A Great Comeback in Brisbane - Adventures within...
The Great Comebacks Awards
Long story short last year I won Convatec's Great Comebacks Award and this year they wanted me to tell my story and hand the award on to the next worthy recipient. My husband and son were not allowed to join me due to adoption laws within Australia, which lead me to ask my amazeballs sister to come to Brisbane with me.
My sister and I ready for the awards evening
The great comebacks awards are designed to honour and showcase ostomates - people who have undergone stomal surgery and come out the other side stronger than before. This year's winner is a terminally ill cancer patient that lives a positive life with an ostomy bag attached. She has a blog called feelingostomistic, a little play on words and anyone who knows me knows I love them.
My speech, Tayla Goding 2017 winner Awards given out this year 2018 My sister and I with a drink pre-speech I only had the one, that is enough for me.
As part of the evening's events, I was required to talk to the attendees about how far I had come to win the award and where I went from there. I kept my nerves in check while speaking at a breakneck speed to get through the speech without too many stuff ups.
Brisbane
Brisbane is just beautiful and one of my favourite cities in the world, it is actually number two on our where we would like to live list after Perth our current home and number one. Canada would be out number three, just cause we like variety and there PM.
The Botantial Gardens
In the heart of Brisbane, you will find the botanical gardens, a huge space with loads of places to sit and chill or walk and ponder, in the space of a half an hour wander my sister and I saw five weddings and one other photoshoot all in picturesque areas, never crossing into each other's shots.
The trees and flowers were beautiful, the bamboo declarations of love made me stop a while as did the cherry blossom tree, I had to wait until a wedding had completed their shots but it was worth it. I also couldn't go past the cabbage flowers, they were everywhere and ranged in colours.
Some of the trees were so old they needed a little help, it was amazing to see this tree mid grafting. The branches were being held in place while roots were grafted to poles with a material. Some were more developed than others but fascinating all the same.
Southbank
Just across the bridge, you have my favourite place in Queensland, South Bank, it's so magnifically designed that you could spend days exploring and eating and not get bored. We spent our spare time walking through the garden's, lazing on the beds, visiting the markets and of course eating.
We found this Nepal Peace Pagoda that took our fancy, my sister explored the inside while I relaxed taking in the beauty of the building and surrounds.
There was also an abundance of flora and fauna to be seen, stumbling upon these iguanas and wild bush turkeys soon after crossing the road.
Anyone in my #whatisit contest may want to take a closer look at this image.
The beach is ingenious and you would never know you are in the centre of the city on the river bank. There is a pool off to the left too but it was closed for renovations. It is manned by lifeguards all year round, in summer up until 10 pm at night. It looked super busy to us given it is winter in Australia atm, but the sun was shining which is pretty normal in Queensland.
And of course, what city would be complete without the unique characters, I also saw a woman in what I can only describe as a wizard's dress but taking a photo while in the ladies room is a tad inappropriate. haha...
Yes that is her arse you can see through her dress if you could call it that... I am not sure on this fashion, but I guess if I had an arse that fine then I'd want to show it off too... Maybe...
Hotel - The Emporium - Coming Soon
As part of the awards evening we had the pleasure of staying in at the new hotel on Grey St in Southbank, it's not officially due to be opened until September or maybe it was due to be officially opened in July and was delayed, either way we got the first-hand look at one of the rooms as well as the function rooms.
The Room
Let me preface this with OMG, this was one fancy hotel room, if not the fanciest one I have ever seen and certainly the most technologically advanced I have stayed in. We should have let the concierge come in and show us around the room but we were tired and a little annoyed that we couldn't use the pool, gym or observation deck as they had not been completed.
So we fumbled our way around the room learning as we pressed panel buttons and enjoyed the features that followed. The "magic glass" was literally that magic, one minute it was clear the next it was frosted.
The bathroom was also seriously awesome, double sinks, make mirrors, spa bath with salts and a massive shower with a choice of a roof or handled shower head. There was also a huge cupboard with draws for your wears and a bar complete with wine to boot.
Moving onto the bed, which of course is a king, with get this... A Pillow menu*
Yes a pillow menu which is super cool, we tried three. The Swedish memory pillow, the latex contour pillow and the slimline pillow for between the knees as I hate it when my boney knees rub together but who needs a giant pillow between their thighs....
Sitting on the the bed we were like I wonder where the TV is as 99% of all hotels I have ever stayed in have had a TV not that we often watch it. It is always in front of the bed so when we saw this huge mirror we were like no... That can't be the TV... After about 20 minutes of playing with the remote, we confirmed our amazement and got the "mirror TV" to stir to life, it took another ten minutes to figure out how to get the sound to work but we got it in the end.
I enjoyed watching Little Miss Sunshine that evening. The end pageant scene had me in hysterics.
Now the balcony was interesting, I would not like to have any girth to my waist as the slimline balcony was a little laughable but the fresh air was welcome and the awesome auto curtains were fun to play with.
Yes I am a child at heart.
And what holiday would be complete without food, this is some of the divine dishes we ate while staying at the hotel, breakfast was a bit overpowering with the truffle sauce and the waffle almond cream was warm while the waffles were cold, which was slighly off putting but it was free, well on Convatec so we didn't mind giving it a go.
The hotel restaurant was not yet open so I am guessing the room service was a bit under the pump and if the funtion food is anything to go by then I look forward to eating at it when it does open.
Well that's it from me for today, as always thanks for reading! I hope to see you again soon and look forward to responding to your comments :D
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