The working life in Brisbane

Our first two weeks in Brisbane have been great. We moved into our ultra modern apartment and it's safe to say that we are hardly 'slumming it'. Our room mates are a couple called Brook and Rhys, they are about 4 years older than us and have been really welcoming and friendly.

We are staying in Bowen Hills and are approximately a 25 minute walk from the CBD and thus from where we are working for the next 6 weeks having bagged ourselves internships at Morgans, Australia's largest stockbroking firm. This sounds relatively fancy yet, as I'm sure is the case for most internships, we spend our days doing admin based tasks, filling in forms and data entry. We interweave these tasks with plenty of tea-drinking and clock-watching, willing the day to go quickly. Either way its exciting to be working and earning some dollar. The office is located right on the river front so its really lovely to be able to spend our lunch time enjoying such a great view. I decided to comment on this saying to Alex 'I really like the fact that Brisbane has a big river running through it'...he turned and replied 'Do you mean just like London Bex?' Yes I suppose I do.

The view from work

Having experienced my first proper 'Friday feeling' we have been making the most of our weekends. We've explored various areas in Brisbane, including a very cute market called 'The Finders Keepers Market' and having drinks at a lesser-known roof top bar with gorgeous fairy lights. Brook and Rhys drove us to the Gold Coast where they attempted to teach us to surf in a very strong current. Alex handled this well, whereas I nearly drowned. To top off the surfing experience I then majorly freaked out when a big jellyfish decided to hang out next to my surfboard and I. Thankfully Alex came to my rescue! We also went for a great lunch and then explored Byron Bay, watching the sun set at Byron Bay's iconic light house, which we've been told is Australia's most eastern point.

With G20 being held in Brisbane, this Friday was declared a bank holiday for those that live or work here, so we spent our extended weekend enjoying the Gold Coast theme parks with Brook and some of her friends. Friday we went to Sea World, which sadly was rather disappointing in comparison to the Sea World in Orlando. Nevertheless my highlight was patting the sting rays, this was amusing and they are surprisingly both soft and slimy. We best described them as 'squidgey'.

Today we got 'Wet & Wild', enjoying a great, yet exhausting day at the water park. Our favourite ride was a bit of an adrenaline rush; the rider is locked into a small standing pod, a timer counts down and then the floor quickly drops away and you fall, fast!


Tomorrow evening we plan to check out the 'Colour Me Brisbane' light show.