Arriving in Brisbane and a 24 degree heat - made me happy! The drive from the airport to our apartment was a little memory lane of last January. The city is looking a lot brighter and less beaten this time (we arrived 10 days after the major floods), no more water marks half way up buildings, those that were flooded are freshly painted and there are no more sand bags lining the river front.

11:02pm!

We’re staying at the Republic Apartment’s in Spring Hill just as we did last year. We’re on the 7^th floor with two bedrooms, an open plan living room, kitchen and diner. Our balcony over looks fortitude valley and to our right is Story Bridge. Bigger than our pad at home, I’m more than happy with our little temporary one.

Jet lag has been beating us both since we arrived (even four days in we’re pathetically tired and in bed by 9pm!) but the day we arrived we were meeting with Mike’s colleague and friend Pieter, his girlfriend Renee and their friend Sue-Ellen, who was visiting Brisbane from New Zealand, after taking a job there in January.

So after napping like old people we headed to the South Bank meeting them at the Wheel of Brisbane (a posh Ferris wheel).

Wheel of Brisbane

Once we’d all met up we played a modern day version of Goldilocks and in this case the three restaurants.

The first was one with a name resembling something like Poop, it looked full but worth trying, unfortunately and it lived up to its name, Pieter went in to see if they had a spare table and it seems the staff are poop - not even looking up to give Pieter eye contact and giving him a very rude No, in a snooty tone – they might as well of called him a dumb ass and be done with it!

The next restaurant Curve looked lovely, with a well stocked bar and a good menu, again we sent in Pieter to check it out – they’d run out of food!

So we decided to head for a place they all knew - the Plough Inn. Think open air pub, menu comprised of meat, meat and chunky fries – just right!

We ordered steaks and ribs, cocktails, redbull and vodka for me and beer for the boys. We spent the evening chatting, laughing (mainly at Mike and Pieter) and watching Sue-Ellen (who is teeny tiny) making her way through half a pig, chips and still fitting in her salad – we renamed her The Carnivore!

Our Carnivore

Sadly the Carnivore was leaving the next day but we’ve made plans to meet with the others for dinner, drinking and dessert at the Pancake Manor. In between this I shall we working my butt off in the gym/pool!!!

L x