Meanwhile back in Bris Vegas...

 So after my whirlwind tour of Cairns it was back on a plane, once again feeling sorry for myself in the middle of a thunderstorm and having to slum it in economy and back to Brisbane.  Arrived on Wednesday and immediately went to meet Sam Pie who had discovered that the actual World Cup was making an appearance at Harvey Norman so off I went to have a sneaky peak.  I can only assume it was the real one that had been found as I don't think they would have had time to make a new one.  Sam and I got our pics taken with the cup which was not as nice as I hoped it would be and then we went to the pub for the kill or cure pint!

After a couple of pints we somehow decided it was a good idea to go to the cinema to see the new James Bond film and even though I don't like James Bond it was actually pretty good although 2 hours sleep and a couple of pints meant I may or may not have nodded off once or twice!

After the film is was back to the hostel for more beer and some lovely fish and chips then an early night for me as I had a trip booked the next day!

Thursday was a great day as I finally got to go to Australia Zoo!  Yippee!  It was absolutely brilliant!  We got there at about 10.30am and I went straight to book the walking safari for the afternoon.  After that it was time to go and watch the animal show with elephants, crocs and birds and then I had a bit of a wander round myself before the safari.

Randomly, whilst walking round the zoo I bumped into an animal of another kind - the rare sunglassed Peacock.  Actually it was Jamie Peacock, the England RL captain and he was nice enough to let me have my picture taken with him.  I think I just made it to his shoulder and he was at least twice as wide as me.  Huge!!!!  That was a big highlight though and I was well pleased for like the whole day after that!

The walking safari was awesome cos they taught us heaps of stuff about the animals and even though I can't really remember any of it it was very interesting at the time!  I got to feed the kangaroos and an elephant and I got to pat a Koala bear (sooooooooooooooooooo cute!) and we learned about the crocodiles and saw a snake that was 15ft long and still growing which was just ridiculous!  I think my favourites were the kangaroos though.  They just sat there and let you go up and feed them and pat them and they didn't care at all it was great!  Easy life me thinks!

All up I spent 6 hours at the zoo but it didn't feel that long at all.  It's definitely worth going if you ever get the chance and the chick who took our walking tour said they're planning to expand from 80ish acres that they have now to about 300 in the next 5 years!  Crazy!

I had another quiet night on Thursday in preparation for the weekend and it was actually the first day in about a month that I haven't had a drink so I was very pleased with myself for that one!  Unfortunately when I got to Brisbane, I started to get bitten (even more since I already looked like a leper from the mozzies in Cairns!) and was not pleased to discover I had bed bugs!  Gross!  Fortunately the hostel were pretty good about it and went straight to change my mattress and bed sheets and then gave me money so I could tumble dry all my gear to get rid of them.  It was anoying but at least it worked and didn't have any more trouble after that!

On Friday I went for a walk on the Southbank and had a look at the Streets Beach which is this man made beach by the river (since Brisbane is miles from the coast).  It's really nice but it was absolutely packed as all the kiddies had finished school so they were all in the pool with their uniforms on.  Pretty sure my last day of school wasn't like that at all!

Jo finally arrived in Bris on Friday so it was straight to the pub!  Jo had a journo's dinner to go to that night so it was left to me and Sam to hold up Team World Cup and Sam immediately proceeded to get me incredibly drunk by buying loads of weird drinks like turbo shandy and then smirnoff ice with raspberry liquer in.  Can you tell he only just finished uni??  It was gross and I ended up having to go home at midnight.  Pathetic effort!

Both Jo and I were very hungover on Saturday (WC Final day) and managed to get up to go for lunch before going back to bed again!  At 4.30pm it was time to head out to Suncorp for the game.  On the way I was feeling a little bit peckish so we stopped at a pizza joint for some comfort food.  Just as I was starting to feel a bit better, who should walk past but none other than Garry Schofield!  Now, Garry Schofield himself isn't reason enough to make me feel instantly sick but when you consider the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt and is packing the pounds in you can immediately understand why why hangover returned!  Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera so didn't manage to get a shot but to be fair, you probably wouldn't have wanted to see it either!

So in we troop to the ground (after struggling to drink a beer at the pub!) and I was pleased to see I was surrounded by Aussies who all decided to try and get a rise out of me by saying Engand were sh*t etc etc.  They didn't really know what to say when I just agreed with them!  So anyway I was going for the Kiwi's as was every other Brit in the ground but I really thought Australia would win it as they just have that extra bit of class that nobody else seems to have.

The game was awesome - one of the best I've seen for a while and it was really close right up to the point where Billy Slater threw the ball to nobody and it just happened to land sweetly for Benji Marshall to score!  TRY TIME!!!!  After that, Joel Monaghan then further gave the game away by taking a swing at one of the Kiwis and giving away a penalty try.  Dumb ass!  At this point I was loving being the only 'pom' anywhere close and the Aussies were just hating it!  Lol I spotted a newspaper headline on Sunday that just said 'Silly Billy' tee hee! 

The whole place was so excited when the final whistle went.  It was great to see someone beat the Aussies in their own backyard in such a massive game and it was even better when Nathan Cayless thanked the English supporters for their support at the end of the game - I actually think that got the biggest cheer of the night.

True to form the Aussies immediately started whinging about how the ref had thrown the game and it was all his fault etc and couldn't admit that they just got beaten by a better team on the night!  In fact most of them left before the end of the game - so many in fact it was like being at Wigan! 

So now the World Cup is over and I am very sad.  I have loved the last month and had such a great tim and met some awesome people!  Apparently Australia are going to bid for the 2013 WC now cos this one has been such a success so I'll definitely be back for that one!

Jo and I were still struggling after the game so we went home at midnight again and then on Sunday we went to Streets Beach where I managed to get burned (stupid me!) and then we went for dinner and a couple of beers then an early night again!

I am almost looking forward to getting back to Sydney just so I can get a decent nights sleep and not drink for a while.  I am not looking forward to working all weekend cos of Andre Rieu, especially since Jo has been invited to some international RL awards dinner and is allowed to take a guest and asked me if I wanted to go but since it clashes with Andre I can't.  Gutted!!!!!

So thats it for now.  Holidays are done and I will start putting the photos on as soon as I get back to work tomorrow - Andy has also sent through the pic of us with Ronan so I'll add that on too!

Not looking forward to going back to work but I supose it had to happen eventually.  I wish I could win the lottery then I could just travel all the time.  That would be awesome!