The sounds of birds tweeting greets me this morning. It’s rather a ruckus out there. We keep a bird feeder supplied in the backyard and this morning the Galahs are the first in line. The Rainbow Lorikeets also come around. It’s odd to see pet store birds living outside. They behave as any bird but with the added style of wild plumage.
When we arrived in Brisbane Jill and I had to stash our bags for a few hours or lug them around the city. The train station said they had no storage. We went to our favorite first destination, the visitors’ centre, and asked. I was given the same answer that I got at the train station, no luggage storage because of the terrorism alert. With heavy hearts and bags we walked over to the only recommendation given us. The Treasury Casino’s is named so because of its location in the old treasury building. Walking up to the large pillared stone facade gives no hint that a casino is inside. As we summited the marble stairway to the entrance I spotted the sport coated ear pieced security guard behind the velvet rope. Now it looked like a casino. To our astonishment our pudgy bags fit in the lockers handily. We were free to explore a bit of the city unencumbered. We started out with the Wednesday market set up outside the doors. Our tummies were ready for food and Jill quickly found a stand selling fancy quinoa salad. She’s been craving salads. A pizza stand called out to me. Jill couldn’t pass up a mint lemonade and our lunch was complete. We marched across the river to a bench in the South Bank Park and ate. The airline magazine had informed me that Brisbane gets 300 days of sun a year. It was appropriately cloudy and drizzling. I wiped the grease off my face and we walked over to the GOMA or Gallery of Modern Art. I spent over an hour wandering through an exhibit of artists from all over Asia. It was fun to see countries represented that aren’t in my typical Asia list, like Kyrgyzstan. The art ranged form photos and painting to an enormous recovered lumber sculpture that played different sounds. After I found Jill who was sleeping in a chair we retrieved our bags and hopped on a train to go see our house for 2 months.