Brisbane for the Weekend

Alan waiting for the City Cat to arrive

City Cat docking at Mowbray park

Flew to Brisbane for the weekend. Great opportunity to catch up with Matthew and watch one of his home Games on Saturday afternoon. Picked up the hire car from the Airport and was able to navigate our way (with the help of Mr Sat Nav!) to the Wellington Apartment Hotel at East Brisbane.  Caught up with Matthew later in the evening and he gave us a moonlight tour of inner suburban Brisbane before settling for coffee and macademia slice at a very cosmopolitan little suburban village, Bullimba (I think?)

Saturday morning we decided to check out the City Cat trip into the City. What a fantastic way to travel around the city. The sun was shining and the river looked beautiful.

Our trip on the City Cat ended up taking us from Mowbray Park (East Brisbane) down under the Story Bridge to Riverside Park. From there it was just a short stroll up Elizabeth street to the Queen Street Mall. Had a fabulous "big breakfast" for just $6.90 at one of the food courts in the Mall and then set off to check out the shops. Left Alan at the TAB - previous shopping expeditions with him had proven to be less than enjoyable. He finds the whole concept of "window shopping" extremely frustrating.  Only managed to have an hour or so to find Matthew a new shirt and jacket as well as a portable transistor radio for Alan.
Made our way back to the hotel just in time to see Jessica Watson sailing into Sydney Harbour. Didn't have time to see all the celebrations as we had to make our way to Mayne Tigers home ground somewhere in Enogera! Mr Sat Nav again to the rescue.

Very pretty grounds set in natural bushland. I was fascinated with all the crows which were hovering around in the trees and a pair of pink galahs which landed in a tree not far from where we were sitting.  Later on in the afternoon I had to "fight off" those pesky crows who were trying to eat my hot chips.  True story!

Although Mayne didn't win - Matthew played a really good game and was very strong in defence. Alan was most impressed!  We met up with some of his team mates after the game and they seem like a really good group of guys. 

Alan obviously tuned into the "last" at Flemington.  Transistor radio strategically placed 

Mayne $1000 draw on Saturday night.  Needless to say - we didn't win!  On Sunday morning we headed back down the Brisbane River again to the Riverside Markets and breakfast with Matthew.  The markets were a bit disappointing - too commercial and not at all what I expected.  The time went so quickly and as we had to have the car back at the Airport by 3 p.m. didn't get much of a chance to check out many of the other shopping sites around Brisbane.    Great weekend - Matthew looks fit and healthy and seems happy with his life in Brisbane.