Anzac Day

X picked me up from work on Friday. Together with Anne-Marie my colleague, we battled the crazy Brisbane peak hour traffic. We didn't quite manage to execute my romantic fantasies of having drinks and dinner by the evening light cast upon South Bank, due to the frightening parking fees at AUD25 for 2 hours.

I wish I wasn't so pragmatic sometimes. For the occasion, I actually put on a tiresome tube dress (it was a size 8 and needed to be hiked up frequently lest I expose myself) and delicate stockings which I've probably ripped in 15 different places by now.

Anyway after dumping poor Anne-Marie by the road somewhere, we headed towards Sunshine Coast, stopping for dinner at a Chinese restaurant at Aspley. We then continued our drive, briefly stopping by some random lookout in Landsborough to admire the incredible night sky, which didn't quite live up to the standards of THE piss stop, but nonetheless was pretty breathtaking. X and I popped our heads out of the sunroof like lemmings, ooh-ing and ah-ing.

We spent the night at Clayton's, a very SNAG botanist and one of X's oldest friends.

The view from Clayton's deck.

This is what you should expect in the bathroom of a botanist. There were a few more pumpkins behind the door. We picked the middle one in the top row. *Resists making lame, obvious joke about carriages at midnight*

The next day was Anzac Day, to commemorate the veterans who had fought the World Wars. Of course, this significance had not quite hit me until I got a fair bit of strange looks at a little town on the Sunshine Coast.

I'm not Japanese! I'm Malaysian, we're on your side!

Anyway, below is the Anzac Day parade at Maleny.

The town cryer who led the march.

The soldiers were followed by sailors and people in fancy antique cars but I got hungry so we ducked into the cafe to finish our food. I got an average chicken avocado sandwich while X got these adorably tasty Dutch poffertjes with maple syrup and icing sugar.

These planes flew overhead a couple of times.

I've never seen a red maple before. The funny thing is, the rest of the maples around town were still green.

A view from the Mary Cairncross lookout. Photo credit to X as I was too lazy sleepy to get out of the car.

We then drove to Caloundra, the seaside suburb everyone is referring to when they say Sunshine Coast.

Remember that annoying boyband from the early noughties/ 90's? This is Moffats Beach.

After a little snooze in the shade, X and I resumed our journey home, stopping by Brisbane, this time sans crazy traffic. We parked for free in Cordelia St.

The real Muttaburrasaurus fossil at the Sciencentre. For some strange reason, I kept thinking of it as the burrito monster. Probably due to hunger, which we satiated at The Fox. 200g porterhouse steaks for AUD6.95! Only in Australia can you find Chinese food that costs double of western stuff (we paid AUD40.50 at Aspley as opposed to AUD21.00 for the steaks). The ambience and food were above average too.

View of Brissy from the crossing bridge

A Nepalese Pagoda smack in the middle of nowhere on the South Bank Parklands. This picture doesn't remotely do the intricate carvings any justice. It actually looks live in-able, with real stairs and delicate furnishings.

When we got home, I slept in about 15 hours.