Australia Brisbane

Beer Festival

Now those are words that I love to hear. Spending a few years in the microbrewery capital of the USA, Oregon, I’ve developed a taste for beer that Aussie macros like Toohey’s, VB and XXXX just can’t touch.

At the National Festival of Beers, there’s over 150 Aussie beers on tap. I never knew there were so many microbreweries available. Ales, lagers, stouts, pilsners, wheats, they’re all there.

The only downside is that the festival is on from Sept 19-21. Three days just isn’t enough time to sample 150 beers properly without doing yourself major damage, or forgetting what you …

Like a drowned cat

I had written a more interesting post and included some photos, but due to a shoddy connection lost it all. So now you get the Trim-Fast version. Sean came to Thailand with a new digital camera. Nick was super-stoked and was keen to start taking photos in Bali.

So I came home with Nick’s old Sony Mavica, still in very good condition, even if it’s showing its age a little bit.

So now to the photos…

Just call me d'Queen of Freebies...

From about 4.30pm Friday until 8pm Sunday, I was ensconced [?!] in a veritable feast of freebies!

I began w, while not free, fabulously subsidised by my wk social club, $1 stubbies, upstairs - how hard is THAT to resist on a Friday afternoon, not to mention the v. favourable 4.30 knock-off!!, then, courtesy of the mag I occasionally still dabble in, a freebie gig [Superjesus/Skulker] that I didn’t even have to review! So, w gig buddy in tow, we grab a drink at Ric’s Cafe, share a fab roasted pumpkin, fetta & sour cream pizza from the adjacent Fat Boys [this is a standard thing to do at Ric’s/FatBoys - they’re kinda oneinthesame, except you can only consume food at Fat Boys, so you basically order your food, buy a drink at Ric’s and find a table ‘next door’], and hit the Arena, where we find local lads, Shifter, cranking it out. While the place is far from full at this stage, they have their fans… though I’m not converted any time soon. For me, five-pieces are over-instrumentalised anyway, and as I invariably say, ‘lose the keyboards!’ One minute they were ripping into some good ‘harmonic’ stuff, the next, they couldn’t seem to decide which genre they belonged to, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’m just guessing some of the musos in the band are into ‘pop-rock’, while others are still into ‘grunge’ and others are just into ’singing nice harmonies’… so, y’know, a bit too many ideas goin’ on…

Calling all writers

The Brisbane Writers Festival kicks off in October in South Bank and they’re looking for volunteers to help out.

They need ushers, stage managers, and “Green Room buddies”. I don’t know what that is, but it sounds interesting.

Most of the festival events are free, so if the pen is your friend, you might enjoy this one.

Ekka Institutions

The first thing that hits you when you step off the train at Exhibition station and pass through the gates of the RNA showground is the smell of cow dung. The second thing that hits you (or me at least) is the weight of many years worth of memories of coming here as a kid. Looking forward to it, preparing for it, going mental when you were in it. Also how the experience changed as you grow older - from the wide-eyed excitement as a kid too young to ride the rides who couldn’t get enough sample bags, to the early teens when sideshow alley became your playground, to middle and late teens when going to the Ekka meant being able to get close to your girlfriend in a parent sanctioned environment.

After all these things rushed through my head, I felt I needed a bit of a sit down to plan out my trip down memory lane. The Stockman’s Bar was the perfect choice to look over the map, orientate myself and check out the locals. My goal was to revisit all the things that made me think of the Ekka, the Ekka institutions.