Town without pity

Wednesday, 12/09/2012 - 89 A.D.

It was only about an hour’s ride on the Greyhound from Brisbane to Southport. Yep, you read that right – Southport, Queensland! Why were we travelling to the namesake of the Merseyside metropolis? Well, it’s something to do, isn’t it? Plus it breaks up our next journey to Sydney. And let’s face it, it may be called Southport, but the weather’s gorgeous! Plus they even named a street in anticipation of our visit…

Southport is essentially a suburb of the city called Gold Coast with a population of around 25,000. It’s got a few high rises here and there because it comprises Gold Coast’s main CBD. However, a lot of the high rises look like run-of-the-mill holiday apartments, which would make sense, given that Gold Coast is a very popular resort in the summertime. In particular, the area known as Surfer’s Paradise is where plenty of people flock to (not just surfers or those seeking paradise) and it's the main stop for these parts on the map on the Greyhound website. To get off at Southport you have to make a special request.

The strangely-named Accommodation Centre was our one-night stop-off and it turned out to be pretty fine digs. Why do we end up staying in the decent places for one night only? And I’ll tell you why it was so good in three words – clean, modern, barber. Yes, for some reason there is a bonefide barber's shop on the ground floor! This was very convenient because Tim decided the locks were creeping ominously towards their three quarter of an inch cut-off size. As for me, well, I’m still having bad dreams about the pregnant Maori lady.

["Something for the weekend, Sir?"

"What's a weekend?"]

After doing a wash and hanging the clothes out on the line to dry, we wandered towards the centre of Southport along Scarborough Street. Just like yesterday we got drawn into various shopping malls, which is strange because we don’t need any supplies and there’s nothing really to browse for. I guess sometimes it just feels good to browse, even if you’re not likely to buy (I’m sure the female contingent who read this blog can identify with that statement!) Weirdly, they still have Radio Rentals shops over here…anyone remember those?

Just like its Merseyside counterpart, Queensland Southport has a pier, though it ain’t a “pleasure pier” (whatever one of those is) and it doesn’t stretch miles and miles inland. It doesn’t stretch miles and miles out to sea either, but you can be guaranteed to get a bit of sun as you stroll lazily along it. And it doesn’t have that little choo-choo-train-thingy that drives you up and down the length of it for a quid.

While Tim had been given his ‘Clint Dempsey Cut’ by Barber Jack, he’d been told that there was a swanky restaurant along Scarborough Street where they were doing 30% off the early bird menu that evening. Plus there was to be some hot jazz playing (as we all know, jazz is delicious when hot, disgusting when cold) and, errr, apparently he might be doing some singing. Yeah. But at least there was 30% off the early bird menu! And it had been a while since we’d eaten somewhere other than Subway, so we thought we’d treat ourselves and I brought the “brothel creepers” (© Tim) out of semi-retirement and put on the going-out shirt. Unfortunately Tim’s evening trousers hadn’t yet dried, so he had to go in his combat pants, but he still wore his British charm on his sleeve.

We arrived at The Vault to be asked if we had a reservation, which we hadn’t, but the nice waitress still managed to find us a table for two. The nice waitress happened to be called Jessica, and Jessica happened to hail from Merseyside, which was clearly evident once she dumbed-down her swanky restaurant-ish overtones. We had a laugh and remarked how we normally just tell people we’re from Liverpool, but she actually was from Liverpool, so there was no getting away with that with her! Jessica then informed us that the 30% off did not apply to the early bird menu. But we went for it anyway – Tim with his medium-rare steak, me with my calamari and pot of alli-olli on the side. And I’d never heard of beer-battered chips before, but I’ll definitely have them again!

The nosh was great and I came really close to clearing my plate, but I still can’t cope well with salad that’s drenched in olive oil. Throughout our meal, the glitterati of Southport entered the establishment to take in the smooth jazz sounds. Barber Jack also showed-up, pleased with himself for drumming up some business for his local eatery. Also, we were in the background for a commercial they were filming and I considered manufacturing some obscene shapes behind the red lace curtain I was sitting next to, but my calamari didn’t bend that way. With bellies full, we said goodbye to Jessica and told her to take it easy when she gets to Thailand for some full moon partying. We may even see her there, but as she’ll be going in February, it would mean that something had gone terribly wrong…or right…it depends which way you look at it.

But, nearly halfway into this trip, I look at it like this – before leaving England many people said that my outlook on life would change and I’d come back a different person. So far I’m still the same person, but I’m more reassured that I am that person. That may not make sense, and I could be jumping the gun with Asia and three more months still to go, but if you look at travel in terms of trying to find yourself, you could also look at it in terms of not having lost yourself. Better? No? I’ll cut the philosophical ramblings for this post then! But I’ll end on a positive, if rather cheesy and clichéd note…

 …don’t you think we could do with a few of theoe on Lord Street?