australian rozie

Flora

Originally uploaded by Australian Rozie

We stayed at the Novotel, it was a bit out of the main drag (10-15 minute walk). As we arrived, an old church was having it’s spire connected which was quite exciting. We turned up to the Novotel at about 11am & our room was not ready yet. We were told to leave our bags and come back later. I was wondering about my special “Warhol” package. It included 2 tickets to the show, taxi (cab charge type thing), discount voucher for the Andy Warhol Supermarket and free breakfast. What did they think I came to this town to do??? Of course I wanted my tickets for the Warhol show. The girl at the reception told me that her manager had the tickets but she had gone away. I went a bit “Sydney” and said, “I want them NOW because I came to Brisbane to see Warhol, and I’m not sitting around waiting for the manager to come back. I want to see Warhol NOW!” Turned out they were in a drawer at reception. Thanks. When we got to our room later that day, they was a bit of mess on a side table: some used tissues, lolly wrappers and papers! I was like eww! So we went back to reception and they gave us another room. Then, when we came back to the room that night, our key pass wasn’t working and I was busting to go to the loo. So back downstairs to get a new pass. See what I mean about random service???
I wrote all about the Warhol show in my previous entry. I enjoyed catching the ferry from New Farm to Southbank 2. Southbank was similar to Melbourne’s Southbank with it’s restaurants and shopping area. We enjoyed a French meal at Piaf. N & G recommended it because it’s new and good value. This is where I got a little celeb spotting, Jacki Weaver was eating at Piaf too.
My birthday was on Sunday, Dave and I enjoyed a big buffet breakfast. I have to say it was probably the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had. So much variety, good quality and delicious food. Even bulk scrambled eggs were done well.
We checked out the Queensland Art Gallery – a small but concise collection of good Australian and International art. I looked at the feature exhibition: The Watercolours of Kenneth Macqueen. Then I was like, is that it? – I thought there was going to be more stuff upstairs, but there wasn’t Oh well I’ve been spoilt in Sydney and with my recent trip to NYC and San Fran.

T & T managed to find all the cool shopping areas, there were some very good shops in the Valley including Fallow (the secret store), Blonde Venus (which had the Opening Ceremony stuff I hadn’t seen yet) and Outpost. I was surprised how quiet Chinatown was for a Sunday afternoon. We had some average Vietnamese from a shop that didn’t seem to have any Vietnamese working there.
My thoughts on Brisbane: (the last visit was Expo ’88) – it wasn’t very BrisVegas . We had beautiful sunny weather on both days and it’s a bit more laidback than Sydney. I don’t think I could cope living here but it’s a nice place to visit every 20 years;)