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| James James busking in the Queen Street Mall |
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| Waylen and Anthony putting on a performance of a different type at South Bank |
One of the awesome thing about travelling overseas used to be the shopping. The streets of foreign cities were lined with shops filled with exciting things the likes of which you never saw at home.
The shrinking world has robbed us of a lot of that. Sure there are treasures in the grand bizarre in Istanbul and the street markets in Singapore not available in the local Westfield but the shopping plazas the western world over all seem to be packed with pretty much identical goods. So even if I know every purchase I want can be made under the giant roof of one suburban mega centre, I often choose to leave the car and walk into the city instead. Sure there is a sameness about the shops but there's always something going on that you won't see in the wilds of Westfield World. Today's mission was to replace yet another lens cap for my camera and allow drama teen to stock up on holiday reading and viewing material. We took the dog (another thing you can't do in the suburbs) and strolled into town. Drama Teen was on dog duty while I again contributed to the camera accessory business. Then we swapped and the dog, camera and I went on a street photography mission while the boy spent a lifetime browsing his favourite stores. Normally waiting for this agonisingly slow selection process does my head in but not when there's the Saturday afternoon bustle of the city to enjoy. There were was a street artist, James James the magician, a man creating balloon art for the kids, the blind saxophone player, Mormon missionaries so much going on. And then when the purchasing was over we got to walk home enjoying a chat as we went. And to put icing on the cake, our route home passes through South Bank where we met Waylen and Anthony practicing some stunt riding. They told me they had ridden a lot when they were younger but had let it lapse. Proving they still had it obviously gave them a great deal of joy (it also gave the crowds a little free entertainment). Yep, all cities are a lot them same but they are also different.I might be a bit biased but in many ways Brisbane is streets ahead.
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