mindstalk | Entries tagged with brisbane

I'm told there's a reason for 'good behavior': "the rangers will lurk and fine you". I did find multiple articles about anti-jaywalking enforcement campaigns by Australian cities, with fines as high as $150 in the Northern Territory, which also includes vague clauses that make harassing and arresting aborigines easier.

Though I also learned it's explicitly legal to cross a street at least 20 meters away from a crosswalk. (I've been using jaywalking to specifically mean crossing a "don't walk" signal.) Given how long some of the signals are, it would almost be worth making the detour, if you were at a street with low enough traffic to make that safe but were still afraid of cops.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/543116.html

* Australians really do say "no worries" often.

* Australians continue to be very good about not jaywalking, even when a crosswalk is safe and has been keeping them waiting for 90 seconds.

* I've seen lots of middle schoolers taking the bus, but today I saw my first elementary kids, three little kids nowhere near their growth spurt.

* Saturday I walked across the Story Bridge into Fortitude Valley. Not that long. Though it's not like you just get on a pleasant bridge, you get on the sidewalk of a very busy car bridge. First time I climbed a long spiral staircase, but coming back I walked down a long gentle slope.

* Sunday I finally took the free CityHopper ferry. Crowded and hot and smells of exhaust. Prefer CityCat.

* Yesterday I visited E&A again. Almost took the cross-river ferry, which is most frequent -- 12 or 18 minutes -- but a Hopper showed up first. E was sort of south of Brisbane, so I went down to meet him. Express bus and train were the same speed, and bus was more frequent, but I forgot that buses here don't announce their stops, so I had to be on tenterhooks, made worse by E changing where I should get off.

* New place today. Big and nice, though central AC and I suspect I'm more indulgent than my host is. Airbnb should try to tell us what kind of AC places have... I hinted that a fan would help, then found a AUD$9 USB fan. I'm not sure it'll do me much good but it's cheap.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/542950.html

So, I chose poorly with this new place. Local bus runs every 40 minutes and stops running at 1930. It's a 23 minute walk to the nearest busway station. But it is near ferry stops, and today I tried that. There's CityHopper, a free but short route running every 30 minutes. CityCat, a long paid route that runs every 15 minutes during the day, though slowing down in the evening. And a few ferries that just shuttle across the river at points. I actually have three ferry terminals: one is Hopper, one is Hopper plus cross-river, one is CityCat.

So I went down to the CityCat one, and hopped on, toward QUT St Lucia. I sort of feel like it doesn't go THAT far down the river -- no further than I've already been -- but it does take 50 minutes to get there from Mowbray. This despite being a catamaran with 25 knots cruising speed.

Boat capacity is around 150 people, which given 4 an hour, doesn't seem much -- no more than 600 people an hour passing through a ferry terminal.

Anyway, it was fun. Having been to QUT already I got off at West End instead, which wasn't super exciting. The buses there aren't good, but there's a City Glider thing, which is two good buses -- 15 minute or better headways, USB chargers, 24 hour service on Friday and Saturday. Google Maps knows nothing about it, which is weird. But I took one (5 minute headway at 1630) and rode across Brisbane to Tenerife terminal, taking another ferry back home.

Ferries from North Hamilton go to every 30 minutes at 1719; going the other way from QUT, they switch at 1818. Pretty early.

First ferry was pretty punctual, not sure about the second one.

They look weird, like they're riding on ice skates. I assume there are pontoons beneath the water surface and I'm just seeing a thin connector.

Edit to add: I keep forgetting to rant again about the lack of announcements on the buses. (No sign, no verbal announcement, of what the next stop is.) It was particularly telling when I was coming back from the Botanical Gardens. Strange route, in the dark, with no landmarks, no way of knowing when to get off except asking the driver (maybe) or GPS. Does Brisbane assume everyone has a smartphone and GPS now?

Would have been an issue on the City Glider today too, but I was heading to the end of the line.

The trains and ferries don't have this problem, but all the buses do, including the fancy busways and City Glider.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/542390.html

Sep 30: Finally got to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Not the park in the CBD, which used to be the gardens, but the ones out west, 56 hectares of plant exhibits. The bus route was wonky -- 30 minute headway? so I took an Uber, which wasn't that much faster in the end. "Your car in 4 minutes" was more like 8 minutes, a common ridehail failure.

Visit was fun. Tropical dome, small Japanese garden, well labeled bonsai exhibit, giant bamboo... the further part of the park got confusing though, no signs out there, I even worried about getting back in time.

Saw my first live artichoke plant in the Kitchen Garden. I'd never thought before about where the artichoke actually grows.

I chatted with some employee while we waited for the bus back. I asked about age of mobility; he said his parents didn't trust him out to "go to the city" until 17, but at around age 7 he was walking to school and hanging out with friends until dusk.

Oct 1: had some Indian lunch. It was a bit creepy: no one else there at 12:20 PM, lights out... I tried it anyway but checked reviews, which were good. But I saw that Google says it's only open for dinner, maybe that's why no one was there... I uploaded some photos of the menu, and drew the owner's attention. Food was decent in the end.

Walked around the park 'gardens' again, then tried the QUT art museum. Accidentally first found the William Robinson gallery, a small museum devoted to just one artist, who is still alive and working. Weird. The paintings were interestng though, in the 10 minutes I had before closing time. More so than the actual art museum, which is given over to a couple of modern artists..

Oct 2: I'm in a new place for a week, on Kangaroo Point. As the ibis flies I'm closer to the CBD than I have been, but practically I'm further; no good transit on this tongue of land. There's a bus stop right outside the building but the bus is like every 40 minutes; my best on-the-fly option would be a ferry!

Walked around. Timed that a traffic light was indeed 2 minutes before I could walk. Nearby blocks are 1 by 6 minutes by foot -- 6 minute walk long! Eek. A school zone was posted as 40 kph, or 24 MPH; I think the default road speed is 50 KPH, or 30 MPH. So similar to the US, but shocking compared to Japan, where 30 KPH is a typical street speed.

I saw another postman on an ebike. I forget if I'd mentioned seeing one before.

For all the car orientation -- long signal times, wide roads, my last place and this one were both right by highways or busy roads though at least here I'gm facing away -- gasoline is AUD $1.70 per liter, or $4.29/gallon. I guess that's not hugely expensive, Japan was more like $5/gallon, but what's the US now, $2.50?

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/541734.html

There's been some culture festival going on in Brisbane for the past few weeks, which I've completely ignored, except for the un-ignorable plane flybys. And the fireworks tonight. I turned out to be staying a ten minute walk from a point where I could look down into a launch barge. Was I incredibly lucky? No: there were multiple launch points up and down the river and around bends; I counted at least 7 from where I was, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were more out of sight. Synchronized, so you weren't missing anything.

Also decently synchronized with the music, with fireworks pulses in time with musical beats. That's the first time I observed such a thing... maybe the first time I was in a position to do so; I don't associate music with *during* a fireworks show (vs. the Boston Pops going for a couple hours *before* the 4th of July show.)

Fireworks features: no hearts or smiley faces, but things like glowing Christmas tree n (balls of fire) that split into more balls... I dunno, they looked bigger and more 'real' than your usual spark of light. Fans (like hand fans or peacock tails) of fire drifting sideways.

Music was pretty eclectic; I noticed the Simpsons opening, an Indiana Jones theme, 500 Miles (abridged), Love Shack (I think also abridged), and a familiar classical tune -- Ode To Joy, if my memory didn't go awry -- for finale.

Duration was 20 minutes, like the 20-30 I'm used to in the US and Chile, and vs. the 80+ minutes of Japan...

I can't really do justice to it in words, but it was an awesome show. Good visuals, I appreciated the synchrony, great view, and easy access (I walked up a few minutes before it started and found a good spot -- there were a lot of people, but not crushing crowds.) Only thing better would have been having a friend with me.

Someone's finale video: https://www.reddit.com/r/brisbane/comments/dae1qo/finale_to_riverfire/

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/541200.html

Part of why walking around Brisbane does not give joy: long wait times for lights to change, and complex intersections where you may have to cross two lights in a row.

Locals seem averse to dashing across quiet intersections. I noticed that given drive-on-left traffic flows, it's wise for me to be averse as well, since I'm not used to looking in the correct direction for turning cars.

Central area continues to be neat. South Bank has a Nepalese Peace Pagoda, left over from the 1988 Expo, and right next to it is a rainforest boardwalk.

I went to QUT St. Lucia to check out free museums there; they were pretty small, like the Harvard free museums. Anthropology, which was a few aboriginal artifacts but mostly colonial photos of settlements and schools Torres Islanders were forced into. Art, which had a few weird modern exhibits. Physics, which was a bunch of instruments like Harvard's but smaller. But also a pitch drop experiment, which has been going on for decades; pitch apparently is solid enough to shatter on hammer strike but liquid enough to drip very slowly (like years between drops), the way urban legend says glass does.

Oh, also an Antiquities museum -- yes, I basically exhausted four 'museums' in one afternoon -- which had a nice ancient coin collection. Not huge but well labeled, and I got to see drachma, denarius, aureus up close.

Tried exploring St. Lucia itself. Dull residential neighborhood with a few restaurants. I retreated from the sidewalk seating of one, too much noise and exhaust.

Today I went to the Queensland Gallery of Art, which is also free, but a decent size; took me a while just to eyeball everything. It would probably take a few hours to probably look at everything and read their signs.

Then I found that the Brisbane Square Library was open to midnight. On a Friday? Yep, it's actually a brand new policy, as of two days ago: midnight hours on Wednesday and Friday, trying to be more of a social center. There were people playing music in the lobby, and a table of optical illusions, and I think other events. Physically it's a nice library, lots of plants, and the colored glowlights that Brisbane loves to have all over its CBD. Non-fiction was a good size.

Other things... there's going to be a Riverfire festival Saturday, with fireworks and plane performances; a fighter was practicing today, flying low and loud and threatening my hearing. Not sure if I'll go or avoid... I looked up the ferries, which seem neat, but haven't taken one yet. (Brisbane straddles the Brisbane river.)

I re-read the Silmarillion, working on Unfinished Tales. It's striking how the more obscure the Tolkien work, the more women and women's dialogue there are...

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/541074.html

Went down to see E&A again. I thought I would buy lunch at or near Park Road Station, where I was catching a train. Ha ha no! There is nothing there but houses and a hospital. Google showed nothing closer than 7 minute walk. Not even a vending machine.

E had some similes for Australian cities.
Melbourne: NYC or Cambridge, intellectual, well-dressed.
Sydney: LA, superficial and casual, rapidly improved transit.
Hobart: cute compact coastal English town.
Brisbane: generic medium-sized city.

Yay? I have to say, apart from the King George/Albert area, walking around does not give me joy.

Though the parks here are still neat, and the modern Botanic Gardens sound great; I would have checked them out today but had some health stuff to attend to.

I'd complained about my 'wholemeal' pasta having a disgusting gritty texture; E thinks Australia skips a processing step that US whole wheat products do.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/540240.html

It's been a slow time. Partly from getting a cold last weekend. Colds hit me hard the first few days. Now I'm doing better but blowing my nose a lot.

Highlights:

* Bats! Went back to the Roma Street Parklands, saw lots of flying foxes around dusk, dipping into the pond. Apparently it's wetting their front fur, then they go hang and suck it off to drink.
* I watched "Your Name", it was pretty good, though I'm grumpy about the ending. And that's Shinkai's happiest ending...
* On the 8th I took the train down to Helensvale to visit E&A on their 12 acres of land; that was pretty fun, just hanging out and walking. Didn't sleep well though, foam mattresses aren't my thing and they have many chickens including roosters, so I fell asleep late and was woken around 4.
* Then E took me over to Griffith and I explored some of the Gold Coast. Got my feet wet in the Pacific!
* Read GRRM's Fevre Dream, aka Life On the Mississippi With Vampires.
* Took a bus trip outward, to explore more. It wasn't very exciting but I'm glad I tried. "LA with better transit or maybe selection bias" continues as an impression.
* 90% of everything closes by 9PM.
* Tried exploring Fortitude Valley and Central Station areas. There's a Chinatown but it's tiny and half-dead.
* Lots of public toilets. Some of them look creepy but none of them have smelled bad. Even Japan can't say that though I gave it a lot more chances to fail.
* Going by the store and my second host, Australia is big on instant coffee.
* Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) busways seems hardly less resource-intensive than subways. Big concrete busways and stations platforms and such. I guess the stations can be shorter.
* Go Card machines have terrible touchscreens.
* Re-read Lord of the Rings, first time since before 2004.
* Re-read Crispin's Zar Star Trek novels. Second one felt pretty dire at first but eventually got good.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/539935.html

Dates here are European order, dd/mm/yy. This confused me when I was checking my phone balance, getting upset that the expiry date was 09/10/19 -- but that's October 9th, not September 10th!

Brisbane has some really nice parks. I mentioned the Botanical Gardens already. Last night I went exploring around South Bank, and found Aquavity, a bunch of water features: swimming pool, fountains, things to dump water on you randomly, all free and open even at night (though no lifeguard at night.) I guess Boston Common has a pool, which I've probably never seen at night, but this was better. Various lights and plantings, and lots of people using it.

There were what I thought of as baobabs, though the descendant trunks were many and thin so I'm not sure, and some tree mammal that was neither squirrel nor primate.

I'm at some park near me right now, at 22:42 local time, with teens or young men playing basketball, and some group/family of immigrants (women wearing shawls style) behind me. And a great tree draped with Christmas lights.

My local commercial cluster is somewhat diverse but small and mostly closes by 9pm, apart from a bar, a burger place at 10, and a bubble tea cafe to 1am.

One city bus stop has multiple lines, each running every 15 minutes or so. Another was less frequent, and not running at all on weekends.

I've run into two shopping areas that rely on public bathrooms. Which are clean.

It was fairly hot today, 32 C, and I fear for my bedroom. My hosts are Vietnamese and I think disinclined to run the A/C unless it gets truly torrid. The various businesses and campus buildings weren't particularly cool, sort of mild A/C I guess.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/539864.html

Now in Brisbane. Impressions:

* Wow, customs was easy. Get a ticket with my passport at an electronic kiosk, get my bag, hand the ticket and my declaration form to someone, walk out. It's harder to get back into the US as a citizen. You'd think they would at least sniff my luggage more to make sure I'm not bringing in undeclared lifeforms.

* Getting a working SIM was a pain. In Osaka I bought it, the salelady installed it for me, and it worked right away, e.g. I could use it to plan my route to my stay. Here I bought it, I installed, it, I used airport wifi to register it (and I needed my laptop; Telstra's website failed in my phone browser), I was told it would be activated in four hours; I had to get home on screenshots of the route. I got an activation message after 2 hours. It actually still didn't work, and I had to go to a store to get APN data, since apparently my phone failed to get that on its own.

* Brisbane feels like a less car-oriented LA. Warm, dry, subtropical plants, more walkability and transit.

* Trains and busways (BRT) seem to run every 15 minutes, with overlapping routes. Some of the trains may switch to 30 minutes after 19:00. Just looking at routes through Rome Station on Google Maps is actually pretty confusing, lots of things seem to be rush hour only or something.

* The busways might be even more frequent than 15 minutes, actually. OTOH that still leaves them filling up and leaving people waiting around 15:15, when a local school gets out.

* The busways DO NOT ANNOUNCE THE NEXT STOP. There's neither a display or a voice-announcement. This is amazingly primitive compared to anything I've experienced for years now, even more so for BRT that's trying to imitate a train experience.

* Lots of drinking fountains, at least at parks and on QUT campus. Including "water bottle filling" modes.

* Lots of school uniforms. Lots of what I would guess are middle/junior high schoolkids going home on their own by transit (albeit in large groups.)

* The Botanical Garden is a 24-hour park, and seems pretty neat. I think I saw fruit bats in the dusk. Also huge colonies of Australian ibises, like an open-air aviary.

* Lots of ibises out and about too, like large exotic pigeons; one cleaned up the remains from my falafel wrap.

* Tipping: apparently not required, with a minimum wage of over AUD$17/hour.

* Money! AUD $1 = 2/3 $USD. $AUD/kg -> $USD/lb means dividing by 3.3. Or dividing by 3 and taking another 10% off, or dividing by 3 and letting yourself be surprised by spending less than you though.

AUD/kg * 5 kg / 11 lbs * 2/3 USD/AUD = 10/33 USD/lb.