In the mood to book

As I stood on the beach at Kurnell and watched the aircraft fly overhead on descent to Sydney Airport I felt my travel addiction stir. I felt like attending one of those Flight Centre travel expos (next one November 4 in Sydney, a fortuitous date for us!) and booking a holiday to Europe right there on the spot.

Despite the fact that it's mostly tour packages on offer there's something seductive about the expos. Maybe it's the airline stands with their glossy aircraft brochures promising all sorts of comforts and the photocopied special deals. To make a snap decision, then to spend the time until departure fitting in an itinerary. It's a thrill!

I feel like finding some way to combine my love of travel with my work. I must look into Operations Research further. It's one reason I am sad to leave one division now as they had an OR group. To combine travel and mathematics. What a dream!

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A selection of jams

We're home now. The last two days of our Brisbane trip involved a lot of driving but not always much movement. On Wednesday we arranged to met Sis and her family at Robina Town Centre, a massive shopping mall. That meant a drive down towards the Gold Coast along the same motorway we'd driven up along. What should have taken an hour took twice that due to the holiday traffic along the 3 and 4 lane road. Lots of people taking the turn-offs to three of the "Worlds" (Wet'n'Wild, Movie World and Dreamworld). The Town Centre hosts Artvo , a trick photography gallery where you use perspectives to make subjects look like they are part of the artwork. It was surprisingly fun, despite the aversion of we males to being the subjects of photos. Afterwards we had a long chat over lunch, which was sourced from a variety of eateries. I had roti and chicken curry from Roti and Buns . Passable, though the curry was more laksa like. We later took Sis to Daiso and she and her h

Boxing Day in Brisbane

No post Christmas recovery for us. We walk up to Queen Street Mall again in search of breakfast. The Boxing Day sale crowds were building as the shops began to open. Brisbane's city centre feels large and impressive, but also a bit like some of the more modern parts of Singapore. The tropical heat and humidity certainly assists with that impression. The others eat McDonalds for breakfast, I had a slice of Christmas cake in the hotel. We buy some clothes from Uniqlo, browse a few other stores, hunt for a Malaysian cafe that turns out to be too fried to eat now. After more shopping and wandering it is now vaguely lunch time, so we try Roti Place. The roti is crispy and sweet, the curry salty, the har mee spicy, the Hainanese chicken okay. My favourite is the oatmeal chicken. On the way back to the hotel we stop by bookstores looking for the next book in a series for Alex. On the third try we locate a single copy. It's back to the hotel room for an afternoo

Up to Brissy for Chrissy

It's Christmas Day. We are celebrating it alone as a family, the presents were opened yesterday, our lunch was leftovers turned into a salad and our dinner was Hungry Jacks. But the tiny Christmas tree from home sits on the hotel room desk, wrapped with colourful battery powered lights. There's pudding and custard, cherries and mangoes, plus lots of chocolate. And we are on holidays! Outside the hotel room window is a view of the Brisbane River, with bridges and buildings on the Southbank lit up in Christmas colours. There were crowds of people admiring the tree and lights out the front of the Brisbane Town Hall. I expected the city to be dead on Christmas night, but no, it's buzzing. I'm exhausted after the drive north. I had a rough sleep, dreamed I was flying and swimming in the South Pacific. Then I cracked a molar while eating Christmas cake! This is totally unfair because I just had a lower molar repaired earlier in the week. Th

travelling allrite

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