Mexican Food Situation in Brisbane = Not Good :(

Who doesn't love to go out for some Mexican food and eat all of the chips and salsa that you can that by the time your food comes you are pretty stuffed?  Austalian's apparently did not get this memo because you DO NOT GET FREE CHIPS AND SALSA....crazy, eh?  I would like to tell you about my first experience at supposedly the best Mexican restaurant in Brisbane, Pepe's.

After sitting at the table for a few minutes it hit me that I wasn't going to get chips and salsa.  WTF?!  I placed my order and then said, may I get an order of chips and salsa, quite frankly I didn't care how much this was going to cost, who eats Mexican food without the never ending chips and salsa, seriously?  This is what comes out...I KID YOU NOT (this was after I ate a few, so there were more).  The chips were clearly from a bag and the salsa was like they took a can of tomato paste and added a tiny bit of water, no joke.  I was so disappointed at not only the fact that I had to pay for this but that it was terrible.  Not that I needed to eat more than this, but it was not free refills:(  The other red flag at this restaurant (and I'm not trying to be prejudice), but there were no Mexican workers - I mean clearly this wasn't real Mexican food.  

I wanted to give the Australian's another chance so a few weeks later I went to another Mexican restuarant in a different part of town.

Again, these were not free and there weren't free refills.  These chips were clearly fresh but the salsa was sweet and el grosso!  The guac was good, but the chips and salsa were not up to my standards. I didn't see any Mexican workers, but I didn't see the back room like I did at Pepe's, so I can't say for sure what ethnicity their workers were.

I am willing to give the Australian's another chance, but I think after 3 tries I will be able to say whether or not they have good Mexican food here.

Stay tuned for my third and final try at finding some good Mexican food here...

Koala's and Horseback Riding

As hard as is it is to believe, I turned down going to happy hour on Friday.  The guys from work were going and as much as I wanted to go, I said NO!  Partially in part because I had just completed an extremely hard workout at the gym which included so many lunges that I lost count (which I have to thank Florian for my inability to sit down the rest of the weekend without being in extreme pain).  I picked up my reserve at the library (which I will do an entire post on in the near future) and sat down and read, which I haven’t gotten to do a lot of lately since I’ve been so dang busy.  I did decide to go to the movies to see Huntsman.  It had Chris Hemsworth in it and in case you didn’t know he’s from Australia.  I’d seen the first Huntsman so I wanted to see this one as well to see the story continue.  No need to see it in the theater though, renting will suffice. 

  

Rented a car early on Saturday morning and headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was about 30 min. away.  So far the only koala’s I’ve seen have been sleeping in trees, as cute as they are, I want to see one move and boy did they move at the sanctuary.  We saw them walking around, eating, and sort of fighting with one another (if one wanted the branch the other one was sitting on).  They had other animals at the sanctuary as well such as wombats/Tasmanian Devils/platypus'/etc.

Two Tasmanian Devil's fighting - I can't say I wanted to pet either one of them, they were u-g-l-y!

                  This emu and I got pretty close, but I pet it and ran cuz I didn't want it to attack me!

 

We got to feed the Lorikeet’s which was fun (as you can see) they were really hungry. 

Is he cute or what?!?!

Got to feed the kangaroos again and caught one in action!

If you’ve never seen a koala actually move, well now you can say you have:)

They had a sheep shearing presentation which was really cool to watch.  This guy used to do this for a living so he made it look easy.

 Just beginning, lots of wool still on the sheep...

The sheep just laid there, totally relaxed as he got his hair cut...

All done!

Its Sunday already….man how the weekend fly’s by!  Woke up early and starting making the trek across town (ok, maybe like 3 blocks) with my suitcases to my new home.  Now instead of walking 10 steps to work I have to walk 3 blocks.  My new address is 26 Felix St. Apt. 114, Brisbane, Australia 4000.  

Here is the view from my balcony.  I went with the river view as many of you had suggested! 

I have moved into a furnished apartment but let me tell you what they didn’t supply me with.  Hand towels for the bathroom, pot holders, pans for the oven (like a cookie sheet), or any type of measuring spoons/cups.  I find that these things are pretty important so it looks like I’ll be going to the store in the next couple of days to purchase them – ugh!  

I get all unpacked and am ready for the adventure that awaits me….horseback riding!  Headed about 30 minutes away to Cherbon Waters for an afternoon trail ride.  I was assigned Tammy as my horse.  I immediately became the best of friends with her (well in my eyes).  I talked to her and pet her before our ride began.  The only problem I had with Tammy was that she wanted to stop and snack at every patch of tall grass that we came too.  I had to pull her away and tell her, it’s not the time to stop and snack Tammy – we have to keep up with the group.  This didn’t just happen once, it happened about half a dozen time or so, oh goodness.  Towards the end of the ride we got to trot with the horses and boy was 15 seconds enough for me.  You go from walking to bouncing up and down.  I must say, they make it look so easy in the movies.  Our ride was an hour long and the time flew by.  Another fun adventure Down Under!

                                                                   Here is Tammy!

                        Claire, me, and Ross (this was his first time on a horse in his life, crazy-eh?)

 By Sunday night I am pooped and ready for bed.  Monday will be here before you know it and you know what that means, back to work!

Action in Brisbane Today

Just when I thought today was going to be like every other week day....  I leave work and as I get to the end of the alley I see there are gobs of people standing around and there are cops everywhere.  The cop says to me, where are you headed and I point across the street and say over there, he then says, sorry, you're gonna have to walk up the street and cross there.  As I walk up the street I look back and see that there are people for a full block.  I think to myself, what is going on that I am not a part of?!?!  I ask a lady that is part of this mob of people and she says Tyga (pronounced Tiger) is making an appearance at Culture Kings.  I must be getting old because I have NO idea who this person is, but he must be popular if the street has been taken over by his fans.  I get up to my hotel room and I hear the screaming start (I remember the days when I used to do that, or wait...do I still do that)?  I then receive a call from a co-worker saying that a note came out at work saying not to leave work on the Elizabeth Street side because something is going on.  I started laughing and said, well I already left work and I got to experience the mob.  They asked what was going on and I told them, well duh-didn't you know, Tyga's in town, LOL!  I get changed and off to the gym I go.  I get there and I ask Florian who in the heck this Tyga person is.  He gets out his phone and I was soon educated.  Apparently he is a rapper and he has a concert in Brisbane so he stopped in town because a Culture Kings store just opened about a week ago.  

If you are like me and unaware of who Tyga is...well here he is!

Florian and I decided to read a little about him and if you didn't know he is 26 years old and is worth $5 million.  A fun fact is that he's dating Kylie Jenner.

Kylie is the half sister of Kim Kardashian and is 18 years old.

Here is the logo of the store he was at.  They sell hats/clothing and they have a barbershop in the basement with 6 chairs (totally random if you ask me).

In case you haven't heard this today, Happy Hump Day!

Hiking with the Bats (No Joke)....

If Saturday wasn't filled with enough activities, Sunday made up for it....

Headed north to Tabmorine Mountain and went on the Curtis Falls hike.

I get that this is the rainforest and all but I kept hearing these birds and they were SO loud and I was thinking shut up--I'm having a hard time enjoying my beautiful hike.  It was so overwhelming that I stopped, looked up and I was like OMG....those aren't birds I hear they are BATS...no friggen joke.  They look like little pods up there, but they are actually bats and they were flying around and being all loud.  I tried to take this video (it doesn't do them any justice, but you can at least get an idea of the sound).  Cool, huh?!

Then went on the Skywalk where I got to walk out on this platform and be higher up in the rainforest.  It was of course beautiful!  

Asked someone that worked at the Skywalk about these big white trees and how they shed their bark. It was very interesting to learn that this is one of their survival mechanisms and that they shed their bark yearly.  

Next up....the glow worm cave.  Was't able to take pictures inside so instead I took this fun picture for you!  Glow worms are fascinating.  The females only live for 48 hours and 30 of those hours are spent mating.  They lay 150-200 eggs and then die.  What a life - ugh!

Take a close look at this PYTHON in the tree.  It had just eaten a possum and was digesting it right above our heads.  If you zoom in you can see the part at the bottom is large (where the rodent is).  How cool is that?!?!

Such a fun weekend Down Under!

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

Saturday morning 10:00 - time for my walking chocolate tour.  What did this entail you ask, well let me fill you in.  There were 8 of us in total including our tour guide and we started out eating churro's with 6 different dipping sauces (caramel, Nutella, dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate and one other one that I can't remember).  Talk about delic!

We hit up a bar and drank some chocolate alcohol licquor (with other ingredients), yum!

We went to another place and drank a few different hot chocolate drinks in shot glasses and then had some cake.  The green one was green tea cake (can't remember the official name, but I took one bite and spit it out--it was el grosso, the white one and chocolate one were pretty tasty though).

Ross (who you should know by now), Claire (my boss's wife) and myself.  

One of the places gave us quite a few things to try.  In total we went to 6 places and by the end we were stuffed.  We learned the history of chocolate, how it was made and the different ways that different cultures make/use it.  Our group was very diverse, had the three of us, two Japanese students over for school, and two ladies from India and then our tour guide who was a local.  I now know where the good chocolate hot spots are in town:). It was 3 hours long and flew by, we were all sad when it was over.  I was in a sugar coma when I was done and needed a nap!  No--this was not a healthy morning (and yes....Florian knew about it and I'm sure he's gonna work me out extra hard this week to make me pay for it).

After spending the afternoon recooperating from my sugar OD, I met up with some co-workers and went kayaking on the Brisbane River in the evening.  We went kayaking from 7-9 and then when we got back we had a big bbq (well that's what they called it).  Food/drinks/hanging out.  It was so awesome kayaking down the river.  We all had lights on our kayak's and we went way down the river and went under this bridge (this pic was taken one night at dinner, but wanted you to know what the bridge looks like).  Received my first war wound of living here....had to take our flip flops off to go kayaking and somehow when I was walking across the dock I managed to get a huge splinter in my toe.  Reached down, pulled it and moved on with the evening.  As I was going down the river I felt this pain in my toe and I said that must have been a big piece of wood that I pulled out.  When we got back and I went to put my flip flops back on and looked at my toe, low and behold there was still a piece of wood in my toe.  They gave me a little blade (from the first aid kit) to try to dig it out but then it started bleeding so I put a band aid on it and went on with the night.  When I woke up on Sunday I started thinking what if I get an infection and they have to cut off my toe--that would be terrible, how would I walk (yes....crazy things like this go through my head).  I calmed myself down, got out the tweezers and went to work.  I no longer have the piece of wood in my toe (thank goodness).  My toe is sore, but it will heal in a day or two.    

Somehow I didn't make the picture but the guys on the left are my friends I went with, Phil, Dave and Brad.  

I feel like maybe I kayaked off a few pieces of the chocolate I ate earlier in the day, hehe.

Another fun day in Australia!!!

Pure Happiness

I almost forgot to tell you one really big important thing that I went and did this week!!!!

I WENT AND GOT A LIBRARY CARD!!!!! I don't have to read books on my iPad which makes me really really happy.  I like to hold the book in my hands and getting this card gives me the ticket to happiness.  Already put a few books on reserve, waiting for them to come in:)  I made my co-workers gather around and I said, guys--I went and did something extremely important over lunch and I would like to show you (they all gathered around with anticipation of what in the world I had done) and I pulled out my card and said LOOK AT THIS (I think they are beginning to wonder about me), haha!  

Low Key Week/Weekend

Tuesday I had an appt. with a gym because I thought it would be good for me to find something to do after work during the week and more importantly with all of the delicious food I've been eating I want to keep my weight in check.  I met with the owner, Cleo, who looked to be straight outta high school.  She was a very lovely person and after learning what all the gym offered I found out this gym is a little different than my gym back home.  They help people train for those competitions you see on tv where women wear bikinis and heels and pose.  I said well let me tell you right now that is not me!  She said, no problem - we are a gym too.  It's a very small gym (300 members) so it's like one big family.  I decided to get a trainer because I need someone to help me stay motivated, on track and push me.  They don't waste any time because I had my first training session with Florian that night.  Florian is French and 3 years ago he quit his job, sold his car and flat and moved to Australia not knowing English.  I said, you are one of "those people", very impressive, just totally the opposite of me.  We chatted as he took my measurements and then he said how tall are you and I said 5 foot 1 and he looked at me like I had two heads and then I realized what the look was for and we both started laughing so hard, I was laughing so hard I seriously had a hard time stopping and tears were coming out of my eyes.  He had to get his phone out to do the conversion.  I did love stepping on the scale because I'm used to seeing lbs and seeing kg the number is MUCH smaller, hehe:)  Within 24 hours I had received about 10 texts from the other trainers welcoming me to the gym and everyday this week when I went, different members that knew I was new all introduced themselves, they are really a nice bunch of folks.  Some people even knew my name and came up and said Hi Tiffany, I'm xxx, welcome to the family.  I must say, these Australians are uber nice.  As the week has progressed I've asked Florian approximately 50,000 questions (surprise, surprise, eh)?  Come to find out Cleo is in her late twenties and has won numerous world titles for those competitions I was telling you about.  They have pictures up of the competitors and there are some of her and her poses in the competitions (she used to be a gymnast so she can do funky things with her body).  I find it so impressive that such a young person can be so accomplished and successful.  I definitely have a lot of respect for her.  I even Googled her to see what else I could find out about her, haha.  Florian tells me he is going to help me get shredded (I immediately thought of shredded cheese, what is wrong with me), but apparently that means ripped cuz I said um...what does that mean?  Still learning their lingo here.

By Friday I was really sore and needed a day off.  Went to HH (happy hour) with the same group as a few weeks ago plus a few more.  The bar that was picked wasn't within walking distance so a few of us met up and took the bus which is always an adventure.  We were eating and one of the guys says, will you please pass me a serviette, and I said you want some silverware?!?!  He started laughing and said no...a serviette, you call it a napkin.  I started busting up.  I said a serviette, who says that, just call it a friggen napkin.  Apparently the word is French and I said, well let them use that word and you can be like an American and say napkin, it's much easier to say.  Another new word for me, but that was a hard one to remember so I had to write it down.  We ended up going to a few places and look what was at the last place...

There were moose's and bears up on the wall and as you can see, bra's hanging off of the antlers.  I said what kind of place did you guys bring me to?  They informed me it used to be a strip joint but is now just a bar, and it reminded me of an old western bar with how it was set up (I say this like I know what an old western bar is, but from what I've seen in movies this is what I'd say it's like).  They had a band playing (bluesy music) and they were really good.  Another fun night Down Under!

No big adventures this weekend so I decided to work on my tan.  

Super pasty white girl needs a little color so I put on my sunscreen (apparently this is the #1 place for melanoma in the world, something I definitely DO NOT want) and soaked up the rays.  I didn't want to overdo it so I only stayed in the sun for a little while and then packed it up and went back in.  

Woke up on Sunday and decided to check out the market in the Botanic Gardens, it was ok--nothing to write home about.  Jumped on the CityCat (ferry) and rode down to the last stop and got off and walked around the University of Queensland (big campus) and saw some fun creatures.

These are Brisbane River Turtles.  You can see their heads popped out of the water.  There were tons of them on a pond on campus.

This is an eel---each!  Gave me the hebbie gebbies - not an animal I want to pet or get close to.  

Jumped back on the CityCat and got off at South Beach and rode the ferris wheel.  Checked out the museum across the street (nothing to write home about either, glad it was free--or shall I say I only went in the areas that were free).  

Views from inside the Ferris wheel at the very top.

This is a huge sign they have with the city in the background that I thought was worthy of taking a picture of.

Got back closer to home and on Sunday's they have this garage sale (only thing I can compare it to), but people had suitcases full of their clothes that hey laid out on the ground for sale.  Interesting....

Another fun weekend in Australia!!!  Thanks for tuning in:)