Monday, February 23, 2009

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2009 - BRISBANE

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2009 – 44/100 – BRISBANE

We are up at breakfast early as we want to catch the first shuttle into Brisbane. The ship is docked at Fisherman’s Island about 30 minutes from downtown. The shuttle drops us at Queens Street Mall. Armed with information on computer and camera stores we start our search. By 1:00PM, we have found all the parts we need, including a new Toshiba laptop computer. Dick is carrying a huge, heavy bag so we catch the shuttle back to the ship.

We miss lunch in the main dining room and go for some pizza on the Lido deck. With a light lunch and all the new stuff Dick is feeling more himself and has eyes only for getting his life back in order.

Carolyn on the other hand wants to see some sights. She heads back to town about 3:00PM. She is the only person on the bus and the driver strikes up a conversation with her and gives her a quick tour of some sights on the way in including the Old Government House, Parliament House and The Mansions. That was a really nice treat! He suggests a walking route that can be done in the short time she has before the last bus leaves to go back to the ship. Carolyn visits the Cathedral of St. Stephen, built in the Gothic style, completed in 1874, where a wedding is taking place, then walks along the riverand back up by the Post Office, built in the Neo-Classical style between 1871 and 1879, Post Office Square and Anzac Square. It turns out to be a nice little walk and, once again, the Great Victorian architecture in Australia is nicely highlighted. At 4:30PM, she is on the last bus back to the ship with many of the young crew. They are all stuffing Big Macs and singing in very accented English. It made for an interesting ride back!

Back at the ship Dick’s mood is greatly improved now that he is plugged in again! Oh, how the computer controls our life these days! Things are definitely looking up!

Dinner is delightful. Our head waiter is taking good care with Carolyn’s soy allergy. He has fixed a special Caesar salad dressing for us to be sure there is no soybean oil and it is wonderful! The food is good. We both have, the always available, shrimp cocktail, the chilled fruit soup, Ceasar salad and Carolyn has salmon and Dick has a steak

We are both finally settling into the relaxing routine of the ship after the past two rough days.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry about your laptop. I'm sure that was very distressing. Glad things are back on a more even keel.I am enjoying your reports. Did you loose all of your wonderful pictures? Hopefully not. Thanks for sharing your travels.