3 Days in Brizzy (Day 3: May 6)

This is a continuation from the entry titled 3 Days in Brizzy (Day 2: May 5), which tells the tale of our trip to Queensland at the beginning of May.


Freshly Squeezed Juggling Props

Saturday morning began just as any "normal" Saturday with Kari & Max would:

Fresh coffee for me, Crash & Kari; a cup of Earl Grey tea with a pound of "shugah" for Max; and for all of us, some bread from the local bakery, a block of cheese, 3 pounds of butter (2.95 pounds for Max, 0.05 pounds for the rest of us); and some freshly squeezed juggling props (you might also know them as "oranges.")




Reservations are called "Bookings"

Our goal for the day was to check out the outdoor market held every Saturday in Kari & Max's neighborhood. But first, Crash and I had some unfinished business to attend to: reservations for tours in Cairns, our next destination.

Now before you start making fun of us, telling us that only "old people" schedule tours, consider this:

Do YOU know how to navigate out to the Great Barrier Reef? Do YOU have the means to cross a crocodile-infested river?

Well, neither do we. And when crocodiles are involved, I prefer to leave things to the professionals.

So one might think you could do this over the internet. One might think. As we found out, it's better to stop thinking and just make the phone call. But since Kari & Max did not yet have a phone (I'll let Kari tell the tale), we had to go hunt down a pay phone.

While we did that, Kari & Max visited a garage sale, dragged home new furniture (something called a "poofle"), solved Rubik's cube with their eyes closed and discovered the secret to world peace. By the time they got that all done, we'd finished booking... nothing. So they went into the thrift store next to the pay phone and had some fun.





Crash and I finally wrapped things up as best we could. We didn't have the whole week planned, but we had the first part of the week covered and decided we could take care of the rest in Cairns.


To Market, To Market



We walked a few blocks down to a riverside park and found that The Green Flea Market is quite the bustling place. Booth occupants range from the garage sale variety and cheap trinket baubles to farmers with fresh produce & meat and artists with homemade furniture.



The 4 of us drifted about the rows in the market, most of which were shaded from the hot sun by big, crazy looking trees. The market only happens on Saturdays, so all the booths are temporary and can change from week to week.

It didn't take long for Crash to spot a booth that would have felt quite at home at Burningman with its lush red carpet and glitzy decor, and as a result was easily seduced inside for a haircut.

A haircut? At an outdoor market?

Not a bad idea, really; he did need one. We ducked in and Crash took his seat, emerging 5 minutes later with a freshly shaved head.




We merged back into the slowly meandering crowds and found Max checking out sunglasses at one of the booths. You can't go anywhere in this country without them; the biggest ozone hole on Earth (above Earth?) is right above us at all times. I am hoping this explains while all the lenses on the glasses are really big and bug-eyed (it's a safety feature!), but I suspect it's because the 80s are back in "style" — though to be honest, I'm not sure they were ever "out" of style in Australia. This scares me.

After sufficient wandering through the market rows (look, another tower!), the 4 of us agreed that it was time to succumb to the delicious smells of the food booths. We split off to gather our nibbles of choice.

Crash and I had grabbed some sort of meat kabob wrap thingy from a popular booth. While standing in line I was told by a local that he comes every Saturday just for this booth's food, because they prepare and cook it right before his eyes. He let his kids pick out some baked goods and gave the woman, who was juggling order-taking and cooking while her husband prepped the next orders behind her. She told me they were supposed to have left by 1pm in order to make a wedding on time. They were running quite late. I suppose it's hard to say no to money when your food is so good that people are willing to buy whatever scraps you have left.

We joined Kari & Max on the grass and it was no suprise that Max had the motherload of food piles. I had foolishly thought that what he had slowly been gathering all morning was for the upcoming week; apparently it was just today's lunch.

The highlight of it all was the fresh shrimp; and I'm not sure if it was their tastiness or the process of shelling them that Max enjoyed more. Each shrimp was shelled more perfectly than the last, Max exclaiming with joy as he handed them out about the impressive size of some of the larger shrimp's "poop trails" — which then became our giggly phrase of the day.

(Looking back, I can't help but wonder if the sun had fried our brains that day.)



As we munched away on shrimp, a soccer game began. One close goal made us realize that we were actually seated on the playing field, so we moved back and watched the carnage for a bit. From what we could gather it was a game between two adult community teams.

I was quite impressed with their outfits (which seemed more fit for a circus than for soccer players), though really the impressive thing was the acrobatics these guys could perform in such intense sun and heat. We saw some great jumps, twists, turns, and unintentional (and intentional) collisions.

The game wasn't enough to hold our attentions forever, and now that we'd finished eating we started to get twitchy to move on. Kari gently coaxed the rest of the food bags from Max (who was slowly eating everything they'd purchased) and we all stood up. Max wiped his face and brushed off his hands and looked at all of us.

"Should we go get lunch now?"




The Queenslander

I'll admit it; I have house envy. Crash and I have a wonderfully-located apartment in Sydney, but Kari & Max found a great place(with a washer!) that truly captures the "tropical paradise" of Queensland. It's not only a 3 bedroom house with hardwood floors, a modern kitchen with a gas range, and high ceilings (perfect for juggling), but it's got TWO porches. Maybe what I really have is porch envy.



From the front (which might actually be the back; we're not sure), you can see how the house is elevated to allow air to circulate and keep the house cool. Given our experience the first night of our visit, I'd say the design (known as a "queenslander" — after the name of the state Brisbane is in) is working quite well.

There's a big porch that is quite private and makes for a great entrance way into the house; it even makes for an excellent additional room to the house, it's that big. The big glass window/doors slide back and reveal the large open room that is the kitchen/dining room living room area. The main bedroom and bath are tucked off to the right.



In the back (which might actually be the front; again, no one can tell), there's another porch, this one small and enclosed with lattice and tropical trees that gets great evening sun — and great free wireless internet.



From the back porch you step into a long hallway that runs down the center of the house. It looks straight out to the large porch, so you can pretty much see straight through the house.

On one side of the hallway is the "office/art room" — right now it sports a table, a small book shelf, a fancy office chair, and on the floor is a map of Brisbane next to a stack of phone books. But no phone. And no internet.

On the other side of the hallway is what I call the "Redmond-McQuaid State Room." Since Crash and I are their first house guests, I think this room should henceforth be desigated as such — though I'm not sure this title is approved by Kari & Max just yet. Maybe I'll just have a plaque made and simply mount it on the door next time I'm there.



Crash and I had to leave by 630 that night to catch a train to the airport (to fly up to Cairns), so after some lounging about on the porches we started on dinner. Kari & Max had taken a thai cooking class during their honeymoon in Thailand, and were more than happy to show off their new talents. Crash and I were more than happy to "test" the results.

A yummy chicken stir-fry noodle dish was cooked up and we dined on the big porch as the sun went down. It was delicious and full of laughter, as all meals with Kari and Max are, but it was sad to know that we'd be leaving once we were done. We snapped a few photos and then grabbed our bags.



We said goodbye to Max at the house, then Kari walked with us part way to the station. We said goodbye on the street corner and took off for the airport. Although our flight was not till 9pm, the last train left at 650pm.

Check-in was a breeze and pretty soon we were sitting at a bar/cafe, putting ourselves in the "proper frame of mind for travel." (Every cafe is a bar here; you can even get wine at the movie theatres!)

I took some artsy photos of my wine glass to pass the time; I would have taken artsy photos of the cakes slices Crash bought for us, but they weren't around long enough to be caught on film.





. . . . . . .

Finally, I'm done with my posts on the Brisbane portion of the trip! The area around Cairns gave me plenty to photograph, so you can be assured the next few installments about this now month-old trip will be more visual than verbal. Stay tuned for photos of the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests, and the token creepy spider (apparently all our trips have to have at least one).