I have now been in Brisbane for about 2 months and have realised that I haven’t written anything about my time here. Well, don’t worry about me, the phrase ‘the life of riley’
springs to mind – I’m having an excellent time.
Firstly, the job. I was working at a recruitment agency in the city centre in the Talent Management department – basically the department that deals with both career outplacement (helping people who have been made redundant) and assessment and development for current and future employees (psych testing, assessment and development centres etc). And you know what – I loved it! The work was interesting, I wasn’t bored and my team were really cool. We had such a great time together and I would like to say a big thank you to them all. We had one very funny afternoon and evening together, which involved us dressing up as Tom Selleck out of Magnum PI, doing the conga through the entire office and drinking copious amounts of wine (and in my case rum and coke!) It ended up with a public survey regarding the crucial subject of the colour of the Fraggles which, unfortunately, and contrary to popular opinion, I lost (see Kelly, I can admit defeat!)
I have now left that job and am working for an equally as interesting company called Triple P international – the positive parenting program. I have only just started here so I’m not entirely sure what they do, but I know that they help parents deal with problem children (mum and dad – its probably not too late for Nick!) The people seem nice and the work is good, so I’m happy.
I have been on many trips since I have been here and attended 2 very Ozzie sporting occasions – a rugby match at the Suncorp stadium and a cricket match at the Gabba. And on my last night in Brisbane I am planning to watch the first Ozzie Rules Soccer match of the season…watch this space.
Queensland is an incredibly beautiful state, with pretty much every type of landscape you can imagine. It has stunning beaches with white sand and clear water, subtropical and tropical rainforests full of exotic animals (I have now seen a snake!!) and mountains and hills to climb and survey the surroundings. The wildlife here is amazing – I have seen a snake, goannas, kangaroos, padimelons, a monitor lizard, numerous birds including beautiful king parrots, skinks and much much more (my memory is dreadful – thank goodness I have been taking photos!)
During the week my days are spent working (or at least pretending to!) and my evenings are spent either curled up in front of the television or out on the town with my new found friends. This city has a really relaxed feel to it, as if it is not really a city, but there is so much to do that I am never bored. And I am enjoying the relaxed rhythm my life has taken here – I take the ferry to work (it is so cool!) and walk home along the river and in the evening it is still warm enough to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine or two and a good book. Living with Elaine is really fun and Nanae, my Japanese housemate, provides almost constant entertainment. She is lovely and we get on really well and being Japanese she has a totally different outlook on life to me.
My weekends are spent exploring the region either with friends or on organised tours. So far I have been to Byron, Maloolaba, The Glass House Mountains, Fraser, The Springbrook National Park, The Lamington National Park, Glen Innes, Toowomba, etc etc…. Put it this way – I have not been bored. And I am planning to take a short but fun-filled road trip up to Northern Queensland via the Whitsunday islands that will include a few dives, hot springs and a national park with many platypuses!
Weather-wise I have apparently been very lucky as it is not too hot (so say the Ozzies!). Actually, I really can’t complain – it is hot but not too hot and when it rains you know that it will only last a few minutes. There haven’t been too many mosquitos and apart from an extremely scary incident with a giant sized spider last weekend that had babies in our tent (literally 25 of them!), so far so good in terms of scary creatures. We saw a 1.5m Goanna this weekend that I actually thought was a crocodile (a tad embarrassing I can tell you!).
And I have to include a bit in here about the Ozzies – my new favourite nationality. I find them a lot like the English but just that bit more relaxed, which is a little annoying when you need something doing urgently but really suits my personality (as you can probably imagine!) And the men – well, what can I say – bronzed, muscled surfers, what more could you ask for – a little intelligence perhaps??!!
Anyway I hope everyone has enjoyed the first 2 months of 2007 – mine have been awesome, really thrilling, and I have to admit that I’m really not looking forward to moving on
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