Fuzzy Friends

For consistency's sake I'll fill you in on Saturday quickly before hopping on to Sunday (the main attraction methinks). I pretty much went on a bit of a lap of the city, heading from the CBD to Fortitude Valley and Chinatown (and the only Maccy's in town with free wifi), down to Story Bridge, walked by the river to the Botanic Gardens, across the pedestrian bridge to South Bank (detoured to Cold Rocks Ice Creamery of course - I went for White Chocolate and Malteaser this time), wandered through the random market they had on, passed QPAC and back across the river to the CBD, down Queen Street and home. Not very interesting but I figure I need to include every ice cream flavour I create here so I can judge which is the best!

And so, on to the main event...

Look at that! That's Kat the Koala and me cuddling! How cute is she?! I wanted to take her home with me. Her fur was so fuzzy and soft, I could've spent all day snuggling with her but she's only allowed to cuddle for 30 minutes a day so I would've had to trade her for another koala every so often but I could live with that.

Koala Kat, my new BFF (sorry J), lives at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, just outside of Brisbane. Kate and I visited her on Sunday. I was rather proud of us because we found the magical underground bus station and figured out the confusing ticketing system without any assistance whatsoever. Go us!

There are koalas everywhere (as one would expect in a koala sanctuary) and we even got to see little baby koalas in their mummys' pouches. Plus there were loads of other awesome animals like fruit bats and Tasmanian devils and I saw my first ever wombat! Have you ever seen a wombat? They are so weird. I thought they were going to be like overgrown guinea pigs, like maybe the size of an otter but they're huge! More like proper pigs than guinea pigs but hairy and tail-less. Kate and I couldn't believe them. I've never seen anything like them. They were like cartoon characters. You could totally pop one on a lead and take it for a walk. I would quite like a pet wombat.

We also got to play with the kangaroos. Two sheilas generously gave us some of their kangaroo feed so we had kangaroos licking our hands whilst we stroked them although the red ones didn't seem to like people very much. Understandable when you see parents letting their kids run riot and grabbing the poor roos' tails and chasing them around the park. I would've loved to see the kangaroos kick the little gets in the face. Then their parents' might learn to keep them under control.

You could hold snakes and baby crocs as well but Kate isn't keen on reptiles so we didn't do that and I voted to miss out the scary ass birds of prey so we headed back to Brissy (our plans of kidnapping a koala were foiled by the smallness of our bags) where there was a kind of jumble sale outside the library where people were selling off their stuff super cheap (Kate got five tops for five bucks) which I guess is a good back up plan for if I get low on money!

We'd had a pretty long day so I headed back to the hostel for a nap and didn't wake up until four hours later and that was only because Laura was prodding me, saying "Sarah. Sarah. Sarah..." I think I probably Dinosaur RARred at her in reply. Sarah doesn't like her sleep disturbed. She was inviting me out to the Victory again with everyone which was very nice of her - and very brave to wake me up! I figured since I was up I might as well go and had a good night, although the band this week wasn't as good as the band last week.

The next day I had to head to the Gold Coast for more job interviews and not knowing whether I was coming back to Brisbane or not at the stage I sat in the square by the clock tower, sipping a raspberry slurpee and munching on chocolate Hello Panda biscuits reading my book in the sun as a little farewell Brissy moment. The city's kind of grown on me a little and I think it would be an alright place to live if you had something to keep you occupied most of the time.

The train journey to the Gold Coast was rather uneventful although I think I got on the wrong bus to Southport because it was one of those that goes down every single little street and takes forever. It didn't however go down the street where my hostel was so I got a tiny bit lost looking for it. I even went in the library to see if they had a map or at least an Internet connection I could use. I normally have a pretty good sense of direction but in the end I had to admit defeat and grab a taxi. He literally took me around the corner from the library! I couldn't believe it. Oh well. At least the driver carried my case right up to the door for me.

I got checked in and almost instantly headed back out to find the location of my interview the next day. The streets around here are quite confusing and I didn't want to get lost again and end up being late for the interview. Luckily I knew it was near the police station and I'd passed that on my earlier wanderings so I found it no probs. Afterwards I went to Oportos for some Bondi bites (aka fancy chicken nuggets) and then home to the hostel for a quiet night in.

Interview day went swimmingly because of my earlier preparation. I was at the first one in plenty of time and I think it went well. It was a group interview so it sort of took the pressure off quite a bit.

After that I walked into the centre with the intentions of catching the bus to the second interview but on the way I saw a pub with a sign for steak and chips for $6.95! SOLD! I'd paid six dollars at Oportos for chicken nuggets and Happy Meals are almost five so it was a bargain, and super nice. It was good to eat something that was on a plate for a change not in a paper bag or cardboard box. Feeling nice and full I went to the bus stop and headed over to Harbour Town shopping centre where the second interview was. Again I think it went really well and it was another group interview so I've had a lot of practice with them now.

Speaking of jobs, I've been offered the receptionist job back in Brisbane so I'm heading back there tomorrow. I'm a bit reluctant to be leaving the Gold Coast. I really like it here and maybe it's the difference in lifestyle but everyone here is so much friendlier and more laid back than in Brissy. It will be good to see the girls in the hostel again though and at least I'll have money coming in until I hear back from these other interviews.

In other news, I just found a shop selling "American Candy" so I've just bought Dr Pepper and Cookie Dough Bites and if I end up back here I'll be spending a lot more money there! Yum!

Surfers Lost

Surfers Paradise was only an hour away from Brisbane on the train but felt like a whole new country. It's a proper purpose built holiday resort area with the corporate feel of International Drive mixed with the tackiness of Magaluf and a little Bohemian chic thrown in for good measure. Just my kind of place!

I spent the early part of my day at an interview for a job that I don't think I got because there were lots of people there for the same position so I think they're more likely to hire someone local who can work for longer than six months at a time.

For lunch I went to the Hard Rock Cafe, of course! It's only tiny in there and there was hardly anyone in it but the food was really good as per usual so I left a happy bunny. Afterwards I wandered around the streets and shops a little until I ended up at the beach. It is so different to Bondi; the sand is whiter, the beach is way bigger and the waves are a lot smaller...which unfortunately meant less surfers (they should really change the name of the town!) but better paddling conditions. I was on the wrong coast to be able to watch the sun set behind the ocean but it still cast a really pretty pink and purple pattern over the sky. I wish I had a decent camera to show everyone how beautiful it was. After sun down there was a little night market on the promenade filled with the weirdest mix of souvenirs imaginable (koala shaped air fresheners next to graffitied trucker hats). There was even a massage stall where the first minute of your massage was free; very tempting!

Leaving Surfers was a lot harder than arriving. I figured that to leave I'd just go back to where the bus dropped me off but on the opposite side of the road, which is sensible, right? Wrong! Even though they're not one way streets, the buses operate on their own one way route so after ten minutes of wandering down the street wondering where all the bus stops were I had to turn back and follow the route around down a completely different street to find a bus stop. They should really warn people when they get off the bus about that. At least from my time wandering aimlessly around the streets I made an amazing discovery - Surfers has it's own Cold Rocks Ice Creamery so if I move there I wouldn't be missing out on my ice cream fix.

The next morning the manager made everyone in my room change rooms because there was a big group coming in that needed the room. One of the lads, Nicky, was going home that day after only a week because he was homesick and his mate, Dan, was moving hostels rather than bother with the hassle of moving rooms so it felt like our little group was breaking up which was quite sad. Luckily I had showtunes to cheer me up! Cabaret was showing at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and I had a ticket for the front row of the circle. It was opening night so I think the nerves were showing in the lead but the dancers and the choreography were amazing. The story was quite different to the movie but still had the same basic theme but the ending was so much more powerful than in the film. It was incredible, I just wish there had been a better Sally.

I had another job interview the next day, this time for a hotel here in Brissy. I think this one went a lot better so hopefully I'll soon be employed. Keep your fingers crossed for me! After the interview I popped into the office to do a little more job hunting and use the free wifi and I bumped into Bev. She was killing time until she had to go to the airport to meet her parents in Sydney who were visiting. I hadn't seen her since she'd left Sydney two weeks ago so we went to a cafe for a catch up over a muffin and a hot chocolate. She has meeting her friend, Ellen, for tea and invited me to go with them. We went to a place called Tinbilly's which is like a pub attached to a hostel with an awesome atmosphere. The place was heaving and there was gent with a guitar singing a medley of really good song on stage. I had the chciken schnitzel (mainly because I love saying the word schnitzel) and it was really, really nice and not expensive at all. Coincidentally I found out that Ellen is actually staying in my hostel so it's nice to know someone else staying here. We went on a little Woolies trip together to get dessert and I discovered that they sell gingerbread men there for 79 cents so I think I know what I'm going to be living off from now on! Mmmmmm gingerbread...

Pretending to be clever

I was a proper culture vulture yesterday. After dutifully spending the morning in the office job hunting I popped to McDonald's for lunch. On the floor above Maccy's there's a cake shop where the chocolate mud cake had been giving me the eye for a few days so I treated myself to a slice. I should've saved my money. I make nicer cakes than that and I can't even cook!

I decided to head over to Southbank again for the afternoon because it's the only place I actually like in Brisbane. On the way over the bridge I had a moment of genius. The little ferry boats are called City Cats and it's kind of perplexed me as to why because cats don't like water, right? LIGHT BULB! It's short for catamaran! It's only my favorite word and I didn't even frickin' notice. Silly Sarah! Whether it was because I was feeling particularly intelligent after that or if it was the recommendation from Nicky, one of the guys in my dorm, I'll never know, but I decided to head to the Queensland Museum. It was an alright museum. There was an aboriginal section and an exhibit dedicated to all things Queensland but the best bits were the airplanes and the dinosaur skeleton. Everyone loves a good dinosaur skeleton! This one was a muttaburrasaurus. I've never heard of it before but it was pretty cool. Upstairs was the "zoo" full of loads of taxidermy animals which kind of freakedme out, especially the collection of dead beetles. They just look like they're about to come to life and start crawling all over you!

I must have been feeling quite clever after that because I decided to visit the art galleries as well whilst I was in the area and accidentally stumbled on the coolest place in Brisbane! It's called Whale Mall and it's a hall between the museum and art gallery, which are both really ugly grey box buildings so the hall would be really ugly too if it wasn't for the giant humpback whales hanging from the ceiling! Whale song music was pumped through the sound system and it was just really surreal to be outside, not expecting anything and all of a sudden a whale appears! I loved it!

The art galleries were pretty cool too. The modern one had some really pretty Aboriginal paintings in it from the Torres Straits and the other one (non-modern?) had loads of random water features around the place. All in all a good day. I felt well clever afterwards and even used my brain power to resist going over to Cold Rocks again for more ice cream. Go me!

Boring Brisbane Continued

So Brisbane still continues to bore the pants off of me! Sunday was super boring. It was deader than usual but the sun was out. I was supposed to meet Lynsey for lunch but she bailed on me so I wandered around the CBD a little and just ended up chilling in the hostel. There's some really nice people staying here which makes up for the lameness of this city. Some of the hostels I've stayed in the people haven't been too chatty or maybe that was just me not being sociable before! I was all for getting into my PJs and watching a movie in bed but the other Sarah convinced me to go out to the Victory Pub with them. It was an alright bar with an outdoor dancefloor (the noise police wouldn't have that in England!). I was plenty warm enough but some of the kiwis and aussies we were with were freezing and dancing in their coats. Crazy people! The band was playing rock cover versions which was all well and good until the drummer completely screwed up the end of Are You Gonna Be My Girl. That's just totally unacceptable in my eyes.

Yesterday was also pretty uneventful. I spent the morning in the office, using the wifi! I bumped into Michelle and Amy there who are still jobhunting. I still can't believe they've gone and got flats without even knowing what they're going to be earning or anything. I must think backwards to the rest of them! I'd had an email from a lady in Surfer's Paradise (which sounds exactly my kind of place) saying they were having interviews this week so I need to head down there as soon as I can get it organised. I was planning on heading that way soon anyway so it's not like it's an inconvenience.

When I'd done in the office, I headed over to Southbank and had a burger for my lunch...and was almost decapitated by an ibis! Evil birds. There's signs everywhere telling you not to feed them and the dosey woman on the table next to me was holding out her chips to them. Is she mental? Have you seen the size of them? They're horrid things with absolutely massive beaks and the red feathers on the back of their heads make it look like their brains are hanging out. Disgusting. Why anyone would actively share their chips with them I'll never know.

Speaking of chips, when I got mine I asked for some salt and the guy behind the counter asked if I wanted the regular kind or chicken salt. What on Earth is chicken salt? I get an image of ground up chicken bones in a salt shaker! If anyone knows any different please enlighten me!

Obviously while I was at Southbank I had to go to Cold Rocks Ice Creamery again and make a new flavour combination. This time I went for cake batter flavoured ice cream with "freckles" (what Ozians call the chocolate buttons with sprinkles) and yet again I think I've made another genius flavour combination! It was so nice, maybe not as scrumptious as the cookie dough and cheesecake combo but I reckon a scoop of each would make a really awesome sundae. I went for a stroll by the river eating my delicious ice cream concotion and bumped into the hugest lizard I've ever seen outside of a zoo! When I was in Florida there were little geckos running around everywhere but this fella was well on his way to dinosaur proportions...well, baby dinosaur any way. I want to say it was a bearded dragon but I have no way to confim this, not even photographic evidence, so you'll have to take my word for it. He was so cute, basking away on the river bank, soaking up the sun with all the uni students. I wish I could've taken him home with me but I don't think he'd get through immigration. Poor guy.

After saying goodbye to my new mate I headed over the bridge to the botanic gardens where I did a little basking in the sun myself and read a little. With it being winter it starts getting getting chillier by four o'clock so I had to head back over to the hostel and spent my evening in my pjs, eating cookie dough and watching movies. I'm so rockstar it hurts.