We were looking for a new idea to support local businesses in West End and South Brisbane – so we shot this little video and popped it on YouTube. Hard to believe there’s so many good dancers amongst our local shop keepers!
Brisbane Times heard about it and ran a story too!
“Kurilpa”- this will be the official name given to the new pedestrian and cycling bridge linking the North Quay end of Tank Street to Kurilpa Point in South Brisbane. ABC Radio Brisbane ran a competition (see their website for all of the 500 suggestions!). Construction has commenced, with completion scheduled for mid 2009 – for more info on this and other Kurilpa infrastructure projects go to the BCC’s webpage that’s all about South Brisbane projects.
As agents we’ve often thought it ironic how home-buyers tell us they’re after a place with a sense of community, where neighbours know their name, somewhere to feel they are included and “belong”. Whole housing estates and apartment buildings are marketed for this appeal. Yet once people move in to their dwellings they often install privacy fencing, black-out curtains and wait til after dark to take out the rubbish, lest they should bump into those loud-music-playing inconsiderates. (Admit it, you have!) Aussies would even prefer bikies living next door to a “nosy nanna”, according to a www.realestate.com.au survey!
With many of us struggling to share it won’t surprise you that recent stats show most Australian households have lots of spare bedrooms. Lots and lots of them. According to the ABS 78% of homes have at least one spare bedroom. A generation or two ago it was commonplace for widows and others to have a “lodger” or boarder living in. There was an acceptance that the extra income offset any inconvenience of hosting them, and in an era when for example women weren’t as accepted in the workplace, this was a handy solution. Male lodgers also took care of the ‘male’ jobs around the home, like lawn-mowing…
For those happy to share their homes there’s a massive market on offer in Brisbane’s inner city today. Largely driven by the international student boom and a critical housing shortage some home owners are earning up to $200 per week per student, providing little more than a modest room and amenities. Many of our Universities and TAFE’s run home-stay schemes to match owners and room-seekers. The ABS says a massive 98% of couple households have spare bedrooms so this housing ’supply’ can be turned on pretty quickly. Instead of filling the empty nest with Chihuahuas and poodles this gives home owners the option of some human company (and money).
And the feedback from home owners we’ve talked to? For the most part these are positive experiences with great friendships made. One couple told us they’d travelled to visit former lodgers in their home countries. Another said their children kept in touch with previous home-stayers on Skype, and were hoping to study in that country after school. Maybe we need to put our distrust of strangers aside a little. Our homes are still getting bigger, we want the 42″ plasma today and we don’t want to live in the ‘burbs. So putting a lodger into the room at the end of the hallway might be a happy compromise.
Bees Nees take our blogging mission seriously: we’re here to inform and educate. The important issues effecting inner Brisbane and enjoying life here to the full.
So, dear reader, we felt duty bound to tell you…. “Donkey Kong Jr” is back! The State Library at South Bank has a genuine crowd-pleaser of an attraction starting 17th November, with its “Game On” exhibition. Tracking the history of computer games from 1962’s “Space War” through to today’s multi-billion dollar industry, there’ll be more than 100 playable games on show. From the bulky big machines that filled an arcade, to the gigabyte-packed home consoles this is an industry that’s had a big impact on our changing leisure time.
Try your hand at “Space Invaders” (from 1978, yes it’s that old!) “Frogger” or “Pac-Man”. There’s even a working Atari on hand!
Far from being a stodgy old building with crabby spinster supervisors the State Library was expanded and rejuvenated in 2007 and has plenty of activities and resources. If you haven’t ventured into the precinct in recent years it’s well worth a visit. The “Game On” exhibition runs until February and is open 7 days a week.
1. A linguistics professor was lecturing his class one day. “In English a double negative forms a positive. In some languages though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.”
A loud voice from the back of the room piped up, “Yeah, right”.
2. Brenda and Terry are going out for the evening and the last thing they do is put their cat out. The taxi arrives but as the couple walk out of the house the cat scoots back in.
Terry returns inside to chase it out so Brenda, not wanting it known that the house would be empty, explains to the taxi driver, “My husband is just going upstairs to say goodbye to my mother.”
Several minutes later an exhausted Terry arrives and climbs back into the taxi saying, “Sorry I took so long, the stupid idiot was hiding under the bed and I had to poke her with a coat hanger several times before I could get her to come out!”
The 11 storey South Central project on the corner of Merivale & Peel is due for completion in November, adding 39 apartments to the South Brisbane skyline. In addition to the apartments, it will offer an additional 200sqm of retail and 3000sqm of commercial space.
We’ve noticed construction work has commenced on the $130 million expansion works at the Brisbane Convention Centre. When complete, BCEC will host an extra 250 events a year. The Convention Centre currently hosts about 900 events annually, but is struggling to cope with demand from national and international clients.
