Binarynomad

Saturday we were invited over to Ian and Renee’s for a dinner. When we showed up, we headed to the backyard where Renee was taking care of her chooks and planting some peanut and sweet-potato seeds into her garden. Ian was keeping everything hydrated (which is a task considering they are not allowed to use a water-hose due to the current water restrictions). Bryan and I helped out by moving the chooks back to their main pen.

There was some time to kill before dinner, so Ian took us for a ferry ride on the Brisbane River. We first rode the river-cat east, toward to ocean, going past the Brisbane Powerhouse, which is a converted power station that now happens to be a performing arts and culture venue (I’m hoping to catch that before we leave in a month). We got off at the end of the line and killed time sitting on a pier watching jellyfish float past before the next ferry came by to take us back toward the city. Once onboard, we headed west, toward the CBD, passing lots of people out enjoying a wonderful summer(ish) evening on the water.

We got off at the Southbank Parklands and wandered around for a bit. It was the “perfect” summer evening for me. The sun had just set, twilight colors played across the sky, evening lights were just coming on, people were out for walks and seeing the night life, there was a warm breeze flowing down the river, and the tantalizing smells of restaurant grills wafted through the air. (I could get used to this).

Afterwards, we headed back down the river to Ian’s car, passing the climbing cliffs (which is another spot I hope to catch before we leave).

Back at the house, Renee served up an amazing dinner with Fesenjan (pomegranate walnut chicken stew), saffron rice, and a salad complimented by fresh herbs from her garden out back. It was amazing! Shane dropped by to join us for dinner and then play some games afterwards. First we tried a new card game that Bryan had brought along called Ogre Bash, it was a bit simplistic for our tastes, so we moved on to “May I” which Kristen quickly dominated, and crushed any hopes we had of surviving (but it was still a blast, I even got to win 2 hands 🙂 ). Renee made a dessert of sautéed fruit and a chocolate sauce (yum). Shane gave us copies of a mini-movie he had made of our trip to the Hinterlands the week before (it’s about 1 Gig, so I’ll see what I can do shrink it before posting it up).

We had to end the night around 11pm because we (Kristen, Bryan, and I) had to get up at 4am(itstoodamnearlyish) so I could take them to the airport for their trip to Sydney.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 12:59 am and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.