On the way

Checked out of the hotel and left the suitcase with the concierge and headed off to find some breakfast.

A final morning with a guided walking tour booked with a Brisbane Greeter, who started at the very impressive tourist information centre, which used to be a Theatre and Cinema. A fabulous building would have been great to see in its heyday.

We were taken on  a walking tour of some of the main areas, some already visited previously, but we did actually go inside the city hall building and were told some of the history of the parliament and government buildings.

We did smile when she said about the really old buildings dating from the 1880s, as for Australia, one of the oldest countries, the colonised areas don't really date back that far.

Brisbane was where a large penal colony was established, but those brought out here managed to create the city as it began. It is growing rapidly and several buildings have already been demolished to make way for new growth; though, many of the government buildings are now protected so they will remain nestled in amongst the shiny new high rises.
The rain came down, so it was useful not to be wandering too far today.

At the end of the tour we were near the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) so wandered in to find the original Government House, now swallowed up by new university buildings and managed to grab some lunch there. 

A walk along the river's edge after that through the mangroves, and back through the Botanical Gardens, then on to the Roma Street Parkland area and suitcase was collected before heading off to start on the long journey home.

Today's weather being more overcast and damp, meant it was great not to be worried about missing seeing things in the sunshine.

Have had a great 3 weeks here in Australia, the people have been so friendly, and we have had some fabulous weather. The Gold Coast is beautiful, Sydney needed more exploring, but was a great start to the time here, and being in Brisbane just finishes it all off nicely.
Another adventure to come soon I am sure, so the blog will fire up again.
But for now, I am heading home and not looking forward to getting back to normality.

Rivers and Bridges

A full day to explore so headed off in the opposite direction from the hotel, away from the shopping centre. There is a small park "Roma Street Parkland" nearby but didn't get a chance to stop, we were heading to the river. A stop for a drink and then some breakfast at the waterside, meant a walk across the Kurilpa bridge and a stroll along the riverside, and the "South Bank" with its big wheel could almost have been London's Southbank apart from the views and the sunshine. 😉

Stumbling across a Nepalese Peace Pagoda, still remaining from the World expo 1988 and moved to it's current site in 1992, it was a small piece of calm and cool.
Deciding that a river trip was a good way to see the city, headed to the South Bank pier and caught the sea cat, heading along towards the Northshore at Hamilton. Asked about my accreditation still working for the trip but the lady checking tickets wasn't sure, she later checked and said they were only valid on the sea cat until last Sunday, but she still let me travel on it as we headed up the river, so don't tell the ticket inspectors.


Had spotted a leaflet for the Breakfast Creek Hotel, apparently one of the old original settler hotels, so decided to try and find that for lunch. We managed to go past the closest stop so then stayed on the boat until it headed back down the river, and got off at Teneriffe. A walk along the waters edge from there, via an ice lolly stop, and the Hotel appeared right next to a very busy road.

A couple of drinks and a long lunch later, steps were retraced back to the Teneriffe boat stop, to head back to town, with the light now fading all the business and hotel buildings were lit, and we came under the story bridge, and headed to the stop at North Pier right near the Victoria Bridge, all lit up in Red and casting it's glow over the water.

Having had a late lunch no dinner was required, but the obligatory stop at a souvenir shop for some last minute gifts was needed.

Once back at the hotel, had a quick visit up to the rooftop bar to check out the views, but couldn't get to all of it due to the building works and there were so many people up there, decided not to stay.

Last night in Australia as flight is Tomorrow evening (9pm here, midday at home) and I shall be leaving for Dubai and then home.

Have had a great 3 weeks, and would be lovely to stay longer, but.......
Time to fit a few more things in though before travelling back.

Brisbane Bound

Getting close to the coming home bit now as it is time to move on from our AirBnB home we have shared for the past 2 weeks. Gloria & Lesley were heading home, via some very different routes, while Ruth was heading off to see family in New Zealand before she makes her way back.
I have headed to Brisbane for a couple of days tourism before getting on my plane home.


Before leaving we made sure we had cleaned and washed everything, which dried so quickly in the heat (could do with some of that at home sometimes)

Farewells said, an Uber ordered and eventually onto the Tram and then train to Brisbane. A couple of nights at a hotel before the flight, so a bit of time to explore.

The hotel isn't far from the King Georges Square, where the City Hall is located, a very impressive building which seems lost amongst the very tall modern skyscrapers around it, though not quite as lost at the little Albert Street Uniting Church, nestling up against the huge buildings behind and looking like it's part of a model village.








Headed through the busy shopping streets to find the tourist information office and see what would be good to visit. A river boat tour was possibly on the cards, but we can do just the same with the local ferries and city hoppers and there might even be a possibility I can still use my accreditation to get some free travel. (Have a backup travel card though just in case)





Then headed towards the Brisbane Botanical Gardens to take in some of the lovely gardens and managed to catch sight of a possum, up on one of the walls, though by the time I tried to approach it to take a picture it had disappeared down inside out of sight. (You may just be able to make it out on top of the pillar of the wall, the other side of the building, between the posts)








As the sun disappeared it was obvious there was nowhere close to get to see the sunset, so headed off for a drink and some food at an Irish pub, before heading back to the hotel.















Getting very tired now, and while I am loving the experience it feels like it is time to get back home. Though I'm sure once there I shall be keen to have stayed away.
Final stages now.

Final Shift and Forests

Last shift took place on Friday evening.
As part of the North team for screen moving we really only had one move to do near the start, as the South team then had 2 and where we normally would all come together, the move was cancelled as they were running late. So sadly had to spend a lot of time watching the athletics, which was really tough.😉

As part of this tough evening, I saw Katarina Johnson-Thompson win her Commonwealth Heptathlon Gold when she did the 800m final event of her 7, then saw her medal presentation.



At the end of the evening when all the crowds had gone, we all went out onto the track and got some final farewell pictures, and as we were walking back to collect our things, we spotted a film crew doing a piece to camera with none other than Denise Lewis being filmed. So we waited and as Laura (one of my team) knew everyone there, we sneaked over and asked if we could have a photo and we had a lovely chat too.

After finishing on a high, I decided that an Uber home was a much quicker and nicer option for my feet. A treat for the end of the games for me.

Saturday saw a very different day.
Time to head off and explore away from the beach, so hired a car and headed up to Springbrook National Park, a place with lots of views, waterfalls and rain forest.

The weather started a bit Grey and we had some rain, but once it cleared it was still warm. We
stopped at several viewpoints on the way up the mountain, some lovely waterfalls, and spotted what we think may have been wallaroos (or wallabies, but think too small for kangaroos) hopping around and across the roads.

Sadly no Koalas spotted in spite of a sign saying there might be some to be aware of.



Headed back home as it started to get a bit darker and aimed for the local tavern, where the air conditioning was a little on the high side, but managed to eat while food still hot and then headed back for a reasonably early night.

Starting to wind down now, and time to head home is getting closer.

4 down one to go

Trying to fit in some downtime with the late night shifts, but it is starting to get tiring. But not as tiring as the production team who are having to work long days getting everything set up and sorted both before and after. Mind you they get paid for it, and they get a lift at the end where we have to queue for the buses and are at the behest of the timetabling for the local buses. (Had almost an hour wait last night for a local bus, having already walked around 1 1/2 miles to get to the nearest stop. So much for adding buses to the timetable)

Anyhooooo.

Shifts have been fun. We have a great team of 5 (the 6th person never appeared) and the guys from the Great Big Event company we are working with are really good fun to work with.
We do get a lot of downtime between moving the screens out, waiting with them and then moving them back, until the next final that needs them, so for us there's a lot of hanging around, but hey, we are right along the side of the athletic track so we get to watch a lot of the action.

We start shift with 2 screens North and 2 Screens South, and usually part way through the evening we have to move one of the South screens to the North side so we can set them up in a 3 to look good for announcing the athletes.

One of the evenings, we had taken the North screens quite a way onto field of play to the long jump runway, so we had to wheel them off to the South before competition started. This meant we then had 3 screens to move back to the North side.
The only way to do this is to head out and around the spectator seating, so ideally with an escort to stop people walking out in front, or coming out of the seating access.
pushing these things is not as hard as trying to steer them and pull them at the same time, I think I've had a pretty good workout while here. With that and all the walking and the hills.

We have had a few visitors too in our breakout area, Kathy Freeman (Track Athlete) came in to see us and also Anna Mears (Track Cyclist). Rumour was Usain Bolt might make an appearance, and I just missed him after he presented the 200m women's final medal last night as we were waiting at the wrong exit from the track (I think he was there for the Men's but there was an issue with the result and I believe the English runner Hughes got disqualified from Gold position and it was being appealed, so that ceremony got pulled)

Last shift tonight, so winding down then ready to come home. I've been out here 2 weeks now, just one more week until I am back in my own bed. But first a few days free then also in Brisbane before flying home.
So on downtime so far, have managed to walk the length of the coast from Southport to Broadbeach, (Half of that twice)

Seen loads of Borobi Sculptures (Borobi is the games mascot) and generally tried lots of touristy stuff, like Koala cuddling and visiting the Q1 building, the highest in Australia. Though I'm sure there are loads of things we haven't done that we'll realise once home.

So will leave you with the pictures of shifts and Koalas

Facebook Issues and a Few Photos

Bless, If it's not one thing it's another. Not only do we not have WiFi but my facebook is now inaccessible via my laptop, so I can't add photos direct to facebook. (I have them all on my laptop hard drive not on my phone, otherwise I'd be fine.)
Sooo this blog post is just to make you jealous about my day off on Saturday.
Here are a few piccies to sum up my day.
Bus to Broadbeach and a quick stop in the huge shopping mall to buy a few souvenirs and other bits, even bought some shorts and a couple of T-shirts in K-Mart. (Those who know me will know how much I hate shopping). We then headed to the tram to travel along to our chosen stop.










We then headed to the Q1 building again, and headed up for a drink and a shared bowl of chips.









We then walked back along the beach, paddling in the sea as we went. (It's a hard life eh?)

Once back at Broadbeach, we dropped Gloria at the tramstop to wait for a friend, while Lesley and I headed up towards Southport and a small Scottish Cafe where I had been with Suzie when I first arrived.







It just happened that the Swimmer Duncan Scott's mum was in there being interviewed.
We had a wander after to see if we could see the swimming pool, but was too well hidden, so we set off back to the accommodation.
Right then a few photos :-)
Enjoy

First Shift

So the day of my first shift dawned and I didn’t have to be there until 3pm (due to be there until 11pm) so faffed around in the morning, sorting things out and generally relaxing. Got myself ready and headed off to catch the bus. 

It was quite a walk to the stadium from the bus stop and my nice uniform hat was very useful, if a bit big.
Heading through the security checks, found workforce and went to see where we needed to be for the shift. Bumping into a couple of other volunteers, also doing the same role with no idea where to go, we eventually met the rest of the team.

We are a small but perfectly formed team of 6, though one member was not there on shift today. We were introduced to our team leaders who are the “Great Big Events Company”, not volunteers but part of the production team, so working closely with the broadcasters. 

Our role is to wheel out 2 large screens onto the track or to the field events, so they can be used to announce the athletes to their finals, instead of, like the swimming, having a fixed point of entry, they athletes will come through the door created by the screens and head to their start or waiting area if it is a field event.

We split into 2 teams of 3, each having a Big Events staff member or two, working with us, and each team (North and South) having 2 screens to get into place. My team has Marcus and Gillian in (Gill is a former Australian Heptathlete so this is her first time on the volunteer side of the proceedings) The other team has Chris and Laura (plus one we have yet to meet)

As the North team, we will be looking after the 100m & 200m starts, plus the field events that take place at the North end of the stadium. The South team funnily will be in charge of the South end starting events (which I don’t think are quite so many, so we should be busier)
We are only needed for final announcements, so there will be a bit of down time in between events where we might be able to watch some of the sport going on.

As the broadcasters were rehearsing their timings for events and medal ceremonies, there were a few athletes from local clubs and some junior athletes there, acting as Athletes for taking part in the races, the announcements and for the field events, so the cameras could find their positions.
We were also asked to stand in, when they tested the timings for athletes being announced through our screen, then a few had to go and join the start lines for races, plus we also got involved in a test medal ceremony for relay. It was all a lot of fun, even though it seems that when competition actually starts we won’t have that much to do.
We will, however, be wheeling the screens out onto the field of play in front of the whole stadium audience, so there’s no room for error as people will be watching closely.  I am hoping that some of my friends who have tickets will be able to get pictures of me in action. But see if you can spot me on the TV.

We were finished well before 9pm so were able to go and get some food and then head off to find the bus home. Chris was heading in a similar direction, but we worked out probably too far apart to make the same bus, but got back eventually with the aid of google maps just to set me on the right path.
Another free day tomorrow then we start our evening shifts in earnest for 5 days.

Uniforms, Heights and Koalas

Tuesday started with a torrential downpour and wondering if that was it for the day, thankfully it stopped as I was due to head to collect my uniform today so didn’t want to have to trek all the way to the UAC (Uniform & Accreditation Centre) in the rain.
The others headed to Brisbane for the day, though Lesley suddenly announced that her wallet of cash was missing, and she thought she may have lost it at the Ceremony last night.
A few phone calls later, the UAC were on alert to look out for it and get in touch if it came in with the lost property, which they did later in the day so luckily as I was heading there I was able to collect for her.
Made a rookie error of waiting for the bus on the wrong side of the road, so as I saw the one I wanted go sailing by, I recalculated my route to head the other way. A longer journey and when coming home also had issued with connections, meant I spent almost 6 hours travelling today. One volunteer took pity on me as we got chatting at the bus stop, so offered me a lift to the entrance of UAC at the end of our journey, which save me a little time.
 A straightforward process, check in, have photo taken, collect pass, try on uniform, collect uniform (even managed to use my sign language with one of the volunteers, who was so pleased to be able to sign), then found lost property collected Lesley’s wallet and headed back home.
The others got back around 9.30pm with tales of their day in Brisbane. Somewhere I shall be heading once the games are over.

Wednesday 

Ruth & Gloria both had shifts today so that left Lesley, Kirsty & Myself to do stuff. Lesley needed to collect some tickets from Sue at Surfer’s Paradise, so we all decided to head off there and then maybe go to the Q1 tower after for either a drink or some lunch.
Ticket’s collected, the Q1 called, and as we had accreditation we were allowed to go up the tower for free, and there was an offer of $15 for a £20 food voucher we could use, which we decided we would.
A very quick elevator took us up to the 77^th floor (I think), where we were able to wander around an observation desk and check out all the views.
We then headed to the café and had some lunch, mine so well planned that it came to exactly $20.

After we got back down we headed for the beach, where they were setting up for some event which we later found was part of the Queens Baton relay where it would come in by sea and then head to the opening ceremony at the stadium.
It took a while to find a bus back to the house due to volume of traffic trying to get to the Stadium for the Opening Ceremony, but we made it, then Ruth & Lesley headed off to watch it live, while Gloria, Kirsty & I settled in to watch on the TV.

 Let the games begin.

Thursday
Today Ruth, Lesley & I were heading off for a Koala cuddle experience. One of Ruth’s volunteer colleagues said she’d like to come with us and offered to give us a lift there and back, which was great. We dropped Gloria off for her shift on the way, and then set off to Currumbin, a typical wildlife park that just happened to be close and where we had booked our Koala cuddle experience.
Saw loads of animals, including a Tasmanian devil, parrots, wallabies and of course koalas, so soft and fluffy, and our experience took us into one of the small enclosures to get up close and personal and then to have a cuddle and a photo. They are just soooo cute.
Once we got back, we decided to head out to try the local “Tavern” where we had a pretty good meal before heading back to settle in for the night.

Friday 

Last free day before shifts, we headed to the Broadbeach superstore this time on the right bus, so it took a lot less time to get there.
Bought a few Borobi cuddly mascots and some other small bits, but as usual the things are not cheap. We then headed to a small bar called MooMoo for a light lunch. Quite fitting as in London 2012 there was a pub called the Cow that used to be popular.

From there we headed to see the beach and where the Festival 2018 is taking place, then caught a bus along to Main Beach and slightly beyond as Lesley wanted to see if she could find the hotel used by the celebs in “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” which we did, had a quick look around, and headed back to Broadbeach.
Did a bit of shopping at the Pacific Fair shopping mall (huge place) and left Kirsty & Gloria shopping while Lesley and I headed back.
Managed to eventually sort out a video call with my mum after getting very frustrated with the technology.  Back home my sister and her hubby are going to be staying at my place for a week, so hoping they can help sort some issues there and we can maybe have another call in a few days.

The problem with WiFi

Monday morning arrived as if I hadn’t had much sleep.

Oh that’s right I hadn’t.

 I headed to bed the previous night around 11pm but knowing I had to be up around 5am for my taxi, I was not getting much rest.
5am came and I was up and ready to leave, was just about to take my suitcase out the door, when Sue appeared to ask if I needed a hand up their 3 flights of stairs. Always nice to have help, she took my case up to the road, and we waited. 5.20am arrived, but no taxi. Suddenly Darren came running up the steps, car keys in hand and crashed into the car parked at the top (He was still incredibly tired and groggy – I might blame the wine from the boat trip but I couldn’t possibly comment). He muttered something about mixing up the time and he’d booked the taxi for 5.20pm so he’d drive me to the airport. Sue took one look at him and said she’d go and get her shoes to take me as he was still in need of more sleep.
So 5 minutes later we were on the way to the airport for my 7am flight. No traffic to plough through we did the journey quite easily. (And I understand Sue had the benefit of a glorious sunrise as she returned back home)


The flight to the Gold Coast Airport at Coolangatta took around 1 hour and 10 minutes, after which I headed to find a bus to Broadbeach to meet Sue Brisco. She has been out here since 1^st February volunteering at the Uniform Centre and loving every minute by the sound of it. Today she was heading up to Brisbane to meet her Hubby who is joining her for the final few weeks as they have a holiday and see pretty much all of the athletics going at the Stadium.We walked along to Southport and found a small café which did Scottish breakfast, so we had a square sausage and egg roll, as you do and sat and put the world to rights.We noticed things happening outside then realised that the Queens Baton Relay was coming past in the next couple of hours (in fact just about an hour later) So we decided to hang on for a bit to watch it. Leaving our luggage in the capable hands of the café staff we went out to watch the baton brought through. Sadly as I raised my camera to take a picture the accompanying policeman got in the way. So I am stealing a photo from Sue’s collection to show it off.
We went back and collected our stuff then headed for the bus to take me out to where my accommodation was. Not totally sure where to get off, but we made it in the end and found the house, where one of my housemates Lesley, was in while the others were out shopping.Afterwards we headed off to find the bus and even though the driver on the way out had said buses were about all evening, we couldn’t find one that headed in our direction, so ended up walking the 3 miles, getting back to our accommodation at midnight. The bonus was it was warm and not raining; the downside was it was warm and hilly.

When I got on the bus I went to pay and the driver said the pay machine was broken so we had to travel for free. Bit of a result that eh?
When I got to Broadbeach, Sue said we needed to get a bus to Southport, and she had a travel card (a Go card) I could use, so more free travel.
We got off a stop early at Southport South, but it meant we walked past the Chinatown area and spotted a Panda Koala (you needed to see it to recognise it was a koala but it did have panda colours).




Sue then headed off as she was making her way up to Brisbane. I’m sure we’ll catch up again before we both head back to the UK.

So it is definite that the accommodation has no WiFi. Grrrrr. Bit of a mis-selling of the property rental really stating there was WiFi for use. Apparently the host forgot she had it removed. Hmmm. Anyway to counter my addiction to Facebook, Ruth, one of my other housemates, and I, walked up to the 7/11 at the top of the road to buy an Aussie Sim, and she was happy to lend me a phone to use it with. So 18gb of Data for $40 is a darn sight better than my 50mb for £20 Virgin mobile decided to charge me for. Gloria our other housemate, and I then had a major rant about our social media addiction, I mean lack of WiFi, and we are planning to complain to both the host landlady and AirBnB and ask for a price reduction as we have had to pay for data that we expected to have included. Watch this space for that one.
By the time we had finished ranting and working out how we needed to fund our eating and who owed what to each other by way of money. (A very complex set of calculations happened to work out that we all owe someone something, but none of us actually have any cash to pay for it all.)

We then were due to head off to the opening ceremony rehearsal, so didn’t have much time to get ourselves ready and out to catch the bus. The 5 of us, including Gloria’s friend Kirsty, set off a little early as I’d misread the timetable so we had plenty of time to find the bus. The driver very kindly dropped us off near where we had to walk to the Stadium and we found our seats and settled in for the evening.


We obviously need to save the surprise of the content so that those who go to the Actual Opening ceremony on Wednesday don’t hear what’s going on beforehand, but it is the usual type of thing for a ceremony of this type, some great bits, some wonderfully moving bits and the usual athletes parade, with more stuff going on after. And I suspect there will be much more happening on the night as not everything can be practiced in the rehearsal.

Eventually got to bed around 1.30am after a very refreshing shower.

Harbouring Good Intentions

A SYDNEY EXPERIENCE

Friday dawned, and after a wakeful night in a strange bed, was up at 7.30am Sydney time and ready for action, well pancakes anyway.

The decision was made to head local and do a coastal walk around part of the Sydney Harbour National Park area. We headed to a place called Rose Bay to start, with a view of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house in the distance. The day was hot and the path undulating, but we stopped at the bays along the way, small but perfectly formed and with great views.

A sandman built and a monster drawn in the sand, plus my name, we walked further round the bay to Nielsen's Park, and had lunch in the little cafe/restaurant there, some nice fish and chips (Barramundi).

After lunch we went back, for a cuppa and some time to chill, we headed out again to see if we could find some of the cockatiels in the local park.




Found some Little Corellas and one white

cockatiel and a few trees full of Fruit bats or Flying foxes.

We headed back to the house to collect Darren & Jos and set off again to find some food, a pizza restaurant with paper tablecloths for drawing on worked well with a little one in tow.
Trying hard to settle into the timezone, though started drifting at 9.30pm I did manage to stay up until midnight chatting. Not great when I have discussed heading to the parkrun, which starts at 7am.

Slept for a couple of hours then woke and didn't get back off to sleep again, so Saturday saw me up a and out at 6.20 am in the dark heading to a parkrun that I am completely unfit for.

A small field of 77 runners heading off in the dark with the sun coming up, and some undulating scenery on a two lap run. I finished 71st out of 77 with a time of 46.56, not great but seeing it's my first for some time, in fact first run for a while, it was ok. Heading for a cuppa at the post race cafe I started sorting the finish tokens. Just can't keep out of a volunteer role eh?

Back to the house, I had a shower and got ready for the next adventure....a walk along the coast from Coogee to Bondi beach.

It was still fairly hot, though the clouds joined us occasionally, so sunscreen definitely needed.





The walk led us along the coastal path from Coogee, via Gordon's Bay, Clovelly (with a drink stop),A diversion through the graveyard at Waverley, on to Bronte and Tamarama and finally round to Bondi.

Some excellent rock formations on the way, and plenty of surfers out on the waves, though not so many at Bondi as we saw on the way back yesterday.
We had some lunch at Bondi and then caught a bus to the Circular Quay where we headed to see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour bridge. Definitely worth seeing up close and personal.

A brief foray into the Botanical Gardens and we saw some impressive trees and few birds including parakeets
(at last 😀 )

Then we headed back to the bus, via the Guylian chocolate shop for a refuel stop and back to the house.

A supper of Quesadillas and we were set for the evening. Headed off to bed reasonably early and slept well for the first time.








Clocks changed overnight, so now only a 9 hour time difference from home, but my clock said it was 8.15 when I woke, so I think that had taken it into account already, so really 9.15 in which case I had about 10 hours sleep.
Today is Easter Sunday, we were heading to meet friends of Sue & Darren for a trip out around the harbour on their boat.
We headed to the pontoon at Rose Bay to meet them, boarded the boat (very inelegantly I must

admit) then set off across the harbour, past the Opera House and under the Harbour Bridge (where we could see people on one of the walks across the top).

We headed to a small cove and anchored up for the day.Yvette & Martyn had caught some fresh crabs yesterday and cooked them up for lunch, which we had together with some fresh bread that Sue had made, some crackers and plenty of chilled wine.

After several hours of chatting, eating and drinking we headed back to the pontoon just as the sun was starting to set. Some lovely views of the Bridge and the Opera house against the setting sun made for a lovely end to the day. (Apart from having to get off the boat, which caused me a minor panic attack moment)

A lovely home made veggie lasagne for dinner, but I think I was the only one awake enough to enjoy it to the full. Last one standing this evening as I wanted to get my blog finished before heading to bed. An early flight in the morning beckons.

Goodbye to Sydney and Hello to the Gold Coast.
Let the Games begin