BRISBANE
Day 37 - 21st October 2015
ARRIVING IN BRISBANE
Arriving into Brisbane was like going through a portal into a mini London. There was traffic, high rise buildings, confusing road systems, and people. We had decided to leave the chilled life that was Noosa to make it to Brisbane in time for the Laura Marling gig that was on tonight. However our first job was to call in to someone we'd contacted on Gumtree to buy me a phone :) They lived in a flat in an amazing old woolshed building, built around the old wooden beams that held the original shed together. With business taken care of, we rocked up to the Tivoli gig venue, only to find that 'thongs' (flip flops) were not allowed, so we had to go back to the van and change shoes (and underwear, just to be sure)
The Tivoli was an amazing old building, like being in a small London theatre. The gig was outstanding, Laura's songs were dark and moving, but she was incredibly funny in a dry, well spoken, English sort of way. She is a tiny persons with cropped jet white hair and very pale skin. At one point, she forgot the words to 'Ghosts' the first song on her first album (she now has about 5 albums, so she can be forgiven for forgetting something so far back!) and later in the song she hit a bum note and she just stopped the song and said 'fuck', smiled, then carried on. She admitted that she'd had to look back at her old YouTube videos to re-learn the song!
She played a cover of Jackson C Frank and said 'if you have a spare five minutes and you want to get really bummed out, and can't be bothered to listen to another of my records, then check out the life of Jackson cos he had some really shitty luck'. On a lighter note she nailed a cover of Dolly Parton's Do I Ever Cross your Mind.
Later in the gig, a girl fainted up the front and Marling stopped and asked for some help, then asked if the rest of the audience were feeling ok, that no one else was feeling fainty.
Her new songs were lovely and the whole gig was a brilliant experience because of her (unexpected) interaction with the crowd. We walked back to the van, hopped in, hoping no one saw us, and soon fell asleep.
Day 38 - 22nd October 2015
BRISBANE
We moved the van super early to the New Farm area as it has free parking and killed a few hours in a coffee shop. Then we headed to the South Bank area of town where there's tonnes of free stuff to do, like a city beach and pool, art galleries and museums. We took the boat there and got our first glimpse of a big Australian City in day light, complete with sky scrapers, and big roads, but surprisingly few billboards and adverts.
The pool was lovely and once we'd had a swim and a shower, we started walking to the GOMA - Gallery of Modern Art. Suddenly a guy appeared out of nowhere, and after the surprise hellos, we realised it was Richard, who we'd met along with his girlfriend Carol back in 'Nam. He immediately invited us into his bar for a round of beers. We chatted for as long was possible before he had to get back to work, but we arranged to meet up with him and Carol later in the evening.
To get to GOMA we had to walk through the hump back whale mall, with life size mother, father and baby whales and recorded whale calls. It was awesome to see their full size without any water getting in the way. There was also a lovely photo exhibition of the Great Barrier Reef.
GOMA was a bit of a disappointment as most of it was closed as they were putting up a huge new exhibition (which we were assured would be amazing, but wouldn't be ready until the end of November) so we looked around a digital exhibition and motion artist, turning people's walking feet into helix DNA imagery. Pretty cool but kind of mind boggling, we both wandered around trying not to look too confused. If you read the captions that went with the work you just ended up in a right mental pickle.
We also looked in the QAG gallery which didn't have much that caught our attention, however the building itself was incredible, and we loved the outdoor sculptures - the blowing daisy water thing and the pelican sculptures.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in Bean Cafe across the river, hiding from a storm that was taking place outside. To eek out our time there Will took up the barista's challenge of a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors for a free coffee. Free coffee won we settled back into our corner and did a little job research.
We arranged to go out for food with Carol and meet Richard when he'd finished work, so we took the boat back to where we'd left Vanwell and headed over to the West End. The West End is known as the hipster part of town, the Hackney or Dalston of Brisbane. We found their house, parked up and headed out for Vietnamese in recognition of where we met! Although not as tasty as the real thing, it was still bloody good. We also got through 2 bottles of Australian Sauvignon Blanc between the three of us. After food we hit the bars of the West End, super cool craft beer places, which were full of men with beards and girls in short shorts.
When all the bars were shut we walked back to theirs for red wine and peanuts on the porch. After about an hour, their housemate 'whitey' rocked up, blind drunk (and that's saying something as we were all rather pickled too). It had been an awesome night, and such a stroke of good luck to bump into Rich, and we settled down to bed in the van, safe in the knowledge that we could lay in as long as we wanted as we were parked on their drive - private property woohoo!
Day 39 - 23rd October 2015
BRISBANE
We awoke rather hung over, the van was unbearably hot at that time of day as we usually get up and out of the oven much earlier. After an exceedingly slow start, we took a rather strange route to get to the public library on South Bank to get some life admin done. The money is running out and so we'll need to get jobs soon, which means dusting off the old CVs and portfolios and getting everything up to scratch. After three hours of working at half the speed we would usually work at (that's what 8 months of not using your brain will do to you) we decided to call it a day, and headed back to the West End to go to West End's Friday night markets for beer and food.
On route we had a quick look around the Powerhouse, a disused power station on the river bank that was reminiscent of the Battersea Power Station. Inside was a reminder of what can be done to such an interesting space if property developers don't get their capitalist hands on these iconic buildings. Instead of overpriced flats, this building has been converted into a community space, with theatre, performance area, art gallery and bar. We learned they have free live music on Sunday afternoons and various other events throughout the week. We vowed we'd be back to see more.
Back in the West End, we found the Friday night market, and there were tonnes of delicious smelling food stalls, plenty of drink, live bands and fire pits. We were enticed by a Thai platter, some beer and cider and a Brazilian band playing in the warehouse. Everyone was dancing when we got in and soon we were wiggling our hips as the music was so catchy and upbeat. We are loving this city!
Birmingham Jesus made a reappearance that night, complete with wings and halo. Or should that be Birmingham Angel?
Day 40 - 24th October 2015
BRISBANE
Living for the weekend baby!! With Carol and Whitey, our merry band of four made a beeline to the West End weekend markets and found a lively market in full swing, with plenty of trendy, young city kids, buying their organic veg for the week, walking their tiny dogs and catching up with friends. There's definitely a nice life to be lived here. The melodies of a solo acoustic artist playing a harmonica, guitar and drum all at the sane time flowed through the air adding to the chilled atmosphere.
We popped along to a garage sale we'd seen advertised around the neighbourhood, and I bought a book. We chatted to the owner for a while who was a rather cool bloke, other than fixing up and selling old motorbikes and collecting vintage bits and bobs to sell on, he also owns or runs some of the trendy craft beer places in the west end.
We'd seen posters for a music festival going on in Woolloongabba and went down for some lunch, some beers and more live music. I don't think I've seen so many bands in such a short period of time, ever! Brisbane is very into its craft beer, and so we sampled the Stone & Wood Pacific Ale, on Whiteys recommendation, as it is brewed down the road in Byron Bay where we are headed soon. It tasted rather good.
The night took an unusual turn when we hit a pool bar for a few games. We decided to challenge the Aussies we were with to an England vs Australia match, to hopefully redeem ourselves after the humiliating Rugby World Cup defeat. I am very pleased to report that we won 2 games to 1, thus restoring the balance. I was (affectionately) named 'FeFe le Pom' short for the Female Pom.
Another day another festival, this one in the Valley area of the city. After a quick burrito pit stop, we watched the band Alpine, fronted by two female lead singers. It was an ace gig, and great to see the central part of the city live and kicking. After a quick gin and tonic, and one song too many at a screamo gig, we headed back, to sleep in a real bed (the one on the boat doesn't count) for the first time in months. Their housemate was away for the weekend and kindly let us use his room. Cheers buddy!
Day 41 - 25th October 2015
BRISBANE
After a proper lie in, I headed out to Urban Climb for a spot of bouldering at an indoor wall only 10 minutes walk from Rich and Carol's place. I was rather rusty and my arms and hands gave out on the overhanging bouldering wall, but it was good to be climbing again.
We had read that there was live music on at the Powerhouse on Sunday afternoons and so headed there for a listen. I met Will there, who had taken the opportunity to get some work done without me interrupting him. The first band was called Pines and the other we forgot the name of. It was Pines first gig, and although they were clearly nervous, had a really cool sound, it kind of reminded me of The XX.
After three big nights, we vowed that tonight would be a quiet one, although Australia were playing Argentina in the semi finals of the rugby World Cup at 1am, so we might have to stay up for that... We cooked some dinner, did some chores and fell fast asleep, way before the rugby even started. Rock and roll!