Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sunday 28 February 2010 - CLEM7

We went down to the Open Day for the CLEM7 Tollway Tunnel.
The CLEM7 Tunnel Run was at 6am and the run turned out to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. Not only was I out of race condition, but the course was rather hilly. It started with a downhill incline to get into the tunnel that went for almost a mile, then it was up and down the whole way. Not good. In the tunnel was quite humid. Thought that it was bad running on a treadmill in a gym, this was ten times worse. By the end of the race, I was completely soaked from head to toe.
The start of the race was interesting. Even though it was an Athletics Australia Certified 10km course, they announced that the actual course length was 10.453km. They reasoned that because of the way the course was set out, it was impossible to have a 10km course and if they did, people would finish in the tunnel. Is it really so bad to move the start or the finish line 453 meters so people can have a proper 10km time?
We booked in for the Tunnel Walk at 10am, however, unlike the Run, there was no security to check that we had tickets for the walk. We went out there with Brian and Nancy and we were able to park the car at Nancy's workplace, which is in Bowen Hills (close to the entrance of the tunnel).
Unlike the run, the walk did not allow participants to walk in the other tunnel that goes back in the opposite direction to Bowen Hills. Instead, there were buses that drove the walkers back in the other tunnel. The problem with this was they could only fit thirty people on a bus at a time and this created a huge queue for the buses that was almost a five hundred meters long. Also, it did not allow people to exit at the other end of the tunnel. If you didn't want to take the bus, you had to walk back in the tunnel.
They did, however, allow people to leave at the Shafston Street exit, which was about a mile from the main exit. We went out this exit and we ran into some girls that were from 97.3FM (part of the Australian Radio Network i.e. MIX101.1), who were promoting Strawberry Sundae flavored Lifesavers. We picked up free Lifesavers and took a photo with a big Lifesaver over Vicky. After that we caught a taxi back to the car park.
The taxi driver was a bit crazy. He told us to get into the car quickly and started to drive the car as we were still getting in, the seat belt for the middle seat in the rear was broken, the fuel lamp was flashing as he was driving, he had no idea where he was going and he tried to put the address into his GPS Navigation System, but didn't know how to spell the street name and he took a right turn at an intersection where there was a sign saying no right turns. He actually said we took a risk after he had completed the right turn.
For lunch we went out to Grill'd.
After lunch, Vicky took a nap and I watched TV.
For dinner we went out with Brian and Nancy's friends to a Chinese noodle house called, Endless Noodles. They made quality hand made noodles with generous servings.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday 27 February 2010 - Fantastic Furniture

We drove out to Underwood to check out Fantastic Furniture. We also drove out to Ikea in Logan, which isn't too far away from Underwood. In the end, we decided to go back to Fantastic Furniture. We put down a deposit for two different sets. One was a bed set with a bed, bedside draws and a tallboy (which is just a big draw). The other set was a lounge room set, which included a sofa, coffee table, television stand, buffet, dining table and six chairs.
Before we went out to Fantastic Furniture we went out to West End for breakfast at a place called, the gunshop cafe. It was rated at the Australian cafe of the year 2010 by Magazine delicious. Was a bit disappointed that it was so popular that we had to queue up to get a table, otherwise it was good.

Friday 26 February 2010 - Seafood Chowder

We went out to dinner at South Bank again. This time at a seafood restaurant called, Guppy's. Essentially, it was an overgrown Fish n Chip shop run by Chinese people. Had a seafood chowder as an entree and there weren't any potatoes in it. Thought that would be called seafood soup.

Thursday 25 February 2010 - The Goodwill Bridge

We went out to dinner along South Bank, a little Thai restaurant called, Satay Hut. After dinner, we walked down to the Goodwill Bridge and crossed the river.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Wednesday 24 February 2010 Sponsorship and Yakiniku

During our house hunting expeditions last week, I noticed lots of advertisements for the new CLEM7 Tunnel. It's a new tollway tunnel that runs under the Brisbane River. Apparently, it will be the longest tunnel in Australia (at least until another major one is completed).
The advertising was focused on the upcoming Open Day, which will be this Sunday 28 February. As part of the Open Day, there is a fun run organized to help raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation in Brisbane (sounds a lot like Run For The Kids).
So last week, I check the website to register.
For some reason, the fun run is capped at 5,000 participants, but after the fun run, the tunnel is open to the public to leisurely stroll through.
Being keen to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity, I e-mailed the Executive Manager of the event and asked him to let me know if anyone pulls out and whether I can have their registration.
He e-mailed me back and said that there was, so it looks like I have a six o'clock race to run this Sunday morning.
If you want to sponsor me click on the link below.
Vicky came home from work very happy.
She had a day full of meetings and she managed to make some meaningful contributions.
She received praise for bringing in a breathe of fresh air.
For dinner, we went with Andrew, an old uni friend of Vicky's who was in town for some meeting, out to Fortitude Valley to a Japanese restaurant called Koh-Ya Yakiniku Japanese Restaurant. It was pretty cool. Essentially, a Japanese BBQ place where you cook your own food on a grill over a direct flame.

Tuesday 23 February 2010 Tranformers/2

Another hot and humid day in the River City.
Went to a lunchtime quality session with the GaleForce Running Squad at the Brisbane Botanical Gardens.
The session was short and sharp. Ten reps of 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off.
It was actually pretty harsh in the heat.
We went to dinner with Brian and Nancy.
The name of the restaurant was Bamboo Basket and it was about a block away from where we're staying.
The food was good. They are a Chinese restaurant that do handmade noodles.
Afterwards we went out to Freestyle Tout for dessert. It's in Fortitude Valley, so it's not too far away.
Apparently, it used to be a dessert only restaurant, but it seems that they also offer meals now.
We ordered a Chocolate Deluxe Sundae, which had vanilla, chocolate fudge & macadamia ice creams with hot fudge sauce and marshmallows, strawberry, cream and a chocolate sail.
It was pretty good except the ice cream was melting before the dessert hit our table.
While we were waiting to get in, Vicky thought that Isabel Lucas was standing in the queue in front of us. Personally, I didn't think it was her. If it was, she definitely needed to brush her hair because it was a mess. There are bird's nests that are less messy.

Monday, February 22, 2010

22 February 2010 - First Day @ Colorado

Vicky started at Colorado.
We walked down to her work in the morning. It's less than a ten minute walk.
She was really nervous about starting a new job and kept having negative thoughts, which I had to keep tell her were silly.
We caught up for lunch, which she has at 12 noon (way to early for me).
Her morning was spent in a couple of sales analysis meeting. She told me that she liked meetings. Haven't heard many people say that before.
Vicky told me that she had a fantastic first day at Colorado, so fingers crossed that this will continue for the rest of her time there.
At night we went to a seafood restaurant called Lure.
Vicky was all dressed up.
The restaurant was part of the Coro Hotel and it also had a bar and lounge.
When we came around the front, we could only see the patrons in the bar and Vicky was horrified to see one of them wearing a wife-beater.
Fortunately, the cliente upstairs in the restaurant were more appropriately attired.
We had an entree and a main each.
This composed of a seafood chowder, a rock lobster linguine, steamed snapper with red claw dumplings and a grilled barramundi with a soft shell crab.
Overall, the meals were good.
Weather is the same, thirty degrees and sunny.

Day Seven 21 February 2010 Markets

Started the day by going out to Rocklea to visit the Brisbane Markets. It was quite small. Vicky was a bit disappointed that we'd managed to go through the hour market in less than an hour.
In the afternoon, we went to Events Cinemas Myer Centre to see an advanced screening of the new Sandy Bullock film, The Blind Side. It was pretty good.
For dinner we went to the Norman Hotel. It was a steak bistro near the Gabba and apparently is renowned for it's steaks. Queues were long as was the wait for the meal. Still feel that the Meat & Wine Co. is vastly better.
That's our first week in BrisVegas done and dusted.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Day Six 20 February 2010 Soy Custard

We started the day in a mad rush going from house inspection to house inspection.
One of the places we had already visited earlier, but hadn't been inside for a house inspection was on our hit list. When we visited it earlier in the week, a young Indian couple were moving into one of the apartments downstairs. We asked to check out their place and it gave us a pretty good idea of what the upstairs apartments would be like. Hence when we went to the inspection on Saturday morning, we had already filled in all the paperwork for the application ready to hand in if the place checked out. It did and we handed in the application there and then. The realtors approved our application that afternoon and now we have a place in Annerley (south of the Brisbane River).
As soon as the realtors told us we were successful with our application we stopped going to inspections and went home. Vicky was pretty tired from the full on morning of inspections and went for a snooze.
That night we went to Sunnybank for dinner with Vicky's Uncle and Auntie (her Dad's older Sister) as well as her Cousins. We went to Landmark Restaurant and it was all right.
After dinner Vicky's Cousins took us to check out a dessert cafe called Just Soy Cafe. Was a bit shocked that they called sweet tofu by the interesting name of "Soy Custard".

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Day Five 19 February 2010 Miles per hour

More house hunting around the River City.
For some reason, there are a lot of 'Adults Only' shops in this city. Each major suburb we visit seems to have one.
We went grocery shopping at Coles in West End (around the corner from where we live) in the afternoon. Somehow, we managed to spend over $70.
Later in the afternoon, we checked out the gym in the Mantra.
Tried the treadmill, which was fine except the setting was in miles.
Thought I'd start off slow at a 12km/h pace (5min/km), but that was actually 12miles/h (3:06 min/km). For a minute I thought this is terrible, I'm really struggling here and it hadn't even hit 9. Once it was over 10 (which was actually 16km/h or 3:44min/km), I started to think something was definitely wrong. Started reducing the speed and noticed that it was displaying miles per hour.
Settled down to a 8miles/h pace (4:40min/km) for the rest of the run.
We tried to go to Subway for dinner, but it was closed.
Was a bit shocked, haven't been to a place where Subway is closed by 7pm.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Day Four 18 February 2010

Didn't do much other than househunting.
We even checked out an apartment block that used to be an aged cared facility. It was pretty well done up.
Had lunch at a place called Miss India in New Farm. Butter chicken was really good and the naan was made fresh to order in a tandoor oven in front of us. The naan was huge and I suspect that there are a lot of medium pizzas out there that would struggle to provide as much of a meal.
Also went for my first run in Brisbane. Started at 5:30pm (still struggling to wake up before 6am in the morning) at the Boardwalk Bar on the North Bank of the Brisbane River and followed the river out to New Farm and back. The session was organized by Galeforce Running and apart from the session coach, Lew, I was the only person that turned up. Seems that the River people don't like to run in the evenings. Can't blame them as it was bloody windy. Anyway, we pretty much jogged 800m and walked 200m for most of the session as Lew, who is a triathlete, did a morning bike session earlier. He was also recovering from some sort of foot injury and he recently turned 69 years old. All this meant that when we were running, it was only slightly faster than 5:30/km pace. Still a run is a run and it was nice to stretch the legs.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Day Three 17 February 2010

Not much happened. The weather bounce back up from it's low of twenty five back to around thirty degrees again. The downpour of rain provided almost no relief to the humidity.
We went house hunting around Morningside, which is south of the Brisbane River, but in the east.
Finished the night by walking into town and watching a movie at Events Cinemas Myer Centre. We saw Law Abiding Citizen, which stars Gerald Butler and Jamie Foxx. It was an all right movie.
It is nice that the prices of movie tickets are a bit cheaper than Bleak City.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Day Two 16 February 2010

We went out to Toowong and the surrounding suburbs to look for a new place to rent.
It was still pretty warm and a little overcast.
Picked up some rent listings from the realtors in the area and then went to a food court in one of the shopping centres to check out which places we wanted to visit.
We make our way out of the shopping centre to find that BrisVegas had been hit by about 50mm of rain in half an hour. There was flash flooding all over the little River City and car traffic was cactus for the rest of the day.
At night we had dinner with Brian (Vicky's Cousin) and his wife, Nancy.
We went to a Vietnamese place West End.
I ordered a combination hor fun (aka flat rice noodles) and they brought out chicken cashews.
It was the house special, so thought okay, well this must be pretty special, never had cashews with hor fun before. Spoon the dish into my bowl expecting to find the rice noodles underneath, but didn't find any. Apparently, the waitress had given me the dish for the table adjacent to us.
No harm done, but the woman on the adjacent table spat the dummy.
Didn't really make any difference, she still had to wait as they prepared her dish again.
Went back to Brian and Nancy's after dinner.
They have an insane DVD collection. Layer upon layer.
Problem I find with having DVDs is that I never find the time to watch them.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Day One 15 February 2010

We arrived in BrisVegas ahead of schedule at 12:05pm. We had to wind our watches back an hour because we surrendered daylight saving at the New South Wales border.
Temperature we was well over thirty degrees. The weather forecast had predicted late showers, but they did not arrive.
We went to a cafe on South Bank for lunch as the small carrot cake with frosting (about the size of a cupcake) that QANTAS served was insufficient.
The place that we're staying in is quite nice. For some reason they charge per minute for Internet usage. We walked into the city to find a TLife store and purchased a pre-paid wireless broadband USB key.
Somehow, I managed to fall asleep before seven o'clock at night. Might have something to do with not going to sleep the night before. Had a good sleep though.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Prequel

Vicky accepted the offer from Colorado on Thursday 21 January 2010, so we are off to BrisVegas in February. Pretty exciting.
We went out to the Australian Open Tennis Championships on Friday night. We had fantastic seats at Hisense Arena. Unfortunately, Kim Clijsters' performance was not so fantastic. She was whipped 6-0, 6-1 by Nadia Petrova.
Saturday was spent celebrating the Marriage of Imasha and Trevor.