The longer I live here, the more I love it.  While I am walking around a take more notice of things and I think that is because I lived overseas for a year.  Here are some of the things I have seen on my travels around Brisbane.

I was walking along Musgrave Rd and with the light, it was amazing, St Brigid’s Catholic Church, Red Hill.  In 1897 Archbishop Robert Dunn laid the foundation for a new school building and, when it opened, there were over 400 on the school roll. This building was located in the present car park and had to be demolished after a fire partially destroyed the building in 1974.The school was closed in 1983 because of declining numbers.

Two weekends ago Niels and I were in town and there was a military parade for the Mayor of Brisbane, it always sends shivers down my spine when I see military vehicles in a civilian setting.

Working at Seqwater I was alerted to some work we were doing on The Green Hill reservoir in Brisbane.  How well did this turn out and not to mention the size it it, took us about 10 minutes to circumvent it.  Check it out if you have time and it is dog friendly.

I was in the city during the weekend minding my own business on the scooter and I almost ran into horse poo.  I thought this was odd but then I hear a clip clop.  How amazing are these animals.

Now while at work going from site to site I had the pleasure of seeing a koala run across the road in front of me and then scurry up a tree and look at me.  Then in Fernvale, which is famous for its bakery, I ran into this crazy character, modern and traditional technologies mixing.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have a training program on the 26th floor of a building near the water, magnificent.

And last but not least, Niels and I were walking through Southbank a couple of months ago and came across this, yep a snow playground, I think it was about 20 C.

So I suggest that we all look harder at our surrounds to see the beauty and the unusual and be grateful of our situation.

Niels like most boys love anything with a motor; car, planes, motorbikes and trains, so now that I am working in the Ippy (Ipswich) I have more exposure to trains, so I saw a pamphlet for a steam engine ride so I booked.

Now if you can imagine the demographic of who would go on a steam train ride then you are correct; families with young children, older people and then there was us.  We arrived promptly on platform 1 at the Roma Street Station and then waited for the action to begin.  In a cloud of smoke, no it wasn’t on fire, it arrived, they went through some interesting facts and then we boarded.

If my memory serves me correctly, this engine was one of the last to be made in Queensland, if not Australia in the early 1960’s. We were in the oldest carriage, circa 1921, and we could open the windows however we soon learnt that was not a good idea with a train that producers soot and in a tunnel.  The noise it made was incredible and we went at a good speed to see the surroundings and headed for Bulwer Island near the airport.

Because we went off a track that wasn’t used very often, probably only for this trip, they had to manually change the tracks so at first I thought my eyes were deceiving me when the same guy was at each crossing, and then when we were too fast, we had to wait.

It was about a 2 hour trip and I thoroughly recommend it if you get a chance, I great way  to see the sights from a different angle sound.