365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 261 (Saturday 18 September) : Jason's 40, Southbank's Different, and I Drank 3 Smirnoffs in a Row.... Such a Lush!

I know what you're thinking - no I really do; you haven't got your special aluminium foil cap on right and I can still probe your thoughts.... being a holiday weekend for my boyfriend & I, we woke early, had a hreaty hotel buffet breeakfast and hit the streets eagerly exploring every laneway and street.....

Well, we did have the buffet breakfast - I think it's the law when you're in a luxury hotel and who am I to fight City Hall? - but that was after a leisurely sleep in and snuggle in bed. It's not like my guy or I hadn't been to Brisbane before and while it had been 22 years since I visited it properly, I was content to get done what we could get done and leave the rest for another time.

First port of call was a walk across Victoria Bridge at the end of Queen Street Mall where we naturally stopped for photos. Its a lovely wide, low slung bridge with great views to the City and South Bank, which had changed greatly since I worked at Expo 88.

They have taken the old Expo 88 and over a number of years converted it into a lush tree-filled parkland with pools, water features, an ampitheatre, and even the old Nepalese pagoda from Expo 88. Nearby the Queensland Performing Arts complex was covered in all these Lego-like figures scrambling all over it's facade. They turned out to be made of milk crates and were in place to celebrate 25 years of QPAC. They looked fabulous!

We had a lovely time wandering through it, despite the construction work going on to put a new rainwater collecting tank in the ground, and then met my lovely friend Jason, who's 40th birthday we were in Brisbane to celebrate.

The aim was to have lunch together but after the enormous amount of food we ate at the buffet, we just sat by and watched Jason eat an Oporto's burger after exploring the South Bank Markets on what was a beautifully cool day in brisbane, a City I usually spent my time sweating to death in! We were going to have a coffee in West End, a funky Newtown-esque sububr nearby but when parking proved scarce, we headed straight to Jason's house in Ferny Hills, about 13km from the City centre. He had bought an older home, and is in the process of renovating it and it looks brilliant. His mum now has her own 1 bedroom place in one half of the lower level, and the garden looks lush and beautiful. Jason has poured so much of his heart and soul into the house and it was great to see it all first hand after lots of photos.

We went back to the City, thanks to a lift from Jason, and had a power nap (we were so tired) before wrapping Jason's gift and another baby gift for Steve's friends, Michael and Ken and their new son George, getting all dolled up, and heading out to Fortitude Valley where Michael & Ken live and where Jason's 40th was going to be held at a restaurant called Giardenetti's.

George was gorgeous, and we sat oohing and aahing over him, as well as catching up on all the news, over on their patio while sipping sweet dessert wine and eating a DELICIOUS rosewater cheesecake - YUM!! From their place, it was short walk - although we probably needed a longer one to walk off all the wine and cake! - to the restaurant where the back room was jammed to the gills with Jason's friends. We were sat at the gay table, packed with all of Jason's lovely gay friends and fag hags from work, and had a ball! What a wonderful bunch of people! Ric & Tim, Will & James, Michael & Wayne, and Lisa, and Sally, were all delightfully funny, clever people and I have enjoyed getting to know a table of strangers more. It's proof positive that Jason being a lovely warm friendly guy attracts like minded souls.

Dinner over, and much wine drunk, and pasta eaten, we headed for a gay nightclub called the Wickham for some dancing, talking (when we could hear ourselves think! Yeah I know that makes me sound ancient...ugh) and more drinking. It was lots of fun but by 1.30 a.m. Steve & I were ready for bed and we caught a taxi back to the City and out ginormous king sized bed, and an undisturbed exhausted slumber.