City Hall as the Light Fades

I really wanted to share this beautiful photo with you all.  It was taken by one of the local Tweeters, @iCharlotte and I really liked it, so I asked her if I could share it here on I ♥ BrisVegas.

Doesn't it have an awesome kind of twilight feel to it?  (I'm not talking about the sparkly Vampires people!)

I love City Hall.  I also love King George Square.  I only wish they hadn't put those ugly 50's style buildings in it that lead down to the new bus station.  It used to be a fantastic open space, there for all to enjoy, but the bus station buildings just chop it up and hide the square.  It's a shame.

Thanks again to Charlotte for this one, if you're interested in seeing more of Charlotte's stuff, she has a Tumblr account HERE.

Brisbane Twestival

I just bought my tickets to go to Brisbane Twestival next week.  

Twestival is an event organised by the Twitter community across the world for each of their cities, to be held on February 12, which will raise money for Charity:Water.  

Each Twestival is different, but the point is to bring the Twitter community of each city together for an evening of fun to help a good cause.

Brisbane Twestival will be held at Metro Arts in Edward Street on Thursday night, and is will have bands, theatre, art auctions, stalls, raffles and goodies for people to enjoy.  There is also a Facebook event if you want to have a look there.

I'm really looking forward to going along.

For those of you who don't know about or use Twitter, it's a form of microblogging, where you post up to 140 characters per "tweet" or update.  I love Twitter, and tweeting as it is called, has brought me so much cool stuff in my life.  Lots of famous people tweet, the most prolific of which would be Stephen Fry (@StephenFry).  If you want to have a look at my Twitter account, I am @sleepydumpling.

Mmmm... Lovely

Christmas is almost here, which means a lot of socialising for many of us. Restaurants and cafe's are really busy, pubs are thronging, parks and pools have lots of folks in attendance.

One thing to remember during this season while you're out at all of these places is to have a little patience. Hospitality staff are working their tails off at the moment, cut them a little slack. This is their busiest time of year.

Anyhoo, the real reason for this post is to talk about a bit of a Brisbane Institution... The Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street. You know it, that's the one in the old church. It has been there for donkeys years. The menu hasn't changed, nor has the decor. I can remember back in the 80's, when it was the only place in town you could get a feed after a hard night's nightclubbing!

It's not a flash place, not fancy at all. Nor is it one of those hip places to be seen. But the tucker is REALLY good. Here's a photo I found on Flickr...

Pancake Manor
Originally uploaded by lightsight

Not sure why it's posting on the right, but hey, you can see those tasty pancakes. I'm REALLY fond of their breakfast deals where you can get pancakes with bacon and eggs, maple syrup and a cup of coffee. And the pancakes with strawberries... good GOD they're divine.

If you want a really good feed, that's well priced, hearty and always delicious, and available 24 x 7, the Pancake Manor is one of those "old reliables" you can always go to in the CBD.

David's Chinese Restaurant

Last week was my monthly book club meet up, and we go to dinner at a restaurant in the CBD on the third Wednesday of each month.

This month, we chose David's Chinese Restaurant in Elizabeth Street.

I've been there before and was impressed, so I was more than happy to go back. Last time we went we had one of their banquet meals, which was delicious, reasonably priced and plentiful.

This time, I had hot and sour soup as a starter, and it was really delicious, and had real prawns in it, which you don't often find in hot sour soup in Australia. For main course I had steamed whole flounder with shredded pork and Chinese mushrooms, and steamed rice. The flounder dish was HUGE. There was no way I could make my way through all of that. Really delicious too, and steamed to perfection.

Followed by the old traditional fried ice-cream for dessert (which isn't even Chinese really, but boy it's good!) and a coffee.

David's is a really good quality Chinese restaurant, with beautiful fresh food, excellent service and a lovely setting. It's not my favourite Chinese restaurant in Brisbane (I'll blog about that one another time), but it's up in the top 5.

Goodbye Dendy

I was so sad to find out a couple of weeks ago that the Dendy Cinema in George Street is closing down. It's been an institution in Brisbane for over a hundred years, first as a theatre I believe, and then for the past 80 years as a cinema.

I've seen a lot of wonderful films at the Dendy over the years. It was there that I saw "Look Both Ways" starring William McInnes and written by his wife Sarah Watt and then went to the after party that both William and Sarah attended. I've seen dozens of foreign films there that I may not have seen at all had it not been for the Dendy.

I wonder what is going to happen to independant films in the CBD now. Is there going to be any venue in the city that shows independant and foreign films? I know you can see them at the Palace Centro at Fortitude Valley or Dendy Portside at Hamilton, but what about in the CBD? I used to love wandering down to the Dendy after work and seeing an independant film. Somehow I doubt that the Regent (which is what, Greater Union these days?) is going to offer the range that the Dendy George Street has offered.

I wonder what will happen to the building? I see that there is a "For Lease" sign on it. I would think that it would be heritage listed (it's beautiful inside still) so they wouldn't be able to just destroy it or gut it.

It's sad that these older, independant venues are going under. They've been the last place that we could see some real variety in films actually in the cinema. So often now we're going to be reliant on DVD, and it's just not the same as seeing a movie in the cinema.