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Brisbane 2011 transport

Buses, trains, and bus ways

Today’s Movember update here (I’ll post the latest pics to the blog every 2-3 days.) A lot of people express a preference of trains over buses. I suspect it’s mostly about ride quality. Railed vehicles are generally going to be smoother than tyred vehicles. And there’s also perception of permanence (and in Melbourne, perception of  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011

Brisbane day 6 – heading home

Thursday 6th October Alas, the day came to depart Brisbane and head back home. Perhaps it’s inevitable these days that travelling interstate pretty much requires setting aside most or all of the day just for the journey. I suppose it’s a consequence of modern air travel, which requires getting to and from airports, and lengthy  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011

Brisbane day 5 – Surfers Paradise

Wednesday 5th October The first job was to return the hire car. Similar to the circuitous route filling it up the night before, due to the one way streets, this involved a 750 metre drive (Google Maps estimated time: 4 minutes), and then a 170 metre walk back (estimated: 2 minutes). Turning out of Raff  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011

Brisbane day 4 – can you identify the animal?

Tuesday 4th October It was time to go bush. We picked up a booked car at Europcar (around the corner from the hotel, though it turned out Thrifty was also close-by) and after some negotiating of central Brisbane’s one way streets, found the Pacific Motorway. One way streets don’t affect one as a pedestrian, but  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011

Brisbane Day 3

Monday 3rd October Day three in Brisbane, and it was time to get to the whole point of the trip: to visit my Dad’s memorial bench at the University of Queensland. After waiting for my Uncle Frank (Dad’s last remaining sibling) to arrive (his bus was delayed), we headed down Adelaide Street to find the  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011

Brisbane day 2

Sunday 2nd October We started off with a walk around Brisbane’s CBD, heading down and around Queen Street Mall to look around the shops (nothing staggeringly surprising). Being the PT geek that I am, I guided us down into one of the underground bus stops I’d encountered on my only previous visit to Brisbane in  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011

Brisbane day 1

Saturday 1st October It’s probably almost inevitable that when leaving on an interstate holiday, you will head for the airport and reach the point of no return before remembering some vital thing you’ve left behind. In my case, it was medication — sitting on the bedside table at home — which is prescription-only and for  ... [More]

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Brisbane 2011 transport

Queensland’s Go Card vs Myki

I’ll get to writing up our Brisbane trip in full excruiciating detail in due course, but first what everyone wants to know: How is Go Card compared to Myki? First impressions Go Card seems faster; more responsive. On buses, ferries and railway stations we consistently seemed to get sub-second response times when touching the card  ... [More]

Categories
Brisbane 2011

Brisbane

Going to Brisbane soon. Have some plans, but suggestions welcome, especially teenager-friendly places to have dinner or near the CBD. (Very disappointed to be missing the Emulator retro games exhibition. Ah well.)

Categories
Brisbane 2011 Friends and loved ones

The memorial bench

At the University of Queensland this week, they installed a park bench, a memorial to my father, who studied there and was editor of the student magazine Sempor Floreat sixty years ago this year. I’m told it’s beside the lake (obviously) next to College Road, close to the intersection with Staff House Road. Judging from  ... [More]