#I'm going to a marching band competition and its raining | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

charlesandmartine · 1 year

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Saturday 11th March 2023

The Brisbane City Hall was built in 1930 and was the largest clock tower in Australia at 92 metres in height, the tallest building in Brisbane until the 1960s. Cannily this beats the clock tower at the GPO building in Sydney which tops out at a mere 73 metres. No competition there then. The tour of the tower needs to be quick to get 4 people at a time up the top in a very old clanking lift, wave a hoof at the view and the bells and back down again before the clock does its Westminster chimes all over again. There's always going to be casualties in a tour program with limited time available. In this case having been able to view the views from the top it was thereafter basically: there's the bells made in the Loughborough foundry and there's a clock down there somewhere now all back in the lift, we're off. Um, is it weight driven and is it still wound by hand? Don't really know much about the clock as such. I expect you could look that up he said. For the horologists, the tower has 4 x 3 ton bells for the chimes and 1 X 4.3 ton bell for the hour strike. Lovely tones I must say. The clock itself is electric driven and operates from a master pendulum on the same basis as the Greenwich Observatory.

We then crossed the river to have a flat white in the Art Gallery Café. It would appear that the streets on the North Bank of the Brisbane River are named after English monarchy and across the river after British Prime Ministers. One person said, and I thought this was quite witty, they don't have a Truss street because there aren't any streets short enough! Anyway we had our coffee, popped into the Queensland Museum and popped back out again rather quickly because it was crawling with kids, then went to check on the theatre situation at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre to see if there were by any chance any tickets that had become available for tonight's play. No luck so we crossed the river again to do a bit of shopping. We really like the South Bank complex of theatre, art galleries and museums. It has a lovely relaxed feel about it and you can just meander around soaking up the atmosphere and today also the rain.

Being Saturday the shopping area has a bit of a carnival touch and with St Patrick's day not too far away now there was an Irish Band, possibly called Silken Thomas, playing sentimental tunes from the Emerald Isle. It's a universal ting that all nationalities seem to unite with a tear in the eye to the playing of an Irish ballad, as though we all have a longing for the old country. We've seen it in New York, Australia, Scotland, Birmingham and most weirdly in Amsterdam! How do these Celts do it? Just hope for Ireland's sake they don't all feel the pull and decide to return home. Martine who is half Irish had a lump in her throat. Even I did and I'm Anglo Saxon. (I think). So to the strains of Danny Boy, Whiskey in the Jar, Leaving of Liverpool and feeling all didley didley we ambled off to take a look at the next celebration, that of the Pakistan Australian Cultural Association that is setting up in George Square. We were hoping they might have food. No genetic ties there. (I don't think).

Our last evening here we began with a one venue pub crawl involving some Aussie beer. It wasn't one of those pub restaurants that Martine was hoping for as they are in the outback where everyone goes quiet when you walk in. Quite the opposite, it was very noisy but very atmospheric. Then we moved on to Betty's Burgers for, well a burger actually. It's our first time with Betty's and we wondered if we would be safe with her but I have to say, a burger with king prawns on board was rather nice. Then back to the hotel to pack again ready for a really early Virgin Australia flight to Sydney tomorrow morning. Yawn.

Brisbane is a very pleasant modern city which I can see would really appeal to a younger generation with the opportunities it offers. She appears to strive to present herself as a contemporary place to live, work and play although there have been times in the past when the town elders have been accused of sacrificing some of the old in order to facilitate the new. Bold new schemes are underway to add three new river crossings including a CrossRiverRail connection. This is indeed a city of investment in its future. We have had a brief but good time here. It's a shame that we view Brisbane at the moment of our trip as we prepare, with great regret, to returning home on Wednesday.

ps on the eve before our little flight to Sydney, we were watching Sully on the telly.

pps look how small and insignificant the Albert Street Congregational Church looks against the skyscrapers

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