enjoying the weekends left in Australia

We have 17 weekends left in Australia! Seems like a fair bit but I think they are going to go quicker then we think. I am going to try and do all of the things that I won't be able to do in Switzerland. I think we might need to make a few trips to the beach in these 17 weekends (17 includes the current weekend). We're going to be living a landlocked country for 2 years, which is going to be weird! We've been so lucky in Brisbane having beaches within an hour of us. Beaches that are beautiful as well!

So this weekend has been pretty full! Friday night we saw our travel buddies off! They're at the beginning of an exciting adventure. They are spending a few weeks travelling around the UK and then settling into Bicycle-land (The Netherlands) where Mitch will be working for 2 years on the same project that Roy will be working on in Switzerland. We had a lovely BBQ with Lu's family. It was a great night with lovely food and great people.



Saturday morning started with some awesome breakfast with Roy in West End.


We went to Espresso Head and had a Vego breakfast (scrambled eggs, beans, tomato, mushrooms and toast) all washed down with a flat white. Nice way to start the morning.

Then we went for a drive around West End. We stopped in at the West End markets and saw the sights. There was a lot of lovely looking fruit and vege for sale and heaps of interesting food! If it wasn't for my huge breaky, I would have wanted to sample a heap of food at the markets. The fruit and vege stalls were PACKED with people lining up to buy stuff. I walked past one and could smell the smell that I hate most. CORIANDER! I've hated the stuff since we were in China. It was in A LOT of food over there. Then I was worried about all the food in India when we travelled there because I'd noticed in a lot of Indian food in Australia, there is piles of the stuff! But I was pleasantly surprised whilst eating in India, there wasn't much coriander at all. Must just be Australia's spin in Indian food. But back to the West End markets... I quickly vacated that stall to avoid the smell of it. I unfortunately didn't get any photos at the markets because I didn't think people would appreciate a camera being shoved in their faces. But here's some photos of our drive around Southbank. There's a fair bit of construction happening with the expansion of the convention centre.




I discovered this beautiful little mushroom near where we parked the car and thought it was rather unusual and worthy of a photo.

So then after our nice drive, Roy dropped me off in Southbank where I met some friends for lunch at "Grill'd" We had some tasty, tasty burgers and then went and watched "The Merchants of Bollywood" at QPAC. It was a great show! I'm a little obsessed with Indian culture, music, people and food at the moment. I had such a great experience whilst travelling there that it's just stuck with me.. I can't get enough of it!

Now comes to Sunday. I had to say goodbye to Roy for over a week. He's currently sitting at the airport waiting for his flight to LA where he will then go on to Dallas TX for a conference. He's going to miss out on my shave for a cure this afternoon but I made sure he played with my locks before he went because he won't be able to for a good few months.

This weekend so far has been great! Except for Roy going overseas. But apart from that I think it's been a great way to start my appreciation of the weekends left in Australia. We want to plan a nice weekend away somewhere in these next 16 weekends.. maybe Byron Bay or O'Reilly's. Maybe I can con Roy into going to Melbourne too. I would love to see Melbourne again before we leave OZ.