Queensland’s coolest couple; on the road again: back in the travel saddle; pre-Plague pics; Are You Sleeping, Big Brother?; Like a Virgin; sightseeing synopsis; next-level street food – Luke Nguyen at Treasury Casino; trivia and pulled lamb at the Powerhouse; George’s ginormous soles
Maxine and Trevor are two of our Singapore expat friends. Culture vultures, foodies, and probably the coolest couple we know, they’ve also lived in Saudi, in Dubai, and in China for many years.
We met them nearly 20 years ago, not long after we arrived to live in the city state. The circumstances were unforgettable: on the initial night of our first Star Cruise, we bonded with Max, Trevor and their friend Susan Beard over copious G&Ts in a private karaoke room. I seem to remember the staff evicting us at 3am.
It’s so great to have friends in a place you’re visiting, especially your first visit. (And this is our very first time in Queensland.) Whether or not they invite you to stay with them – which is definitely a bonus! – you’ll get their invaluable personalised introduction to their home town.
“Start your Queensland experience in Brissy and we’ll show you around for a few days,” said Trevor. “Stay with us a while if you like.” (Yesss, please!) “We have a spare room in the city apartment and you can use the Eumundi house too.” He added: “I’m sure you’ll want to head north too – it’s good weather up there at this time of year.”
I had already booked our flights to Brisbane as a birthday surprise for Roy. Now North Queensland and Cairns, the capital of Tropical North QLD, beckoned too. And winter would be the ideal time to visit, especially for Roy, The Man Who Does Not Like to Sweat.
Yee-hah, we’re back in the travel saddle!
Descriptions of friends of friends in the UK suffering agoraphobic PTSD-style meltdowns in their suburban shopping centres after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions are shocking, but hard to relate to. We lucky sods in WA have (so far, fingers crossed) remained relatively unscathed by The Plague. And yet….
It had been 16 months since we boarded a plane in Durban in February 2020 and travelled to Perth WA via Paris, London (for niece Charlie’s wedding), Paris again, and a week in Singapore.
Nostalgic retrospective to 2020 BP (Before the Plague)
Like other frequent fliers, barely a month had passed during the past two decades without us boarding a flight, be it for work or leisure. All this to the soundtrack of our own jaded grumbling about the inconveniences of airport security measures, jetlag, airport food, picking up colds and flu from fellow-passengers, and so on.
Now, all is forgiven – if not quite forgotten. On the night before our domestic Perth WA to Brisbane QLD flight, I was so excited I hardly slept a wink. It felt almost like the eve of my virgin flight – appropriately with Virgin Airways, which has suddenly become one of my favourite airlines. (More on that later.)
Big Brother, Big Brother, dormez-vous?
There being so little activity at Perth Airport, with hardly any international flights operating, check-in and security clearance were a quick breeze.
Big question: how is there no identity check for baggage drop or boarding? Anyone could buy a ticket and give it to anyone else. Apart from any other security consideration, what about the ostensibly crucial COVID-19 tracing? Even BP (Before the Plague), you had to show a photographic ID before boarding a domestic flight. I don’t particularly care, but I do wonder.
Virgin Airways review: 10/10
I’d booked seats 3A and 3C, the front row of Economy X. All the seats are comfortable leather, but those in the three Economy X rows (which cost an extra $150 each) allow extra legroom – and Row 3 is the best. Roy was satisfied, and that was the main thing. Nevertheless, you can see how he’s pretending not to know me.
Flight attendant Jacqui was so delightful that we almost felt we were in Business Class. She offered to hang up Roy’s jacket, which pleased him no end. Then, when the Virgin Airways Entertainment app on his brand new Samsung tablet played up, she lent him her own tablet.
Later, when I spilt my Yarra Vale sparkling onto the floor and ordered another one – fully expecting to pay another $12 for the pleasure – she discreetly brought me some Business Class champagne to replace what I’d spilt. (The auditing would have been problematic, she said.) Wow!
Brisbane sightseeing summary
Here’s a brief summary of our four days in Brisbane: Day One sightseeing the river and the CBD; Day Two checking out the Gold Coast; and then two days of shopping. Shopping Day 1 was spent entirely at DFO, and Shopping Day 2 on trawling various furniture showrooms with Max as our guide. And before you jump to the wrong conclusion, Roy instigated the shopping – not I.
City tour by river and by foot
Brisbane doesn’t have a beach – it’s all about the river, which snakes through the heart of Brisbane. And the beauty of staying in Kangaroo Point is that you can either walk or catch a ferry to just about anywhere.
Kangaroo Point’s Holman Street station, next to the iconic Brisbane Jazz Club, was where we caught the free City Hopper ferry to the CBD – it plies a continuous loop through the CBD from Sydney Street terminal to North Quay.
It’s a pleasant walk past the Riverside complex up Creek Street, and left into Queen Street, which has a pedestrian mall with all the shops you’d expect – including Burberry, Louis Vuitton, H&M, Myers and David Jones – and, most importantly, a nice big Zara. (I managed to pop in and do a bit of damage on our last very last day in Brisbane, before we flew back to Perth.)
Almost anywhere you look, old and new architecture are nicely juxtaposed.
We ducked into St Stephen’s Cathedral to enjoy the beautiful sculpture of missionary Mary McKillop, who arrived in malaria-infested Brisbane in 1869 to establish the Josephite Order in Queensland. It’s by Brisbane sculptor John Elliot, and is amazingly and delicately fashioned from a century-old camphor laurel tree.
Built in 1887 as the State Immigration Centre, Yungaba House (above) in Kangaroo Point became a refuge for destitute soldiers, then served as accommodation for Story Bridge construction workers, and was later used as a hospital in WWII. In 2017 it was converted into just 10 high-end residences.
We trawled around the Treasury Building; major new developments in 2022 will see a new pedestrian bridge spanning the river and the casino moving to the new Queen’s Wharf, which promises to be reminiscent of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, says Trevor.
Shop, shop shopping
As our friends know, we are building an Art Deco-inspired house in Perth. I’m involved in the planning, of course, but Roy is the Project Director and Main Shopping Wallah.
And Roy and Max are soul-mates, especially when it comes to interiors. They can spend hours talking gimble lighting and handle-free kitchen cabinetry, Mid-Century Modern and Art Deco (while I slowly but surely lose the will to live). And so we spent our last day in Brisbane trawling furniture showrooms, starting with the Replica Furniture shop.
It’s a jolly good thing we did, too. Roy had been within an ace of ordering some horribly uncomfortable Hans Wegner elbow chairs, but having the opportunity to actually sit on these exact replicas made him see the error of his ways. Then on to Coco Republic, Pottery Barn and West Elm in the chi-chi suburb of Fortitude Valley. (Are you still with me? Well done.)
And now for what you’re really waiting to hear about:
Where and what we ate
Lunch that first day was at the Fat Noodle by Luke Nguyen in Treasury Casino. Roy and I remember meeting Luke many years ago at his Hanoi restaurant, before he was quite as famous as he is now.
Fabulous food: I ordered both the pork skewer and the chicken salad; Roy and Max the chicken larb (an intensely flavourful, minced concoction that you wrap in lettuce leaves); and Trev had the chicken skewer. There was so much we could hardly finish it all, and it cost just over $30 a couple.
Dinner was all about Trivia Quiz Night at Mary Mae’s Bar & Kitchen, located on the riverside at the magnificent Brisbane Powerhouse, with Max and Trevor’s friendly neighbours Ronda and Russell. From the nearest ferry station, Mowbray Park, it’s just one stop to New Farm Park and the Powerhouse – billed as the city’s top alternative performing arts centre.
Roy and I had the generous pulled lamb sharing platter ($50), complete with jus, tzatziki, pita bread and grain salad – and everyone, especially us, had a lot of red wine. As for the trivia quiz, let a merciful veil be drawn over the memory. In short, the Silver Foxes did not shine.
Seafood at Riverside
If you get your bums on seats at the Greek-style George’s Paragon Seafood Restaurant before 6.30pm, you benefit from the daytime half-price specials – meaning your ginormous grilled sole (with veggies) is around $20 instead of around $40 – wonderful! As Max pointed out, you easily pay $20 or more for a paltry bit of smashed avo on toast at a suburban café.
We started by sharing a horiatiki (Greek village salad) and some baby octopus – perhaps a tad too soon after having watched My Octopus Teacher the previous night. We all ordered soles, each of which was big enough to share. George’s is in Riverside, right next to Eagle Street Pier, where the ferry stops.
Max recommends…
Apart from the three Treasury Casino restaurants, Max also recommends: the award-winning Gerard’s Bistro in Newfarm; Pizza at the Powerhouse – authentic and good for pre-theatre; Harijuka Gyoza – a dumpling house; Deery’s at Story Bridge Hotel; Madame Wu’s at Riverside, for Asian fusion; and Julius Pizzeria on Fish Lane, near the Queensland Theatre Complex.
Apart from our friends being foodies and great cooks, Max has always been a culture vulture. She recommends the Jazz Club, QLD Performing Arts, QPAC Theatre Complex, the Powerhouse, and QLD Theatre Group at Billie Brown Theatre. The Queensland Ballet is second to none, she says; and Queensland Opera has a great reputation. Brisbane used to be something of of a cultural backwater, but it’s seriously up and coming.
Coming up: In Part Two, we take a drive south of Brisbane – first to the wonderful Beenleigh Rum Distillery, and then to Gold Coast.
