In Brisbane, we got the annual Riverfestival thing that runs for a week (or a bit more than a week) around the start of September, to celebrate the Brisbane River. At the start of the Riverfestival is the Riverfire, which basically involves choreographed fireworks displays from the 3 big bridges on Brisbane River, from building rooftops & boats. There is also a flyover of jets performing the "dump & burn" where a trail of flames come out of the tail of the jets. (Have I described this correctly?). The Riverfire runs for 30 minutes.Riverfestival 2008 runs from Friday 29/8/08 to Sunday 7/9/08. Riverfire 2008 happened yesterday evening (Saturday), at 7pm. A bunch of us (me, Ivan, Kwang, Ed, Jay, Sean, Wong) gathered at a studio apartment on Charlotte St, which is occupied by Ivan, to watch the Riverfire. Ivan's back in Brisbane for a while to work on a project for his company, & the company provides him with accommodation while in Brisbane (which is good for him). He normally occupies one of the apartments on the lower levels, but for this week, he booked level 41 so that we could get a better view of Riverfire. It was a "guys nite out".
Good move, Ivan. The views were pretty good, from the balcony of level 41. Jay (back in Brisbane for a few months before he & Mel heading overseas again) brought along his camera & took some nice pictures. Hopefully, he will put the pics on Facebook. I think 1-2 other guys also had their cameras, but Jay was the main camera man yesterday. I didn't bring my camera (even if I did, my pics wouldn't be great anyway - I'm a poor photographer). The Riverfire kicked off with 1 jet performing the "dump & burn", & that caused the buildings around us to be illuminated with a gold-orange glow. Then the fireworks displays began. Pop, pop, pop, they went, all sorts of shapes, sizes & colours. It was nice. Not quite the fireworks of Beijing, but hey, it was still alright. Meanwhile, the TV was left on to show the live telecast on Channel 7, & it showed us the view from the Story Bridge to the tune of the music from Triple M 104.5 FM. We couldn't see the Story Bridge from the balcony, because of the surrounding buildings. The balcony only allowed us to view the Botanical Gardens & the part of the river nearby. And then at some point, another jet flew past & did another "dump & burn" & the Brisbane CBD was once again glowing orange-gold momentarily. While we enjoyed the spectacular show (fireworks & all) from the balcony, we munched on some yummy snacks provided by Ivan (wasabe-coated peas, prawn crackers, seaweed-coated crackers). The Riverfire was good, & we enjoyed it.
When the Riverfire finished at 7:30pm, we had 1 hour to kill because Ivan booked our dinner table for 8:30pm at Little Singapore City Restaurant, further up Charlotte St (website: http://www.littlesingapore.com.au/). So we played the Wii for a bit before heading to Little Singapore. It's my first time there (I haven't been to the one in Sunnybank, either). The place was packed! There were people waiting outside the restaurant to get in. Almost all the diners were Oriental Asians - Jay was one of a handful of non-Orientals. For appetisers, we shared tofu goreng & lobak. We ordered drinks as well. I can't remember what everyone else ordered, but I had the rose milk tea, & I found it a bit diluted for my liking (they didn't put in enough rose syrup). The rose milk tea was distinctively light pink. (a colour that I like....hehe).
For main meals, Sean & myself ordered mee goreng. Ed, Kwang & Wong ordered the laksa. Ivan ordered the Hainanese chicken with butter rice, & Jay ordered the roti curry lamb (he previously told me he loves the roti.....I can so understand why). By way of meal size, Ivan's dish was the smallest, but then I think he eats the least among us guys. But the size of the laksa bowls really shocked me. It's the biggest I've ever seen - like a pot. It's so huge, & I urged the 3 laksa guys to consume the whole meal, including drinking all the laksa gravy. They didn't. Ed & Kwang got their laksas first before the gravy ran out, causing poor Wong to wait for at least 10 minutes. One of the guys said the food at Little Singapore City is more expensive than Little Singapore Sunnybank (some by about $1). I'm thinking one of the reasons for that must be the rent in the CBD....
We all enjoyed our meals, although Wong said his body was sweating from the laksa gravy. Only Sean & myself had dessert - he had the deep fried durian, while I ordered ice kacang. I think Sean enjoyed his dessert more than I did mine. I didn't think the ice kacang was that great, & would not recommend it to others - it's overpriced at $5.90! The ice kacang had too much evaporated milk, not enough syrup, not enough gula melaka (a.k.a. palm sugar), & not enough ingredients (attap chee, red beans, sweet corn etc). Because of the quantity of evaporated milk relative to syrup, the ice kacang soon looked like pink porridge (second time I saw pink). I downed it with the help of a straw. By the time the dessert came, Maria, Jennifer & Jeannie (who already had dinner elsewhere) arrived. Suzanne & Chi also dropped in to say hello before taking off. We had a group photo taken by Maria's mum, who had also coincidentally happened to be in the restaurant at another table!
Anyway, after paying off the dinner (I forked out $25 for my stash, although the exact cost would have been a bit under that), us 7 guys plus the 3 girls went back to Ivan's apartment. Some of us played cards (big 2), while others continued with the Wii. I was very bad at Wii, being soundly thrashed at just about every game, regardless of whether I played Ivan, Jay, Ed or Wong. The Wii educational trivia game (forgot the exact name) was a different story - Ed & myself narrowly beat Ivan & Jay in a 2 on 2 contest. It was so so close.
I was the first among the gang to leave, calling it a nite at just after 11pm, retrieved my car from the Comalco Place car park, & parted with $15 (the standard Riverfire parking fee charged by Wilson Parking for the Comalco Place) to let myself out. I enjoyed the evening. It was a very good nite of hanging out, enjoying the show & enjoying each other's company. Praise God for the nite.
PS: There were only a few floors over level 41. My goodness, when I looked down from the balcony, level 41 was so high up, it's scary.....maybe I'm slowly starting to develop a fear of heights.....
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