Brisbane Day One

29 May 08, Thursday

At Changi Airport – I bumped into a little bit of a hassle there. I didn’t realize that you need a visa to visit Australia as a tourist. I always thought that Singaporeans didn’t need one. So you can imagine my horror when the check-in counter staff told me that without a visa, I could be fined A$5000 and immediately deported back to Singapore.

But all I needed to do was to get a visa and the Qantas service counter could do that for $70. Well, obviously, I had to right? Not much of a choice there.

It’s my fault that I didn’t check to make sure I had all the necessary travel documents but heck, I still think it’s a bloody rip off to charge $70 for an online visa application.

Anyway, I paid up, checked in and went on to Duty Free. Porcupine wanted some items from the cosmetic counter. Knowing my very limited cosmetics knowledge, I was armed with a detailed description, so I could simply hand it to the salesgirl, “Get me these items…fast.”

The flight over was pretty smooth after that. Qantas Cattle ..oops… I mean Economy class was cramped as usual. Supper was disappointing. I had expected the asian selection to have some sort of a standard since it was being catered from Singapore. But heck, the beef redang rice was hard, chewy and really bland. I should have gone for the fish instead.

Worse yet, I think my stomach didn’t like the food very much too. And it chose the worst time possible to launch it’s protest – 30mins to touch down and the seat-belt sign is on. Not wanting to shi* my pants, I chose to hurdle over my fellow passenger and quickly sprint into the toilet before any of the stewardess could do anything. I got out just 5mins before the plane touched down.

Brisbane - It’s been almost 4 years since I left and I had heard from my friends that it’s seen much change and developments. The good thing is that while there’s been a lot of new buildings and changes, it’s still very much familiar and I still felt quite at home.

As I walked around the streets and buildings that I had passed almost on a daily basis 4 years back, it brought back so many memories. Sometimes I couldn’t help but to smile and chuckle at certain locations. Some places made me paused and for a moment, I was transported back in time.

I think people must have thought me to be a crazy tourist because I was taking pictures of the most mundane and uninteresting things and scenes there were.

I had a rather late lunch at Kadoya. It was, and still is, a popular eatery in the city that served up the most delicious yet modestly priced Japanese curry rice I’ve had. Back then, I had most of my lunches here…at least 3 times a week. One of my most memorable presents came from here too.

The weather was quite overcast when I arrived in the morning and sure enough, it started to rain in the late afternoon and it continued into the night. I hope the next day’s weather will be better. Even though I was looking forward to the cold weather, it’s just a little too much rain.

And since it was raining, I didn't manage to go out but it was still quite nice just to curl up under the blankets and do up the slideshow for J's wedding.