Brisbane, QLD


Monday, June 22, 2009

BIRTHDAY BEAR GETS SOME CULTURE

As I am working on my birthday on Wednesday, we celebrated yesterday. We had lunch at the Foyer Bistro in the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in the city. It is situated on the South Bank of the Brisbane River, together with the State Library, the Museum, the Art Gallery, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (opera house), the Conservatorium and Convention Centre. This area is one big Cultural Centre on the banks of the river. It was my turn to receive Birthday Bear and I was quite excited trying to anticipate how she would be dressed this time.

Here she is dressed as a gardener. That's me! She has on her overalls, garden gloves and garden shoes. Of course she has a visor and sunnies.

She even has a little wheelbarrow full of lemons. She also has a watering can and fork and shovel, with froggy handles. I love frogs.

Ann and George (in front) did a wonderful job of dressing bear and making the props. Thank you. From left to right...Ann, Mary, Bill, Birthday Bear, Paul, me , Helen, George. We even booked a place for Bear, which the waitress thought was funny.

I had Pork Belly with apple and rhubarb sauce and side vegetables.

BB had Salmon and schwabi sauce with fries on the side.

Then Bear wanted to check out the view from the deck. The GoMA building at the side overlooking the new pedestrian bridge and the city on the other side of the river.

The city cat glides under the partially constructed pedestrian bridge connecting the cultural Centre with the CBD. We had a lively discussion about the aesthetics and cost of the bridge. Some of us liked it and others didn't.

The very old William Jolly Bridge a few metres down stream.

After lunch we went to have a look around the modern art gallery, which was featuring Chinese artists but Bear wasn't allowed to come she had to wait in the cloak room and look after our umbrellas. Yes it has been raining for 2 days now, which is very unusual or this time of the year, but it is better than the drought we've had over the last 5 years.

We went up to the other floors and saw some really way out art. Some was interesting and some was rediculous.

This huge lady in bed was interesting

Up close her skin was almost translucent and very life like. 

12 comments:

  1. Wow, the lady in the bed is amazing. Looks like you had a great adventure...I love days like this one! Thanks for sharing your journey. Nice to meet you. robin

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  2. I thought you were dressing Birthday Bear. I did not realize this was your Birthday Bear celebration. Happy, Happy Birthday Diane! Hope you had a wonderful time, and it looks like you did. Many, many more happy birthdays and years with BB I wish you both.

    That Birthday Bear was PERFECT (especially with the lemons).

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  3. birthday bear is cute! happy birthday, Diana! (:

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  4. Birthday Bear looks great hope you had a great birthday.

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  5. Thank you for your visit. Birthday Bear is quite unusual. But it sounds like a wonderful idea. Glad you had a fabulous birthday. Happy (Belated) Birthday to you.

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  6. Happy birthday to YOU!! When I was a server, I used to sing Happy Birthday backwards! So. just for you.....
    yppaH yadhtrib ot UOY! yppaH yadhtrib ot UOY!
    yppaH yadhtrib, raed enaiD! ( of course, in the restaurant, I just turned around and sang it with ME being backwards! LOL!)

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  7. OK I'm not going to ask a stupid question like "what is pork belly" bc I spose that's selfexplanatory; but what's it TASTE like?? That dish looks sweet not savory...

    ps as for birthday bear, that picture reminds me of some squirrels I saw in the paper. An American taxidermist makes use of dead ones found in his environs and stuffs them into poses e.g. gun-toting, violin-playing etc. They look really entertaining and no cruelty was involved in their slaughter!

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  8. Birthday Bear looks fantastic! Well done, I thought the crocs were a nice touch.

    Happy Birthday for Wednesday, I'm sorry I missed it, I hope it was a good one!

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  9. You know these little baby computers are very performant and not that expensive. I only payed 350 € for it !

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  10. A very cute birthday bear for Dianne. I would put her straight to work (the bear). Happy birthday and hope you feel very well again.
    You are right Dianne, modern art has its place, but I am also very selective and do not accept it just because it might be in an art gallery.

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  11. Happy (belated) birthday Diane! Sorry for the delay... ;)

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  12. Birthday Bear looks very snazzy in her overalls, crocs and gloves! I love the wheelbarrow full of Lemons! I hope you enjoyed the restaurant!
    Wheelbarrow-full of love
    Carol
    xxx

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