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'BRISBANE'
episode 1- the long stay
episode 2- starting off the big journey
episode 3- meeting again

PART A -the homestead

Brisbane. That's the place we settled ourselves for the longest stay at one place. Still remember when we were off to Childers that we drove through it. It seemed a good place...

Well, Brisbane is a nice place to stay. The way the city is built is very nice. You've got the beautifull Botanical gardens in the centre of town, where I spent a lot of time, next to the big mull. Then there is Southbank, a beach and park built by mankind. Part of expo '88 I thought it was... There are quite a few other things as well.

We arrived there on the 18th of december. After a last night in hostel ' the homestead' Jay, Taf and Cas left us for Sydney. We bought their car for 2350 dollars with the three of us. Joost adventually agreed. I missed these people, they were great!

First days was a bit of exploring. Spent some time wandering through the mull. Looking for days for the old 'Waterloo Sunset' vinyl in one of the musicstores and spending a lot of time relaxing in the Botanical Gardens.

We also tried to make money. One day we sold Christmas hats, but that was no big money. Another day I did some dishes cleaning in a restaurant. We just basically chilled out. I was playing chess about every night with an Australian bloke Alfie. He just just couldn't win, although he was about to win a few times. But then he always managed to fuck it up which drove him mad. So every night after work I had to play a game of chess with him by helping him to get through his obsession. Well he actually got more and more obsessed everytime...

We met some cool people over there. Too many to mention, because we stayed there for about 5 or 6 weeks. But there was Mike, Marie, Johnny, Haley, Mo, ... well, yes, too much.

This was also the time that I spent some more time on my own. Wanted time for myself and now was the chance. Was good too, because the tension was getting worse and it was nice spending some time on your own or with different people.
Wrote some songs, drew some pictures, it was a relaxing time.

Days past and we still wanted to make money in Brisbane. After a few little jobs we had a proper job after a few weeks. Well, proper? We were rolling foams at a factory, 12 hours a day. Was actually big fun. I worked with Johan, Mike (33), Johnny (35) and it was a good laugh. We did a very good job and they found ourselves a new job after this one.

We also spent Christmas and New Years in Brisbane. Had this vision and plan to spend it somewhere at a beach with a drink, music, campfire, women and just a small amount of people. But it was not to be, as we found ourselves working.
Christmas was very strange. Was about 32 degrees Celsius and I was wearing nothing except for a short. Very different than back in Europe. Bought myself a Christmas hat to get a feeling of it.
New Years we spent at the brigde with big fireworks. It was alright..

During our stay we spent about every mondaynight at the 'Transcontinental'. Free beer and jugs. Was top, getting pissed for nothing. Spent some classic nights over there. Had a few other classic nights, but that would be a very long story as this part is already a long one. (You don't mind I'm not telling Johan, do you?...)

I also played about my first proper gig of my life. It was in a place called 'Casablanca'. Every week there was a jamsession. I played one of my songs at the hostle where Johnny felt completely in love with it and said I had to play that one. He also gave me a proper title for that song; 'Thinking Of Forever'. Credit for that man!... Also played another own song and the beautiful masterpiece of oasis: 'The Masterplan'. It was top, in front of about 70/80 people. It is the best feeling in the world!...

We made a few trips while being in Brisbane. We went to Gympie and Noosa with Mo and Alfie and ran out of diesel 2 times... still taste the diesel Mo?... With a number of people we went to the beaches of Bribie Island, Surfers Paridise (Gold Coast) , Caloundra (Sunshine Coast), which were all great trips...

A week before my birthday I got very sick. My glands again, I felt fucked, was on big drugs, could hardly drink and eat, but just recoverd for my birthday (well, sort of). That was a good laugh.

We also changed our look, Johan and me shaved our hair off. Was getting bold anyway. Was top! Felt very funny a bonehead... (check the picture...).

We met a lot of other good people who were arriving and leaving all the time. Like Biggs, Rob, Lisa, Karen...

PART B -Markstreet 18 'Karen's place'

With Rob, Marie, Biggs and Danny we went to stay at her place. The hostel crew was far from happy and we were not so welcome anymore though we still came there.
We shared the bottom part with Biggs for 45 dollar. So one week was even cheaper than one night at the hostel. It was great with them. Rob is an English bloke, a bit older than us but a big laugh and Biggs is from our age. He went to study after a few weeks.

We also caught up with Walter. Good to see him... And another guy who was in the same starting group. Forgot his name as well... He was bound to go home, but he had a brilliant time.

It was worthwhile, but it was also the bost boring time I spent in Australia. We were waiting for a top job ( bore a tunnel in ground or something...) that was expected in 2 weeks. Thought it was ok, as it was a very cheap accomodation. But that 2 weeks began to extend and it was raining for about 28 of the 30 days. And it was a cheap accomodation, but there was no tv or radio or whatsoever yet.

Again we did some daytrips. We spent a wet day at the beautiful LAMINGTON NATIONAL PARK. It was not the season to go North as it was wetseason. We decided to do something, get ourselve a job in the meantime and than get back for this bore job.

So with Mike we left to Stanthorpe to do some exploring. We found ourselves a job and some telephonenumbers for accomodation. Then we got back to Brisbane to pack some stuff we needed and we got of to Stanthorpe. See what it brings this time. Can't be worse than the first visit.

So finally we left Brisbane for a while at the 16th of February after about 6/7 weeks I suppose it was...

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