Over the Easter weekend, we went up with a couple of friends to stay at their family's house in Brisbane. I'd never been to Brisbane before, so I was really looking forward to it.
A lot of people seem to have a lot of things to say about Brisbane, and it's not always so good… but no one told me how beautiful it is! I actually really loved it up there, and the two days just weren't enough. I want to go back!
We left a hot and very windy Melbourne on Easter Friday. I hate to travel with more than carry on luggage – I can't stand waiting for suitcases when there are new places to explore – and so I packed my little 1960's suit case. 
All I needed was a swimsuit (I took my 1960s one), two dresses (a 1950's watercolour and a 1961 gingham), a light cardigan (handmade) and a 1960's coral scarf. I then had just enough room for those other essentials, jarmies, makeup, toiletries and so on. I wore the one pair of shoes that would see me through the weekend, so my bag was nice and light, too! 
For traveling, I wore my early 1960's blue stripe sundress, with my tan platforms (they're ridiculous, they're 5 inches high but they are SO comfortable and perfect for walking around in all day) and tan belt from another skirt, and a tan flower. It's sounding a bit, well, tan, isn't it… but the caramel (is that better?!) looked really nice with the blues of my dress and suitcase. 
I had double-boos in my hair, and extra wings in my eyeliner. Very important for flying, you know.
There were a few happy surprises on the weekend:
– waiting to board our flight, we saw darling Lauren (who we know from Melbourne) at the terminal… joining the queue for our flight! She even had an almost identical suitcase to me. Our seats were at opposite ends of the plane, though. I hope you had a great weekend, Lauren!
– Easter Friday was also my birthday, and my friend's family suddenly brought out a tiered cake stand after dinner, loaded with cupcakes and candles. I almost teared up while they sang me happy birthday, but the candles started burning the cake stand and I had to put them out and no one wants a salty, damp cupcake – blow blow blow.
– On the Sunday, our friend (who grew up in Brisbane) took us for a walk through New Farm Gardens and on to look at the Powerhouse… where we saw a poster for one of our favourite bands, who would be playing a free show that afternoon.
I didn't take that many photos, so I obviously need to go back asap! I was just so blown away by how different it is from Melbourne. I love that; how when you go somewhere new the air smells different, the plants look different, the birds sound different… everything is new and interesting. I felt really at home there.
We managed to fit a lot in. On Friday, after dinner, we had cocktails in the outdoor pool (yep, this far into Autumn, it was so warm and perfect!) and while I always try so hard to be dainty in the pool, I always, always fail. I had my hair done, full makeup on and absolutely intended to stay perched in the corner with my fresh fruit drink, but when my friend suggested we attach one of the noodles to the jet to make a big hose I thought it was an excellent idea… of course we all got drenched and so I had bad hair all weekend. Boo. Worth it, though! 
Saturday, our first full day, we went for a walk through Paddington, found somewhere to have breakfast – and, of course, being form Melbourne I am very much a coffee snob, but we found a great coffee! Paddington is really beautiful, all colourful Queenslander houses and palm trees and lush plants and rolling hills. It also has some amazing looking vintage and second hand shops, some of which were closed because of the holidays, but we had no time to look in at any of them anyway. Next time! We then headed off to Southbank and the GOMA, I got excited about an Ibis (first time I'd seen one, turns out they're everywhere) (I still think they are fancy), found that the GOMA would be open on Sunday after all, and so zipped off to leafy Cloudland in the Valley for a lunchtime drink. It was really quiet so we could sit in one of the booths, but I wonder what it is like in the evening? I then joined my girlfriend and her friends for one of their friend's (keeping up?) Hen's parties. We had lunch, went back to Pip's gorgeous apartment to get ready (and I got to pat Pip's cute kitty, Heide) and then went on to Jess's beautiful Queenslander that had been divided up into apartments. Seriously, I want to live in one of these. Dream houses. I would have loved to take photos but I didn't want to be the new girl that takes photos instead of talking to anyone! And everyone was so lovely. The party had a David Bowie theme, and I am now in some Facebook pics wearing a blindfold and generally getting into the swing of things… we finished the night off at a bar in the West End. Thanks everyone for having me and making me feel so welcome! Have a beautiful wedding, Pip! 
On Sunday we hopped out of bed bright and early and headed off to New Farm Gardens and the Powerhouse, where I took yet more photos of those Ibis [edit: I really shouldn't type things up in text edit if I'm not going to turn off the damn auto correct!] birds, embarrassing my far more cultured, bird-wise friends. We then headed back to the GOMA, where we spent several hours and it still felt like we barely scratched the surface. After a healthy lunch of macaroons and hot chocolate (um) we had a look at the Modern Woman exhibition at the QAG (very good, relentlessly depressing) and finally decided that sitting down would be a very good idea. We headed back to New Farm, looking for a nice-looking cafe we'd passed earlier, but it had closed for the day… so, off to the Powerhouse for some live music! We were wondering if we were being a bit stalky as we'd seen this band just a few weeks ago, and decided that we probably were but could live with it. The Powerhouse is great. They do consistently good gin and tonics, and I should know because I had about five. They also do amazingly good coffee, which we definitely needed after the show (it went on for way longer than we expected but it was sooo good) and were then meant to catch the ferry (if we could find it) to meet up with some friends for dinner. Sadly, we were told that the ferry wasn't running because of the holidays, so our super wonderful friends came to pick us up (thanks so much, guys) from the gardens, and walked us past the dock for the ferry – just in time to wave at the one we were meant to catch; they were running after all. Yet another thing we'll have to do when we return!
It was then a blur of packing, dinner, and a dash to the airport – and a freezing cold Melbourne welcoming us home. I can't wait to go back! Big thanks to Greg for looking after Babycat (he even made us a video of how she was doing!) while we were gone :) Brisbane <3
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