holiday

I can't really do a post describing all my holiday without doing injustice to some part of it. I will, however, attempt a brief summary, probably to be annotated by other posts and, hopefully, such images as I have available, in the week that follows.

I split my time pretty much equally in the end, between my parents' place in Toowoomba and friends in Brisvegas, staying at Ian's and Paul/Julz/Danny/Kylie's places. In Toowoomba I caught up with Mum, Dad, Lee and Em, activities including a few rounds of golf with dad, a lot of time on the back verandah looking at their spectacular view, watching various kinds of sport on tele, and a couple of trips to the pool to do laps with Lee. In general it was great - M&D's new house is really nice, and the view is, again, spectacular, particularly after a fall of rain when everything is so green.

Brisbane was also fantastic. It was probably the first time I'd ever been a tourist there, so I had a great time cruising up and down the river on the Citycat, walking along the river at Southbank, and reading a book in the botanic gardens at Garden's Point. I caught up with lots of people and did lots of stuff, including:

• popping out to DSTC for a couple of afternoons
  
• hanging out with Ian and his flatmates on their back porch
  
• out drinking with Lach and one of his cricket mates
  
• out with Chad and Miri at the Calypso Bar,
  
• barbeque housewarming for Paul/Julz/Danny/Kylie's place,
  
• New Year's with Miri/Chad/Lach/Olwyn/Bec/Nic/Brett/Craig/Em/etc,
  
• tennis with Matt, golf with Chad/Craig/Matt,
  
• and lots of hanging out with Paul/Mick/Dan/Julz/Danny/Kylie and others at West End, with commensurate volumes of Indian/Japanese/Vietnamese/Chinese food.
  

I realized just how set up I was (and still am) for social circles in Brisbane. I have some good friends in Rennes, but in Brisbane I have so many that I can just be out almost any night of the week. In Rennes, I'm lucky if its one or two nights a week. Unlike my sisters, Emily in particular, I much prefer a meal at a restaurant than one at home, but I can't do that without someone with whom I can go.

I realized how cool it is having unemployed or part-time-working friends when you're on holidays.

I realized just how much I love - and just how much I've missed - Asian food. The phrase itself, common in France but ridiculous in Australia, tells you so much. In two weeks in Brisbane I ate Indian from Punjabi Palace, Chinese from the Asian House, Japanese from Ginga, Vietnamese and Chinese from Trang, and Thai from Renu Thai. In Rennes I had Asian food maybe 4 or 5 times, most of which were in the UK. French food rocks, but I'd take a lamb ceylon from Punjabi over gallettes any day of the week.