Flower power

I’ve had two more very relaxing days pottering around Brisbane at my leisure, involving lots of playing around on my camera, eating sushi (prolific here – could possibly replace my NZ obsession with coffee, phew), doing some fantastic yoga and sitting in various parks musing on the world around me.

I’ve found a lovely yoga studio in the city centre, and have unlimited access to classes for ten days, so am making the most of that. It’s Anusara yoga, which I’ve not come across before, but there’s lots of cross-over with ashtanga, and I’m enjoying the change of pace and sociable aspect of the practice. Yesterday, myself and two of the teachers there did a two and a half hour epic session, including some ‘interesting’ adjustments. The head-based adjustment in the photo below was next repeated on me. For its odd appearance it was incredibly effective; my shoulders now feel more open than they have in a long time.

This afternoon I majorly geeked out in a wonderful botanical garden, Roma Parklands, which showcases a wide array of sub-tropical flora. As I meandered through the paths, large lizards skittered away ahead of me with their comedy bow-legged, high-stepping, fleet-footed gait. The bright colours of flowers and butterflies in the hot sun led to a lengthy photo session – I’ve chosen three photos below that demonstrate the range of beautiful colours that the park had to offer.

Also, the plant below is called the bat flower – you can see why (if you squint a bit and use a bit of child-like imagination…).

Finally, a few more photos of my wanderings around Brisbane CBD (as Abi pointed out, in the UK the term ‘CBD’ is restricted mainly to GCSE geography lessons, but it seems to be common parley for the city centre in NZ and Oz).

Brisbane city hall – this shows perfectly how the small number of ‘historic’  buildings are dwarfed by the larger, modern constructions here – it  makes me realise how spoilt we are in Europe for fantastic urban architecture.

George’s Square – dominated by a bronze statue of kangaroos and a massive outdoor screen showing non-stop sports coverage (just seen in the background). They’re clearly not interested in debunking their own stereo-types…

And finally finally… Sorry , you’ve probably had enough of green stuff by now, but I had to include this awesome hour-glass shaped tree, seen on a trip out to a funky, rather bohemian area on the centre’s outskirts (called Paddington) where I had lunch.

I’m off to a white-beach island with surfing to be had with Abi, Tim and Isaac tomorrow, for what will be a very novel Easter weekend so I may be out of touch for a few days. I’m already looking forward to Good Friday hot-cross buns, purchased from a rather posh cafe in Paddington today, yum… Happy Easter everyone! x