Brisbane Staycation - Suitcase Rummage

One of the best ideas I've come across in a long time, the Suitcase Rummage is an urban flea market that takes over Reddacliffe Place in Brisbane's CBD on the first Sunday of each month.

I've had this one on my 'must check out' list for a while and my month of blogging gave me the perfect excuse to tick it off. I love a good market, but an un-tested market can be deadly endeavour.

You never know if you're going to be surrounded by dated handi-crafts that aren't quite retro or you feel like you've just walked into a discount shop filled with imported plastic junk. There's the risk of their being too much fresh produce when you've already done your grocery shop, nothing but second hand kids toys and a handful of bad-smelling jackets or, even worse, it's full of amazing vintage buys but everything is out of your price range.

What makes a virgin market visit all the more intimidating is when you bring a friend along with you and you're responsible for the success or failure of the market outing.

Luckily the Brisbane Suitcase Rummage was a gold-mine of second-hand clothes and hand-made goods. On top of this it has an organic, spur-of-the-moment feel, as all the stall holders bring their goods in suitcases and display them on picnic blankets like a car-boot sale with no cars. This makes a refreshing change from the professional looking fit-outs of gazebos an designer-styled product displays. It took me right back to my childhood of wandering around the Redland Bay flea market with a 50c coin in my hand that I could spend however I wanted. (Usually I came home with some strange ceramic animal that has long since returned to an op-shop somewhere).

The day we visited the stalls were heavily weighted towards second-hand clothes. Most of which were relatively new, though there was a skew towards smaller sizes. There were a few vintage sellers there and a handful of hand-made crafts on offer, but the restrictions of 'bring your stock in suitcases' means you are likely to be browsing clothing if you attend.

I snagged a lovely blue cardigan and a floral button up shirt, but there were many more gems in the piles that I couldn't afford. This makes me sound like I have absolutely no money, which is true until I finish up my university degree. I'll definitely be returning with some more cash in hand to refill my wardrobe next month.

Staycation Summary

What: Suitcase Rummage
Where: Redacliffe Place, Brisbane CBD
When: First Sunday of every month
How much: Free! Unless you want to buy things - but flea market prices, so pretty cheap
Recommended for: Bargain hunters, general browsers, vintage clothes shoppers
Website: Suitcase-rummage.blogspot.com.au
note - there is also a Suitcase Rummage in Melbourne at the Thornbury Theatre 

Recommend a Staycation Idea

Have you got a place you love to visit or really want to visit. Let me know in the comments and I'll check it out.

Post Secret in Brisbane

I had another entry I was going to post today, but last night something happened and I wanted to talk about that.

Last night I went to the first Post Secret event in Australian tour. The first time he's been in Australia actually. I felt like I've been waiting for this since I first opened a Post Secret book nearly 10 years ago.

Post Secret is an internet community founded by Frank Warren where people post in their secrets. They can be big or trivial, but something I've learnt from reading these secrets over the years is that not one of them is unique. If you have a secret, you can pretty much guarantee someone else has got it too.

I first discovered Post Secret in a little book shop in The Rocks, Sydney. I picked it up, flicked through the pages and immediately bought it. It seemed like the most amazing thing I had come across - all these peoples secrets laid bare for my voyeuristic eyes to pore over. I devoured the book and occasionally would pull it back off my book shelf to flick through it again.

Later on, I discovered the website and signed up to receive updates from Frank. Now every Sunday, after lunch, an email arrives in my inbox with a handful of new secrets. It's become my Sunday ritual to sit down at my computer, open up my email and read the secrets that have been delivered to me. At the bottom of the emails there would be a list of upcoming speaking events - but these were always in America.

When Australian tour dates appeared I immediately booked two tickets, and I'm thrilled that I did as it sold out amazingly fast. I gave one of my tickets to The Dashing Hans, who was with me when I bought that first Post Secret book.

I had an idea what the night would entail - a talk by Frank on how he started Post Secret, the sharing of secrets and what they meant to him and others - but I had completely forgotten about the fact that he invites people to share their own secrets at the end of the night.

Some of the secrets that people shared were big, hairy, monstrous secrets. After the event I saw some of those who had told their secrets getting hugs from strangers.

One common theme that came up was people who had bought two tickets intending to take their 'one' with them... only they didn't meet them in time. Or people who were convinced they would meet their 'one' there. I've never been to an event before that had so many people who attended for such loaded reasons. It felt like most of the audience was there not because they just wanted to go, but because they had this great weight that meant that had to be there.

Did I get up and share a secret?

No, I was way too chicken - I also couldn't think of anything good.

Do I have a secret I want to share?

Maybe...



Afterwards I looked at the #postsecret tag on Instagram, I felt like I was going through it all over again and feeling that connection with other people that Post Secret is so good at doing.

@Tamazapan	@Samanthajayne_
@Tea_and_books	@Jemma_gorring
@Eguillemain	@r0wdy

So you still want to hear my secret?

Do you have a secret you want to share?

Brisbane Staycation - Palace, Garuva & the banks of the River

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely night last night, that the day (and year) is looking bright and full of promise and that you aren't feeling too under the weather.

I've had a bad run of New Year's Eves so I tend to avoid them. This year I decided I wanted to do something that was fun, but not too filled with aspirations so as to inevitably fall flat. I think I found the perfect itinerary to the evening and certainly enjoyed myself.

Palace Cinemas & Hitchcock

The night started with a premier screening of Hitchcock at the Palace cinemas on James St. We arrived to a glass of champagne and a very long queue of people waiting to go into the cinema. Instead of joining the end of the queue we collected our wine and scoured through the upcoming film brochures only to discover that Quentin Tarantino has a new movie coming out in a couple of weeks - the perfect start to 2013!

As the queue filed into the cinema we joined the end and felt like celebrities with our glass of champagne in the cinema (all movies should include this). Hitchcock was a great movie. Biopics can sometimes leave me feeling a bit... blah, but this one was very well done. Combining the story of Hitchcock's marriage with his production of Psycho made for a very interesting view. The scenes where they shot Psycho were so perfect to the original you could tell they must have watched it over and over again. Now I feel like I want to watch it again. The film was also bookended by two Hitchcock monologues straight out of Alfred Hitchcock presents that were so compelling I felt like I was ready for a sequel. Made with much love for the great Hitchcock, I'm very glad I got to see it.

4 stars

Garuva

This is my second visit to Garuva. The first being quite some years ago and back then the food wasn't that great, though the atmosphere was really what made it. So I approached this visit with trepidation.

Garuva is one of those places in Brisbane where everyone likes to think they are the only one who know about it, but it's been around for so long that everyone has already been there. 

The unsigned restaurant is hidden away down a little lane-way filled with green lights and ferns. You are met by large Balinese doors that open up to a softly lit room filled with muslin curtains that wrap around each low table. You sit on cushions nestled inside these curtains and though the restaurant can be very full you still get a sense of intimacy.

I had the Cajun chicken and a very delicious lime cocktail. The food was much better than I remember which is a good sign. As the evening wore on the other diners started to leave for their next New Years' destination  and the restaurant took on an ethereal air. You could see silhouettes skitting through the curtains and this is where the magic of Garuva happens. I would recommend this restaurant on a mid-week night when it isn't so busy and sitting amongst the curtains in the hushed dark is much more atmospheric.

Banks of the Brisbane River

We left Garuva at about 10pm with plans of finding a bar to grab a drink at and see in midnight. However, Garuva is in Fortitude Valley which meant all the bars were loud, obnoxious and filled with 18 year olds. We decided to head over to South Brisbane and find a spot to watch the fireworks then head home and enjoy a wine there. South Bank is always ram packed on fireworks nights like New Years, but I had the idea that most people would be on the Parklands side of the Queen Victoria Bridge as that is where the fireworks display is focused. 

We took up position in front of the art gallery which was surprisingly quiet and had a great view down to the river. The display included a giant laser countdown on the casino hotel so we could see everything and when the fireworks went of we had a great view. Our position meant we missed some of the smaller fireworks, but it was worth it to avoid the body-jam in South Bank.

I apologise for not taking a better photo, but I decided to watch the fireworks instead of documenting them.

We were lucky to beat the rush to public transport and walked straight onto a train which got us back home with our wine and a deck of cards in half and hour.

Easily my best New Years ever.

Wishing you all the best for 2013

x Debbie

Visit the Palace Cinemas

Visit Garuva

Visit South Bank parklands

Burnett Lane & Brew

Much to many people's surprise Brisbane has started to get some awesome spots with good cafes and atmosphere. Today I spent the day out in the city for my aunt's birthday and we found ourselves in several of these awesome spots.

One of those was a stroll down Burnett Lane, which until only recently was a loading zone for the shops in Queen St mall. It was one of those grungy alley's that you walked past quickly and would never walk down unless you were accompanied by some burly men or ninjas and even then you might reconsider it.

Now there's a growing collection of restaurants and cafes. One of which is Brew which we ended up at today for a cider. This atmospheric cafe and wine bar is at the very end of Burnett Lane and on a drizzly Brisbane day it looked incredibly inviting. 

This lane way has a bit of a shady history, so it's great to see businesses such as Brew moving in to reclaim this part of Brisbane. My aunt and I enjoyed our cider at the back of the cafe which used to be a store room for the buildings above. There were many hipsters, a very uncomfortable looking family and two little girls that looked like they were having a play date (it was very cute, and way more sophisticated than anything I would have done at 6 years old).

I'm also looking forward to watching the street art scene progress in Brisbane. I work in West End, so see a lot of it come and go and I can see Burnett Lane becoming a primo spot for new street art.

Cheers from Brew. I heartily recommend it!

Visit Brew here