Heat

On Friday, we took a day inside to relax and sketch. Our adventure of the day was in our complete and utter lack of direction when we set out for the three-block away shops...We managed to tramp over nearly every road in the estate apart from the one we actually needed to be on. We eventually returned home, defeated, to the laughter of Richard and Ansie. After more in-depth directions and a hand-drawn map, we set out again. Moments later, Richard passed us on the bike, laughingly checking us to make sure we weren't going off in the wrong direction again. The trauma of the whole thing deserved chocolate, so we bought some cookies (have had no chocolate in over three weeks! Shocking!) and came home again.

Saturday, we awoke in the caravan, our 5-star luxury accommodation after some of the places we have resided. 

 Our plan for the day was to go and market in Brisbane and we planned to do this self-sufficiently...with the use of the public transportation services. Hahaha. What fools us.
Anyways, we munched down breakfast (cereal addiction has commenced; no more porridge!!!), waved a cheery hello to new arrival to the house, Licelle's brother Antoine, and then departed out of the door to locate the bus stop.
We stood in the blaring hot sunshine of nine in the morning, by the side of the road, watching and waiting for the right bus to roll on by. Eventually, a bus turned up. It wasn't quite the right one, but we boarded anyway and rode through the suburbs of Brisbane, stopping to change at Griffith Uni and finally into the city proper. It only took us just over an hour. Distances in Oz can be deceiving!
We walked to the Southbank precinct and strolled along the beautiful curving metal sculptural arbour, covered with purple flowers and green tendrils. We came across a communal theatre project stadium and saw some randoms practicing their skills with various acrobatical things. Then, we found the market.
This was an excellent market, with many things that I wanted in order to fill my house (as yet, a shadowy dream house that I have yet to own). However, they also had a leather-working stall the likes of which I have never seen before! A fantastic tooled leather owl shaped satchel caught my eye, and I wanted it so badly! Alas, it was a little pricey, but I did get possibly the coolest coin purse (never knew I needed one until now). Its shaped like a dragon, and he is the happiest looking dragon I have ever seen. He is lovely. He is called Clarence. When I am back in the UK and it is cold and raining, I will pull Clarence from my bag and remember being really, really hot in Brisbane. Awesome.
After the market, we sat on the edge of the urban beach pool, right in the centre of the Southbank overlooking the river. We dangled our legs into the cool water and sat for a while, enjoying the water and the sunshine. 

 However, as per usual we started to get hungry after a while, so we started the search and forage mission for lunch. We located tasty burgers and ate them in a cool, air-conditioned room. I had some more vitamin water, which I am enamoured of (so thirst quenching!) and decided maybe this consumption was what is keeping me free of mozzie bites - its packed with vitamin b. Poor Alex is gaining bites by the hour...
After lunch, we wandered down the riverside, through an elevated boardwalk around rainforest and pools. We spotted five large lizards soaking up the heat on rocks by a little waterfall and another one chased us around the pavement, running helter-skelter on his tip toes. We discovered a Nepalese Peace Pagoda. The carving on this building was beautiful, intricate and all in glossy dark wood.

 
We were accosted by a little old lady clutching leaflets about the Citycat boat service. We all had a discussion about university courses, and the immense amount of subjects her progeny have studied. She herself had studied the Ottoman Empire and was very excited about my Classical degree. Anyway, it turned out that the boat was cheaper by far than usual cruises due to the fact that it is actually a part of the Brisbane public transport system. So for the same price as the bus fare (cheaper, actually) we took to the water, riding the back of the boat all the way up the river and the front (with its strong, cooling and exhilarating headwind) all the way back again. We took snapshots of the city skyline and the red-brown cliffs.

We saw a ridiculously massive cruise ship (bigger than the buildings it was parked alongside on the shore) and pelicans in flight.
After the thrill of the Citycat, we disembarked on the other side of the river and meandered into town for a sit down. After drinking loads of water to recuperate from being in the sun so long, we started looking at how to get back home.
Pah. Turns out, the Brisbane travel system goes in zones, like the tube in London. Nowhere points this out though and for some reason, all the bus drivers blank us when we talk to them. We reckon there is some sort of secret, in-the-know bus driver handshake/signal that you are meant to give when you board in order to get them to speak to you. So far, we have been unsuccessful. Eventually, we managed to work it out and board the right bus and arrive home. Phew!
It was just coming up to dinner time and everyone (full house as Licelle, Brad and Rhian are back from the hospital) was getting things ready for the table. We laid out the plates and so on and then Richard served up a whole BBQed salmon, which we had with roasted veg and a potato bake. Some of the others had chicken kebabs as well and we all sat down to eat.
We ate, and talked and had guavas for desert and Alex and I were interrogated as to our travels and purposes. We listened to the geckos crawling the walls as they chirupped and watched large bugs fly in and out of the lamplight. One such giant was a preying mantis that flew onto the edge of the BBQ. Richard picked him up and gave him to Alex, who tried to put it on my head while I took some snaps. I held him for a little while, and he danced his front legs about and curled his feelers, looking about with big black eyes.

Then, we went to bed. Sleepy!