For the record, I had a good time in Brisbane. Apart from going to Alma Park Zoo, which was fairly crap (not great value for money, though I did get some great pics of peacocks), I also managed to spend a fair bit of money on random things like a Kirigami calendar, a dress (for Dina & Desi's wedding) and a lot of smartarse t-shirts.
Met with David Hudson (my client's Qld Chapter President) for lunch last Wednesday and extracted all the goss on the 2011 IPMA World Congress, then went to Sunset Sounds over two evenings. First one stayed dry until about 5.30pm, after which torrential rain ruined my Converse sneakers due to the muddy surrounds. I had an umbrella but still got a wet back. The next day I wore a poncho, a hat and used my umbrella and stayed relatively dry. I'd also gone out and bought thandals (thong sandals) so it'd be easy to wash off the mud, but they turned out to be incredibly uncomfortable so I ended up ditching them at the hostel after the festival. Pretty good festival. Will try and post up a review.
Found three new tea places on this trip, adding to my favourite spot, Tlicious on Southbank. Skippy has a joke that I have ant-tea-nae that can find tea anywhere. Anyway, the places are Kenchington at Milton, Room with Roses and Keri Craig in the Brisbane Arcade. Didn't go to Keri Craig, but the other two were good.
One highlight of my visit was to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA. G-o-M-A GoMA - still can't help but do it Kinks style) where I spent about five hours on Friday. Their 21st Century: Art in the First Decade exhibition is a retrospective of recent pieces, a lot of which were interactive, including a white Lego build-a-thon, three-storey high tube slides, and a wall of internet memes. I went back on Saturday morning to see 'From Here to Ear', an installation featuring live finches, because my friend Jenni told me about it and I'd managed to miss it first time around.
Had dinner with a bunch of Brissie friends at Mecca Bah on the Friday night. In addition to Skippy and her two friends Ding and Karen (they were on the other end of the table so I didn't really talk to them), Jenni brought Mary, Ross Clark (the poet) came and Boff's brother Mark (Brisbane Bof) and his partner Kristina made it. Apart from the tyranny of table distance, I had a really good time chatting to everyone.
Afterwards it was just Skippy, Ross and I standing but then Skippy piked and left me to hold the fort with Ross, whom I don't know very well. We sat down at a cafe and had tea/coffee and chatted about music festivals (he plays in a band) and he said he'd like to draw me one day. Nude. I asked Skippy about this when she drove me to the airport and she said he is actually a good artist (and is also a life model himself) so it wasn't weird of him to ask me, although I did put forward the question of why he hadn't asked her. I texted Boff about it later and he replied: "Tell him you're hanging out for your mural" referring to the mural I still want for my house (but not of me nude, silly man).
When I got back to Sydney, Boff came over because he said he missed me and we spent the weekend together. He was very gooey about it, too.
Today was the first day back at work. Had the client presentation - thought it went pretty well (we shall see).
Whole bunch of other stuff I haven't mentioned but aren't as important as sleep right now. Ciao.
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