Myself, Phil and my coworker Greg had the pleasure of spending five days in Brisbane last week. Greg and I were asked to speak at a conference on Thursday so we decided to take in some of the discussions throughout the week as well as explore the city a little. We flew out of Parkes early on Monday morning and arrived in Brissy by noon. We spent the afternoon wandering around the Queen Street Mall, enjoying the local beer and watching sports on television.
We were all pretty exhausted after Saturday evening’s shenanigans so we checked into the hotel, had dinner there and promptly went to bed.
On Tuesday Greg and I took part in the conference which was at our hotel. We had a really random encounter with our regional EMS Manager from Perth while on our way to breakfast at the hotel. Greg and I spent the day at the conference. The presentations were enlightening and I had some good discussions with fellow attendees. We wrapped up by 5pm and headed to The Brewhouse for dinner. It was two-for-one Tuesdays so the pub/eatery was packed. But we spent a good few hours there sampling the home brewed beer and eating dinner. Greg was thrilled when we scored two Bundaberg stubby holders. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at an Irish pub and enjoyed some live music. During our travels we also came across some crazy metallic kangaroos.
Wednesday morning was a bit of a sleep in for all of us. Phil and I got up early enough to wander over to Southbank and take in some sights before grabbing breakfast. We then walked down to the Gallery of Modern Art and picked up some Picasso souvenirs. Once back at the hotel Phil and Greg headed off to the XXXX brewery (Queensland’s signature mass produced beer) while I spent a few hours shopping, with minimal success. We met up for dinner at a less than spectacular sushi place where Greg managed to polish off a respectable number of plates.
Thursday was conference day again. The presentations were good and Greg and I closed the day out with our talk. Afterwards I had an excellent discussion with a fellow Environmental Officer from South Australia who had a similar experience starting his new role with Oxiana as I did with Barrick with regard to data management systems. It’s always nice to know others are going through the same thing! He also made me feel better about my recent bogging as he did the same thing but managed to get a tree harvester bogged rather than a grader. Oops!
On Thursday night we met up with a few lovely people from one of the consulting firms we work closely with. We went for dinner at a Turkish restaurant and enjoyed the giving ways of Resource Strategies. The fellow that I work closest with, Jason, stayed out with us until the wee hours of the morning despite needing to work the next morning. We went to a cocktail bar and again enjoyed endless amounts of alcohol courtesy of Resource Strategies. It all got a little silly in the end.
On Friday morning we wandered around the Queen Street Mall some more and then made our way to the airport early enough to make alternate arrangements if the Qantas workers decided to include are flight as part of the mass cancellations that day. Fortunately everything went as scheduled and we were home by 9pm.
