Brisbane -- Day Two

November 28, Friday
Australian time: 2330

2nd Day

Location: Brisbane
Accommodation: Southern Cross Motel and Serviced Apartments
Cost: $245 per night
Currency (Singapore is to Australia): 1 is to 1

Check out time was 1000, so all of us were out on the streets once more immediately after our simple breakfast. To be honest, we had two slices of toast each, with peanut butter spread. The milk we bought in the convenience store yesterday was low fat, and now I’ve learnt one thing: Never buy low fat milk in Australia. Mostly because, the milk in always fresh, so full cream milk probably came directly from the cows without processing it. Obviously, it would taste nice than skimmed milk, which would have probably went through some factory, removing some of its natural contents and adding some artificial ingredients. And also, low fat milk tastes horrible, or even worse, they have no taste. Ack.

Anyway, as Airport Motel was on the outskirts of the city, we decided to move closer to the city. Three areas of consideration: Spring Hill, Kangaroo Point (you wonder if there are wild kangaroos hopping about with baby kangaroos waving at you from their mothers’ pouches) and South Brisbane. My dad was pretty keen on staying in a serviced apartment this time round, but the first one we went into, Hillcrest, was riding on the high tide and had no more available rooms. Beside Hillcrest was another building – red bricks, clean cut style, and balconies to go with the rooms. And guess what the building was called? XXX Hospital. I wouldn’t mind that much to break a leg or two to stay in there.

So we moved on and finally came to Kangaroo Point Serviced Apartments. The building had a very modern design, dark gray walls, tinted windows, white, tall pillars and a sleek wooden interior, giving it a very homey feel. Unfortunately, they were out of rooms. By now you’d be wondering just how bad the economy. It couldn’t really be that bad, since these serviced apartments were prospering so!

But then, fate smiled upon us and led us to Southern Cross, with the clean-cut, white-washed walls, spacious and clean bathroom, comfortable beds, two kitchens, two rooms, and a really big sofa (my sister could stretch out on it). My dad took a liking to it immediately (he had a thing for spaciousness), and truthfully, so did I. Everything was kept in order, the walls were clean, and the building was only a year old. In short, it was great.

The owner was an Indonesian lady, and it was then that I finally had a chance to compare Asians and Westerners! Although both races speak politely, you would always notice that Asians tend to sound a lot bossier, and a lot more raucous. We just have a natural instinct to raise our voices to an irrelevant level, but Westerners seem to have to ability to speak demurely, even if they were in a noisy, crowded restaurant.

Anyway, things were settled pretty quickly from there, and after a period of rest, all of us headed out to the city. We got lost along the way, and we made a huge circle before we even reached Story Bridge, the one that would lead us across the water and into the heart of the city in Spring Hills. We parked our Ford Falcon in a free carpark (YES, FREE) and just walked the rest of the way. In Australia, a mall is something that you would never expect when in Singapore. There are no tall buildings in Australia, instead, and the whole friggin’ street is called Queen St Mall. Shops are all lined up on both sides on the road, and cars were not allowed to be driven in – instead chairs and resting areas were situated along the mall, where you could rest at any given time, though seats are subjected to availability.

We had Subway sandwiches for lunch, and after shopping around for a while, settled in Gloria Jeans to have a tea break. Due to coupons I had picked up along our way there, we used it quickly to our advantage, upsizing our drinks for free, and so on.

Things we’d bought:

Mom: 3 pairs of Adidas socks, $25; A black, elegant handbag from Nine West, $29

Me: Twilight by Stephenie Meyers from Borders, $12.50 (at half price, originally about $27); A pink, kawaii handbag from Nine West (smaller version of my mom’s), $19

Sis: Low Cut Flurt Denim Shoes from so-called Billabong, $39.95

All of us were wiped out from all the walking and carrying of our newly acquired things, so we headed home after having our coffee. Before we piled into the car, however, we went into a supermarket to choose our dinner: Hawaiian Pizza ($3.85), Garlic Bread (about $1.20), Potato & Egg & Bacon salad (about $3), 2.5 litre Coke (about $1.60), a few packets of Instant noodles (about $1 each) and Spinach (I don’t know the price for this).

Anyway, we reached home and started to heat the garlic bread and pizza in the microwave (slow, I know) and mom started cooking the noodles. Dad just lazed around, waiting for the food to be ready. -_- What was hilarious was that the garlic bread was over-microwaved, and it became rock hard… I think my teeth are still stinging from trying to eat the bread. But we all had a good laugh after that, though I was embarrassed; I was the one who forgot to keep an eye on it, after all.

After dinner we went out for a walk to work off some calories (though I didn’t think it was much of a help) and dad ended up buying chicken wings from KFC. O.o I thought someone was trying to lose weight here? Luckily for me, chicken wings never held a lure for me, so I remained blissfully peaceful without sinking my teeth into them.

After the wings we began a round of Da Lao Er and boy was it fun! Everyone was in the laughing fits at the end of the game, with mom having to shuffle the cards 8 times, me 4 times, dad and sis 2 times each (the loser had to shuffle and distribute the cards). Everyone was so relaxed and happy…

So am I. Right now, I’m contented, satisfied and sleepy.

Good night.