Day 40 - Brisbane: South Bank

Had a lazy morning and got a lovely text from Tara at about 11am saying she and Harriet were going sunbathing and did I want to come too? Never being the one to miss the opportunity to stare at half naked men, I agreed and met them at the bus stop over the road.

We headed to the fake beach on South Bank and Tara treated us to a taxi to get there (thanks Tara) and we wondered down and found a nice grass patch to sit and tan (burn).

The sun is so much stronger in Australia than it is back home. You can physically feel your skin getting hotter and hotter. It’s no surprise that Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer anywhere in the world and their “Slip Slap Slop” campaign teaches kids from a really early age to Slip into a t-shirt, Slap on a hat, and Slop on some sun cream. Despite this effort, skin cancer rates haven’t significantly dropped that much but the government reckons it’ll take several generations to get the message across.

Despite the warnings, there was bare skin everywhere. There were people rubbing oil on themselves instead of sun cream and one woman was so wrinkly and brown her skin looked like leather. I felt physically revolted and tried to busy myself with trying to pick out the gay guys.

Now, if you’ve ever played Gay or European, you’ll know that on holiday, that game gets considerably harder. Well, the new, and less played version of that game is Gay or Australian. I’m pretty sure no one has ever won it ever. I was so sure one guy was gay but then his girlfriend walked over and sucked the face off of him. Another two guys had short shorts on that were so short I swear I could see a bullock hanging out. They got up and went and started chatting up some girls.

It’s just a very hard (no pun intended) game to play.

So we sat there for nearly four hours, interrupting ourselves only for lunch. I had an avocado and smoked salmon salad which was divine. The massive bowl of chips counteracted the healthiness but it didn’t matter. I think the problem is, is that I eat what I like and I don’t give a shit.

Got back to Matilda and Tara had to go to work, so I thought I’d read J K Rowling’s new book; The Casual Vacancy.

I won’t ruin it, because it turned out to be a very good read, but the main story line is as follows.

A man called Barry Fairbrother dies. He is on the parish council, and a teacher at the local school. When the village of Pagford learns of his death, there is a power struggle in the council and arguments and disagreements break out amongst its members. There is a council estate nearby which is in Pagford’s district but the parish council really doesn’t want it to be. The parish council is split. Half want to keep the estate in Pagford, the other don’t. The town council are thinking of moving the boundaries and it all becomes a little bit messy.

While the adults of the area are all arguing over the smallness that is their village, the teenagers lives all intermingle at the local school. The story continues and we slowly find out that, obviously, all of the characters are all connected to each other in one way or another. There are two more deaths in the village before a relatively small amount of calm is brought upon the villagers. It takes one small voice to bring the whole community together.

It was quite a good book actually, and it being labelled as an adult novel was definitely a good thing. It was no Harry Potter. There were more references to vulvas than in 50 shades.

I liked it, and Jo didn’t ruin my childhood... but I will point out the fact that Pagford and Padfoot were very similar, as was the token Asian family which is found in both novels. Either way, I loved it. I will read it again one day, perhaps.

Until next time x