunter' Jeep.
With our savings rapidly diminishing, we registered at loads of employment agencies in Brisbane and quickly found ourselves work; Debbie found a temp job in local government and Graeme has ended up back in hospital admin. We also found ourselves our own little studio flat which is pretty small but is located in a leafy part of town called Ashgrove, with views over the whole of Brisbane. We have decorated one of our walls with a collage of pictures of lots of our friends printed out from Facebook.
There is a lot going on in Brisbane and we haven't had time to get homesick yet. Better still most of it is free. We have been to a couple of free screenings of old silent movies with live music accompaniment, a few free festivals, a free Operator Please gig, and we also got free tickets to see Queensland Roar FC. They were almost as bad as Spurs (only joking, they were loads better!). They are playing LA Galaxy next month, but sadly there are no free tickets for that, so no David Beckham for us. One weekend we went to a bollywood-themed party, where the guests were given bindis and bangles and a bollywood screen-name at the door, and the monsoon-style rains just added to the atmosphere. This weekend, we dressed up as Zombies for an early Halloween party.
A few weeks after we arrived in Brisbane we got a message from Graeme's aunt saying that he had some relatives in Brisbane – his Granddad's brother's daughter (Barbara), and her son (Adam). We met up with Adam for a few drinks during the week and then went to their house for Sunday dinner. It was really strange to discover we have relatives on the opposite side of the world, especially as they also live in Brisbane.
It was still officially 'winter' when we arrived in Brisbane, and the locals were complaining about the bitter 20 degree nights. However, as spring advances the weather is getting slowly warmer, and we have already had a few humid days and a couple of big thunderstorms. And it's only going to get hotter!
