Jezza’s Blog

Shika & I visited Adelaide for a day last Thursday. We managed to get tickets with Tiger for $10, and were definitely up for some time away. It was the first time we had flown with Tiger, and it wasn’t fantastic. The worst part is the fact that they use the outside terminal at Melbourne Airport which doesn’t have any shops or anything to do while you are waiting, and then to board the plane you have to walk 500m on the tarmac. We arrived in at Adelaide Airport at about 7.30am and caught a bus into the city. I was amazed by the lack of traffic at that time of the morning, it looked like Melbourne on a Sunday morning. We had a quick bite to eat then took a stroll up North Terrace and the Prince Henry Gardens to the Botanical Gardens. The Gardens were really pretty, especially the rose gardens and the Amazon Water Lily pond.

We then headed back into the CBD and visited the historical Ayres House, where we were taken for a tour. Ayres House was owned by a 19th century South Australian premier and had many interesting things to see. After the tour, we walked down Rundle Mall to the Sky City casino. Basically the old Adelaide Train Station has just been filled with pokie machines to create the casino, which is very disappointing when you compare it to Crown. After the casio it was time to have lunch, so we went down to Gouger St where we ate at a pleasant Thai restaurant. Just off Gouger St is the Adelaide Central Market, which I was very impressed with. It is really clean and neat, no rubbish to be seen anywhere, and it has a great selection of fruit shops, delis and flower shops. By this stage, it was getting a bit warm in the city, so we decided to take the tram down to Glenelg for the afternoon. I’d been told about the historical trams down to Glenelg, but they have all been replaced by the new low floor trams we have in Melbourne. Glenelg was really pretty, it was quite warm when we got there in the afternoon, so we just had a nap under the trees on the foreshore. After walking along the shore and around Jetty Rd and grabbing some ice cream, it was time to head to the bus stop to travel back to the airport.

All in all, Adelaide was very nice for a day, but I imagine we would get bored pretty quickly if we stayed for any longer. Check out our photos.

Shika and I went up to Brissy last Friday, as Shika had a Genetics conference from Monday to Thurdsay at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Southbank. The trip started with our flight on Jetstar which was pretty dodgy. It was delayed by about an hour, so it ended up getting to Brisbane at 12:30am. Jetstar hasn’t got allocated seats, instead they have three different coloured tickets (Orange, Blue and Silver), so the earlier you get there the better ticket you get. We got there just after Blue ran out so we were stuck with Silver, the last group. The deal is, when the plane is about to board, they announce which line you have to go to depending on your ticket. Luckily I guessed correctly which line it would be, and we got to the front of the Silver line which meant we could get sets together, but we just missed out on a window seat :(.

We were coolected at the airport by Briony and Trev. They were gonna meet us at the gate, but Briony had a fork in her bag, so the airport staff thought she was a terrorist and wouldn’t let her in. Talking about terrorists, I had a bomb test done on me on the way there and on the way back. Guess I look a bit dodgy. Since we’d gotten into Brisbane, pretty late, we decided not to go out as me and Shika were pretty tired.

On Saturday morning we met Kirsty and Craigs little girl Caitlyn who is about 14 months old. Later, Briony and Trev took us for a drive. First we went up to the Glasshouse Mountains. It was really pretty, and we had an awsome morning tea consisting of blueberry pankcakes, and bacon and eggs.

After that we drove to Mooloolaba on the cost, where we walked along the beach and got our feet wet, but it was too cold for swimming (I know, you reckon I’m weak Tom). Then it was back down to Scarborough where we saw Ann and Pete’s new house that they are building near the beach. The house looks increadible and has a beautiful view over the ocean.

Later that evening we watched the Pies narrowly lose to the Crows, then Simon and Briony took us into Brisbane and showed us the nightlife.

We took it pretty easy on Sunday, went to a shopping centre in Chermside, then me and Trev dropped Shika off at her hotel in Southbank. We were planning on going for a swim in the hotel’s pool, but it wasn’t heated and the weather was on the cool side.

On Monday, me and Trev went to WetnWild. When we got there the carpark was empty and the main gate was closed. We had flashbacks t0 Wally World, but on closer inspection, there was a side entrance opened. Once inside we realise how empty the place was, there can’t have been more than about 20 people in the entire theme park, so it was pretty strange. We got through all the rides, including 2 new ones, in about 90 minutes. After about 2 hours we were bored and decided to go home.

That night I caught the plane back to Melbourne, this time I was lucky enough to get the window seat, so I got to see Melbourne city on the approach to Avalon.

Check out the photos.

Some rediculously cheap tickets on Jetstar today. Shame the website is as slow as a wet week. The below image is for flights to Bali for 2.

Also couldn’t get any tickets on days I actually wanted to fly

Spent Easter at Phillip Island with Shika, Tom, Jase, Dave, Ed, Val, Bianca, Megs and Han.

In hindsight, the Island probably isn’t the best place to go at this time of year. The first time we went to the beach, it started belting down after about an hour. The treck back to the house was ‘tormentuous’, as we had to run through piercing rain and schnitzalising winds for about 20 minutes.

Second trip to the beach didn’t end up being much better, as it was so cold most of us pissed of and headed into Cowes to have a coffee. Tom persisted in swimming, and now he has a cold (although he claims thats not what caused caused it). And we were all looking forward to a good beer battered fish, until we realised that Tom had forgotton to bring the flower. So we grilled half of the fillets and I fried the other half in pancake mixture.

The remainder of time was spent drinking, playing singstar, drinking, playing touch frisby and drinking. Have a look at some more of the photos from the weekend.