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In Which Amy Makes Friends
Oct. 1st, 2008 09:03 pmWith a new place. My new friend Brisbane is pretty. It has shops and cafes and Borders and gourmet chocolate shops like a city is supposed to, some very nice botanic gardens and an acceptable population of sandstone buildings. However, it also has SPACE. (And a pancake restaurant in an old church.) It is highly unlikely that all the buildings are going to gang up on you and squish you between their brick thighs. Furthermore, Brisbane at 5.30pm on a Wednesday is about as frantic as Sydney at 2pm on a Saturday.
I like this kind of city. I wish to come back here someday. It likes me. I think I might be able to love it, and I CERTAINLY could have a lovely affair with it given the opportunity.
In addition, I love planes! Have I told you how much I love planes? Sadly, due to disorganisation, I didn't get a window seat. Sigh. Also it is possibly a sign of insanity that upon boarding the train to the city I took one look at the rail line and could actually SEE the difference in rail gauge.
In Queensland, they do things differently. You know those buttons on traffic light poles that you press to cross the pedestrian crossing? In Queensland, these are placed 90 degrees left around the pole when compared to those in NSW. For some reason this disconcerts me. Also apparently either a) people in Brisbane have more trouble with concepts like pedestrian crossings or b) they have the same amount of trouble as everyone else, but their City Council is more solicitous of citizen welfare, because all the traffic light poles have stickers explaining red man green man flashy red man. And there are BIIIG signs explaining the same thing, and noting the sad number of pedestrian deaths, scattered around the city.
List of Things I Forgot:
*Deoderant (purchased)
*Socks (ditto)
*Phone charger. Also forgot to CHARGE phone before I left. I forsee alarm-clock deficiency in the near future. I may have to purchase a battery powered one, but where one buys them I don't know (I didn't see a Dick Smith's anywhere).
The conference (which, er, is the whole reason I'm here) is considerably swankier than last year. This, I suppose, is what happens when the Catholic Uni's Centre for Early Christian Studies is hosting something, rather than the USyd CMS. It also means there are only *two* Anglo-Saxonists on the programme, and only one Celticist, while there is an excess of scholars of late antiquity. However, I am not complaining, because they have a swanky Co-Op Bookshop stall and they gave out showbags. With a free book. It is The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.
They also have the new Brepols book, on the Old English Homily, available for review. I am having to tell myself over and over that I'm a) not qualified and b) far too exhausted to do an academic review.
FINALLY: it's Tell Highly What To Do time! Tonight I sat in the Botanic Gardens and messed with my thesis a bit, and then had dinner in a sort of Chinese food court thing before going a-wandering and finally ending up back at the hostel. Tomorrow night is the Conference Dinner, so that's sorted.
But Friday, after I give the very last bloody paper of the conference, I will be at loose in Brisbane. Someone tell me an interesting place to eat food. Does Brisbane have a Chinatown? Or an equivalent of Newtown? And if so how do I get there? (For reference, my conference is on Charlotte St just down from the Pancake Manor, and my hostel is just up from Roma St Transit Centre, near William Jolly Bridge.)
Also, on Saturday my flight doesn't leave until 3.15. So assuming I check out at 9, I then have from 9 until almost two to play with my new friend Brisbane. Suggestions, anyone? I mean, I could sit around and, I dunno, write my fucking thesis, but why would I?
I like this kind of city. I wish to come back here someday. It likes me. I think I might be able to love it, and I CERTAINLY could have a lovely affair with it given the opportunity.
In addition, I love planes! Have I told you how much I love planes? Sadly, due to disorganisation, I didn't get a window seat. Sigh. Also it is possibly a sign of insanity that upon boarding the train to the city I took one look at the rail line and could actually SEE the difference in rail gauge.
In Queensland, they do things differently. You know those buttons on traffic light poles that you press to cross the pedestrian crossing? In Queensland, these are placed 90 degrees left around the pole when compared to those in NSW. For some reason this disconcerts me. Also apparently either a) people in Brisbane have more trouble with concepts like pedestrian crossings or b) they have the same amount of trouble as everyone else, but their City Council is more solicitous of citizen welfare, because all the traffic light poles have stickers explaining red man green man flashy red man. And there are BIIIG signs explaining the same thing, and noting the sad number of pedestrian deaths, scattered around the city.
List of Things I Forgot:
*Deoderant (purchased)
*Socks (ditto)
*Phone charger. Also forgot to CHARGE phone before I left. I forsee alarm-clock deficiency in the near future. I may have to purchase a battery powered one, but where one buys them I don't know (I didn't see a Dick Smith's anywhere).
The conference (which, er, is the whole reason I'm here) is considerably swankier than last year. This, I suppose, is what happens when the Catholic Uni's Centre for Early Christian Studies is hosting something, rather than the USyd CMS. It also means there are only *two* Anglo-Saxonists on the programme, and only one Celticist, while there is an excess of scholars of late antiquity. However, I am not complaining, because they have a swanky Co-Op Bookshop stall and they gave out showbags. With a free book. It is The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.
They also have the new Brepols book, on the Old English Homily, available for review. I am having to tell myself over and over that I'm a) not qualified and b) far too exhausted to do an academic review.
FINALLY: it's Tell Highly What To Do time! Tonight I sat in the Botanic Gardens and messed with my thesis a bit, and then had dinner in a sort of Chinese food court thing before going a-wandering and finally ending up back at the hostel. Tomorrow night is the Conference Dinner, so that's sorted.
But Friday, after I give the very last bloody paper of the conference, I will be at loose in Brisbane. Someone tell me an interesting place to eat food. Does Brisbane have a Chinatown? Or an equivalent of Newtown? And if so how do I get there? (For reference, my conference is on Charlotte St just down from the Pancake Manor, and my hostel is just up from Roma St Transit Centre, near William Jolly Bridge.)
Also, on Saturday my flight doesn't leave until 3.15. So assuming I check out at 9, I then have from 9 until almost two to play with my new friend Brisbane. Suggestions, anyone? I mean, I could sit around and, I dunno, write my fucking thesis, but why would I?