Well, today was certainly interesting, if nothing else! I wanted to celebrate my birthday today as I am now sticking to my original plan and heading off up the coast on Thursday. Thus, I didn't want a big night out on Wednesday night if I had to get up early and pack and get a train and all that sort of thing. I thought it might be quite nice to see in my actual birth-day as well. I thought I'd have a nice relaxing day on my birthday - go and get a pedicure or something as my feet really need some tlc!

Went into the city today, as Marion and Ian went off to work and the sun was actually shining!! It was almost a shock. I expected it to shine for a bit, and then just get covered in rain, but it actually shone the whole day long! We had looked at the weather forecast last night and it basically said showers all the way for the rest of the week. However, the weather forecast now says sunshine all the week long! People say that England has changeable weather....

So, didn't really have a plan apart from finding the opticians but when I got into the city, I saw that the Museum of Brisbane was open, so I thought I'd have a quick look around there. They had some nice pieces in there, mainly contemporary art (which I don't always like because I just don't get it - if there's anything to get!!) and they also had some short footage of some of the featured artists going about creating their work. That was quite nice - to see the artists as well as their creations!

Esther also texted me as I came out of the museum, so we met up and had a wander around the city. We found the city beach and swimming pool and there's something quite strange but also very nice about a beach in the city. It does look a bit weird seeing a lifeguard tower as well! Water isn't that deep but I guess anyone can get in trouble in any depth of water.
We had some nice icecream and dangled our feet in the water too. It's so nice not to have anything in particular to do sometimes. I had arranged to meet Marion at the cocktail place - The Bowery - at 6:30, so we had plenty of the day to amble about in. We also went to the Queensland Museum, and the Art Gallery of Queensland, which was cool. The Musum didn't have that many good exhibits for us as it appeared to be more for kids than anyone else, but it did have a nice bit on Queensland itself and also a nice turtle exhibit.
The Art Gallery had a special Chinese exhibit which explored three generations of Chinese art, which was very cool. We only got there half an hour before it closed, so we were only able to whizz around it, but it was still pretty good. There was a part of the exhibit which had large rocks where you could practise your Chinese writing with brushes and water. The artist had spent some time of his life writing his diary with water which was the ultimate secret diary as no one would be able to read it when the water dried. Apparently his family were so poor when he was young, that they couldn't afford ink and paper, so his father gave him a brush and some water and said for him to practise his writing that way!

After that, we walked over to Fortitude Valley which is the entertainment district. It seemed a bit like Soho to be honest, but just more spaced out and a little less sleazy! Found the Bowery and it didn't look too swish, but it seemed quite nice. Had a nice cocktail menu, and a whole hoard of bottles of booze on the walls as you would expect for a cocktail bar!! Marion had invited two colleagues along with her - Dan and Oscar - so that made five of us. Unfortunately, Dan was in shorts and wasn't actually allowed in! It's funny how sexism works the other way around as I walked in in my little shorts and a halterneck top and neither of the barman said a word to me. A bloke walks in in shorts and he gets booted out!! Oh well, he went to the internet cafe around the corner whilst we had our cocktails. We were happy to go back to the pub where they had been, but he said for us to stay there. I really enjoyed my cocktail, it was a Spring Rain Cooler and it was all nice and zesty and made me a little tipsy!! :D
Marion went out after her cocktail to find somewhere for us to eat, and she had found either pizza, pasta, or an Indian place and so we ended up plumping for the Indian place. What a mistake. I had my doubts about the place as soon as we sat down as we were first served by a waiter who couldn't speak or understand proper english.....oh dear. We also had plastic glasses on the table, it was unbelievably cheap, and the menu only had five main courses (though two were veggie) and two starters. Hmmm, not a particularly extensive list! However, we ordrered some naan and some pakoras to start with and they were really good.
Shame it ended there. We ordered all five main dishes and unfortunately one of them was stone cold, and they were all tasteless. The rice was so sticky, that Dan and Esther thought it was mashed potato! Everyone was dousing their food with salt to make it taste of something.....lovely! We all gave up in the end as it really wasn't very nice to eat.
Luckily we didn't have to pay for it, not because we complained, but because Oscar paid for it and said he'd put it on his expenses. Apparently he's a consultant to where Marion works and so was in Brisbane for a work trip. He said he didn't mind expensing it, so that was really good of him. He did complain and spoke to the manager, who was apparently a Spanish lady and she was trying out theme nights and tonights was Indian. I hope they don't try it again, or if they do then they need to get an actual cook who knows what he or she is doing!! It really was that awful. I would rather have eaten at Burger King for my birthday than there!!
We sought ice cream on the way out to make up for the rubbish meal!! :D

On the way home, I said to Marion about staying longer in Brisbane so I could get my glasses but she then suggested that perhaps I go to one of the chain opticians in the city, get them to make up my glasses, and then they can send them on to another branch further along up the coast wherever I am. That sounded like a really good idea, so I will go and investigate that tomorrow. She goes to an optician called Laubman & Pank and there's one just where the bus stops, so that is where I'll be going :D Apparently they have lots of branches all over the place, but I can't find a list of them on their website seeing as they don't list them all! Doh! Oh well, I can just ask when I get there. Also, it would be nice to race up to the East Coast and get a surfing lesson in, seeing as it looks like the good weather is going to be sticking around. There isn't really that much to do in Brisbane, though apparently it is a good base to be able to do things from. You can do a fair few day trips from here to other places - Australia Zoo, Moreton Island, Stradbroke Island, even go up to the Sunshine Coast and back. However, seeing as I've got my Rail Pass which only lets me travel one way, and I do need to be in Cairns by the 27th at the latest (so I can spend a bit of time there before my flight to Tokyo on the 1st of May) I really should be getting myself up the East Coast.

So, I rang my opticians at home as I thought I should ask them for my prescription. However, according to UK law, they couldn't just tell me over the phone or send it to me by email as it had to be signed by an optician. Marion and Ian don't have a fax, otherwise they could have sent it over. Dang. However, my optician said that the optician here should be able to read my prescription from my glasses. They weren't particularly helpful as when I told them what happened to my glasses, they almost made out that that was my fault. I've had this pair for about 6 months or so, and having worn glasses since I was about 8 or 9 or something like that, I've never had any of them break or snap. My glasses cost a freakin' lot and so I bloody well make sure I look after them!! However, being on the other side of the world and each phone call costing me a fair bit of money, I thought I'd just have it out with them when I get home. That's only about 3 weeks away after all. Obviously I'm loathe to fork out for another pair of glasses so soon after this pair, but needs must. I should be able to claim most of the money back on my insurance too. Good thing I took out the premium rate one, eh?

So, I'll trundle off to the opticians tomorrow and see what they say. I should also be meeting Esther tomorrow too, which will be nice. We've seen a nice movie that we thought would be good - Shinjuku Incident which stars Jackie Chan. It doesn't look like his normal kind of film from the poster, but it looks like it would be good.