The Brisbane birthday weekend

(Image from Tracey Moffat's video 'Heaven')

Thursday: The flight up was uneventful and arrived on time. After dropping my bag off at the hotel I stepped out to purchase birthday gifts for Ll and Fd whose birthdays were also being celebrated over the weekend. Fd works in steam (I don't know what that means either) and it is difficult to choose gifts for him. I took the easy option by picking up a gift voucher from a major Department store chain. Ll, who loves going the Gold Class route at the movies, is an easier proposition and I needed little time deciding to buy Gold Class ticket vouchers as a birthday gift. The Myer Centre cinemas were nearby and I was thinking of Eddy as I queued there for the vouchers. Eddy records his nearly weekly visits to that cinema complex in his blog. It proved to be a bad time to call in as their computer system had crashed leaving dozens of us waiting for about twenty minutes until they could resume selling cinema tickets, drinks, popcorn and the like.

Later, Ll and Mt joined me at the hotel and we set off for drinks followed by a steak meal at a crowded Pineapple Hotel in Kangaroo Point. The servings were generous and the food of reasonable quality but it was a pity all the food was served lukewarm.

Friday: I spent a leisurely morning wandering about the CBD checking out the stores and people in general. I love people watching. I wandered along to City Hall, a lovely old municipal building, which is about to close for extensive repairs and renovations. Despite numerous visits to Brisbane I had never set foot inside the building previously. It contains interesting exhibitions and displays and I roamed about them for an hour.

In the afternoon, Mt, Ll and Ml came into town and we walked across to South Bank and to the Gallery of Modern Art where we took in the China Project exhibition as well as some of the their ongoing displays. One that particularly took my eye was a video by Tracey Moffat. Ms Moffat's video contained surreptitious images of young men changing into and out of their surfing gear in public in car parks adjacent to surf beaches. Now there is a job I would love to have. Photographing naked men in secret. If I did it I would be arrested for voyeurism but Ms Moffat is lucky that she can do it and have it displayed in a mainstream gallery as art.

The four of us then walked back across to the city stopping off at the Casino for daquiris. Later we decided on dinner at Wagamama. Although this chain of eateries has existed in Sydney for years I had never been to one previously. It was pretty good. I ordered a Chilli Chicken Ramen and the others ordered noodle dishes. Unfortunately, Mt - who had made it known that she prefers gluten free meals - was given a bland dish devoid of sauces to give it the lift that the other dishes contained.

Fd was to join us for dinner but typically was so late from work that he arrived as we were leaving the restaurant. We accompanied him to a food court across the road where he had a crepes meal as we watched and chatted.

The remainder of the visit is covered in a subsequent post.