Bigsound & Brisvegas is Gold, Man (September 2013)

[erkpod]

Day 1 of the conference was an enjoyable but long. I did some interviews & then watched many bands. There are 12 official venues, all within walking distance of each other in Fortitude Valley.



One of the many perfomers.



I found a fan.



There's quite a few Canadians who have made the trip down under.

 

[bass_ke]

Arghhh!

Not the ibis! One invaded my local coffee/burger shop the other day, it got a bit cranky

 

[erkpod]

Day 2 of Bigsound was just as hectic as day 1. I arrived & met up with my media contact who was busily trying to find Amanda Palmer. A few minutes later, both women passed me in a flash of black (publicist) & colour (Amanda Palmer).

My interviews went well & while I was having lunch, I sat quietly & listened to another guy doing an interview. The interviewee was the creator of the regional music festival Groovin In The Moo. After the interview, I was able to compare notes with the interviewer who is from one of the local education instituion specialising in things like event management & promotion.

The evening was hectic again as I floated from venue to venue, including some that I hadn't been to the previous night. As the night went on, it was harder to get into venues so I had to change my game plan.



Overall, it was a good event. I'm going to bring up some issues with my media contact but very few problems were encountered considering the size of the event & dealing with so many bands.

 

[erkpod]

Some odd pics:


My hotel is in a convenient location ... if I need to go to an adult store. It's 5 - 10 minute walk from the Valley station but not in the noisy end of the Valley. With a big event like Bigsound, I'm happy with the price here at the hotel & it was good to be away from the noise at night.


I swear some people would have been totally powered by Red Bull (free Red Bull!) during the conference.


Best. Entry. Sign. Ever.



Not a very convenient convenience store!

 

[erkpod]

More odd pics


I guess anyone can pick & choose who they will let in & who they don't. Not sure how the Brisbane Embroiders Guild can afford prime real estate just outside the main section of the Valley.


Some places have a guard dog or a security system to watch over the premises. Skippy is on duty here. His personality's a little wooden.



They don't like to use many words on this sign.



When I pass this place tomorrow, will it say September 14?

 

[erkpod]

Arghhh!

Not the ibis! One invaded my local coffee/burger shop the other day, it got a bit cranky

They are surprisingly elusive when it comes to getting out of the way of my train! They love hanging out on the Bankstown line, especially around Lakemba.

 

[erkpod]

Housekeeping has been paying me a visit between 0900 - 1000. There's no Do Not Disturb sign so this morning, I made my own.


I'm not one for housekeeping - as long as I have toilet paper & towels, I'm fine. Despite my little sign, housekeeping still knocked on the door. I think the lady understands where I'm coming from, though.

 

[erkpod]

Friday

No Bigsound today. My first priority was to get a massage after 2 big days of walking & standing.



Entrance to Chinatown


I had a nice 90 minute massage followed by a spa & a sauna. I discovered this place many years ago on Wickham & when I'm here in Brisvegas, I go there. I think management have changed several times but I've never had a bad massage there.



I then went & booked a day return Tilt Train trip for tomorrow at the QR Travel Centre. I'm booked Roma St - Cooroy - Roma St. I've got 29 minutes in Cooroy but it was booked that way legally.



I headed to Roma St for lunch & then I headed for a ride on the Inner City Busway network. How good is that having a dedicated bus transitway heading out of the city?



Back to Roma St & then a short train ride across to South Brisbane & then back to the Valley.

I'm going to have an early night.

 

[erkpod]

Saturday

Today I went on the QR Tilt Train between Brisbane & Cooroy & return. It's been some time since my last ride.







Here's my northbound seat - it was pretty equal to an airline seat in J. But it should be as it is a business class seat.

The train was nice & the staff were friendly.



Interestingly. I was in seat 4 but at the back of the carriage. As promised, I had a single seat (the carriage is 1 + 2) on the way up & a window seat but probable shadow on the way back.



Only a short trip this time with about 2 hours travel time. Before long without much high speed running (max service speed 160kph), I arrived at Cooroy.

 

[erkpod]

With only 29 minutes at Cooroy if both trains were on time, I did not leave the platform. I was reminded by this sign about which way I had to go.





It's a simple platform at Cooroy. I was the only passenger to use the station northbound or southbound.

Interesting constrast between current & former station signage.







Because the station is part of the commuter QR service, there's also a ticket machine.

 

[erkpod]

I thought I'd have fun with photographing shadows amongst other things until the train arrived. The AC on the train & a powerpoint near my seat was very much needed & welcomed.





But soon enough, the southbound train arrived & I boarded the train. Cooroy station was again empty.

 

[erkpod]

Despite some delays due to crossing other trains due to single line sections on the north coast line, most notably at Glasshouse Mountains.





I have no idea why there were hundreds of wooden crates around the station. Is this where wooden crates go to die in SE Queensland?





The screens show entertainment, safety information, a train map & also a view out the front of the train. Even in business class, these screens are the closest to what we'd call IFE. According to the onboard magazine, there's a new train coming soon to replace the Sunlander complete with J style seats/beds complete with screens to every seat.

To the surprise of some passengers, the train arrived back into Roma St slightly early.

 

[erkpod]

More odd pics:



Interesting display at the King George bus station deep under the city. The busway network is amazing.



How did they know I had my camera out?







Just in case anyone doesn't know what you can do at a Food Court.

 

[erkpod]

More odds:





That's a bad Bob The Builder!





I might have a spa at the hotel if I can follow all the rules...

 

[erkpod]

Sunday

Last morning in Brisvegas. I had a sleep in & then checked out. Somehow, my headphones have disappeared into thin air. I even moved the bed around but I couldn't find them. Lucky for me, I found my glasses, though.

As soon as I crossed the road, a bus arrived to take me to the station. I just missed an airport train but I did get to see what the station staff at Valley described as a stock train. They weren't kidding as it was a stock train - an empty cattle train to be precise. It might have been empty but it had the relevant smell.







As those who know me know, I love to watch train operations so I did not mind that I missed the train. I have lots of Vlounge time anyway.



QR do an awesome job with social media, train manners & rail safety. It's not all "If you're bad, we'll punish you" but they use things like personality & humour to get their message across.

 

[erkpod]

I arrived at the AirTrain station & took some pics.





I had no idea what idea about this massive pink object on the AirTrain concourse was. Someone must know! Whatever it is, it is massive!




I headed over to the VA area to check in. When I made the booking, I requested 13A. Kylie the Check In Angel offered me 3F without prompting & I gladly accepted. She told me that I was super early & that the seat's free so I should have it. I was offerred Fly Forward but as I said, that would cut into my Vlounge time & it was my first time in the BNE Vlounge.



I passed through priority security easily (thank you SG status!) & entered the BNE Vlounge for the first time.

 

[erkpod]

I can think of worse places to be a trainspotter at. For Vlounges with a tarmac view, I haven't seem better than LAX & OOL.

There was a bit of a moment, though. Someone was cooking bread in the toaster & it was burning with a fair amount of smoke. It took words from me to the staff member (contractor, I presume) who was watching it smoke before she did something about it.

I seem to have a talent of turning Coke into water - both in MEL & now in BNE, I'd got water instead of Coke. That was soon fixed.


The Sandown 500 is on the big TV screens here with the sound (mostly) muted. I was in the middle of writing this TR when a lovely Kiwi female voice was asking me if I knew why there was a safety car. Because I wasn't paying attention, I didn't know. It was the start of a good conversation which only stopped because it was time for her to leave.

 

[erkpod]

I had a good time in the Vlounge. I was somewhat surprised to see a VA ad in the front section of the male toilets. I'm not sure why you'd need it - we are in the Vlounge prior to a VA flight.

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But before too long, it was fast approaching time to leave the lounge. But not before another train pic or 2.



If you've been in the BNE Vlounge, you'll know the distance between the windows & the train. My iPhone camera was on max zoom (Max Zoom! What a name!) but I was too close to the window. I liked the effect, though. It reminded me of being a kid & moving a train carriage or engine around by hand on a train set.

 

[erkpod]

Time for a quick plane spotting while walking to the gate.





A couple of ATRs.



No one ask this guy where the forklift is.

My plane was waiting for me, VH-YIS. The plane was in the final stages of boarding but the priority boarding was good as usual.





I boarded the plane, the FA welcomed me by name, getting it right the second time. I settled into 3F and had a good view out of the window. I was so happy to be in 3F, complete with shadow.

 

[erkpod]

Not a bad view of VH-VUA out the window.

The flightdeck told us that our slot to push back was 1639 (timetabled 1630). The CSM told us that wireless IFE was available on this flight.

We pushed back & taxiied out to the runway. I would have been in a good spot for an excellent photo of a JQ plane landing except for the ban on doing so. It was a nice looking landing. We soon took off ourselves with a nice view of Brisbane.

Soon up to cruise altitude, I shot some nice cloud photos into the sun.





It always amazes me about how slow we seem to be going through the air but obviously, we aren't.