Nocturnal Nick

So I’ve noticed a trend brought about by my school schedule, in that I visit a new restaurant/pub every Wednesday in Brisbane city (on or near Queen street). I have decided to mix up my lunching locations to allow for a series of reviews. I realise that while those that read this blog aren’t able to visit any or all of these, it’s at least something to write about to keep me busy during lunch.

Today’s choice was the Pig n’ Whistle in the middle of Queen street. It’s a great place to people-watch, what with it’s half pub half restaurant layout. The restaurant half is shielded from the thoroughfare by those translucent plastic sheets, allowing for conversation at normal volumes, over a good selection of foods, with constantly varying specials.

Today though, I’ve decided to sit on one of the lower tables in the pub’s half. Comfortable stool seating along with fixed tables allow for sturdy drinking surfaces (or laptoping, as I’ve found today) unlike most street cafe’s or pubs, where tables are constantly wobbling from one pivot to another.

Staff are friendly and in a good mood, at least today. So much so that I’ve handed a resume in, in the hopes of some work soon. They say they have an opening in the graveyard shift, which to be honest I’m perfectly happy with. It’d screw with my body-clock, but its not like it’d interfere with my schooling or anything

While I cannot comment on the food, as I’ve not been wealthy enough to order some today (not to say it’s expensive, just that I’m poor) but I intend to visit again and sample their culinary skills.

This is the first in a series of posts I’ll be writing about local food and drink places.

Righto. First of all, I live in Brisbane now. It was one hell of a trek if I’m honest, punctuated with a bell curve of instances of country-ness culminating in an illuminated “Jesus Saves” sign, next to KFC. While I have no specific problem with religion or Jesus in particular, it just seems to correlate with the distance from any major city center.

That aside, the trip was fairly uneventful. Mostly because the hilly terrain prevented the truck from being able to speed up past the point where anything eventful happens . A slight hill meant I was overtaken by truckers, and a downhill meant putting the gearbox into eco mode.

Upon arrival, I’ve immediately applied for and waited (without patience) for my DSL2+ to kick in. When telstra finally gave into TPG’s requests for activation, it was like ingesting 16 red bulls in 20 minutes; unhealthy but EVER SO EXCITING!! I’ve now set up remote uTorrent access so even sitting here, at Bubbles cafe in Brisbane city, I can ad, remove, or generall manage my torrents. All completely legal, of course, just nice to be able to start your home server PC downloading something from the other side of the world.

As for transport, seeing as my bike is still having issues (or at least I presume it is, given I haven’t actually started it in several weeks) and my car isn’t the cheapest thing to park mid-city, I’ve been using the public transport. Initial observations suggest it is significantly cheaper and faster than Sydney’s, but then I live a good deal closer to uni, and there’s not a river from Matraville to Qantm.

What else, what else… I was paid back by a number of people through the bond returned t my former hosuemates. Saved my ass, though I don’t have a job yet! I’m fairly confident I’ll at least get an interview at a JB that’s looking for workers, and I’ve distributed my resume to a number of places around various convenient centers, though nothing has arisen yet.

And finally, I’m sorry this post isn’t accompanied by any images, video, or links. Like I say, I’m at a cafe and my steak just arrived, so I’ll sign off now.

Edit: It was friggin delicious

Back again and, as usual, spending more than I really should. In the last couple of days I’ve managed to order more than $200 of stuff from Zazz and Catch of The Day.

From CotD I’ve just ordered a 22 piece towel set (’cause the GF stole my first good luxury towel, insisting I gave it to her) and because I’ll likely sell the majority of the set off to housemates, saving some dosh. That and a stand for my PC’s tower, gotta give it some cooling

My Zazz purchase was a set of 2 way radios by Digitalk. While not the TOP of the range, they do expand to allow microphones/headsets, of which I have 3 throat microphones for use on the bike (One each, obviously). There seems to be a fair bit of interference with wind etc in the throat mics though, so I’m thinking of getting the optional motorbike helmet set, which actually installs into a helmet (making for a more comfortable and easy communication system.)

As I was finding the links for those I was tempted by the 1.5″ photo frame and desktop alarm/clock for $9.95 Its cool, but do I really need it?

Speaking of things I need, I’ve got my car’s rego due towards the end of the month and I haven’t got much cash at the moment, so I REALLY hope the inspection goes through ok

Anyway, back to my “essay writing”.

Yet again I procrastinated doing some tutorial work tonight/today, having felt that productive swim was enough for a while. That said, I have a 3-4 hour bus trip in the near future, so I’m enabling Windows 7’s power saving mode and turning down the screen brightness a little so I can get that done on the way there.

That is, if I can even get a bus at all. Having left booking a ticket to the last minute as well, I have found the Murray’s web booking site to be down. Not fun, given the alternative is to ride my bike, a prospect I’m both excited and unsure about.

Well, I’ll post again sometime tomorrow (today).

PS: I realise that no-one reads this. But meh, it’s here for sake of completeness, and I figure I have hosting and a domain, I might as well use it