I too love the bridge although I’m a walker more than a passenger. I did discover the 109 however just after it opened and have been praising its virtues since. It is so much more economical, both temporally and environmentally, than the old st lucia buses. Because I don’t drive and spend so much time bussing and walking around town, I feel really embedded in the space rather than passing through it. I’ve come to relish the diachronic rub implicit in living here so long - the nostalgia for its less affluent (and popular) days and the excitement of constant new things to see - and finding myself caught between the two.

Also, the cafe sounds fabulous!

I also love zooming through Dutton Park and remembering when there was no Coles in West End and having to go to Fairfield. Funny! And I love the ‘photo’ district in Dutton Park … a Leica sign on the horizon and the decrepit camera supplies store. I haven’t walked or ridden the bridge yet. But will remember to take bottled water!

I have been on a total trip lately about going to parts of Brisbane that I don’t just happen to go to all the time. This involves some investigating of the south side and places like Graceville for Thai!

Particularly the slq, I think. I worked in some of the “world’s great libraries” while in Europe, but mostly they were dank, exclusive, charged loads for wireless, were full of surly people and had expensive caffs.

The slq, by contrast, has been “wrapped” beautifully in the redevelopment, and as Mel says, the light and sense of space are really inspiring. As a place to work, I’d take it into the Pepsi challenge with the British Library or the Bibliotheque National anytime.

And I think it’s important, when we can look around anytime and get upset about the public spaces that are disappearing, to distribute the pats on backs when something is done well. Sure, Premier Pete left us without water, enough hospitals, or sufficient infrastructure for our expanding population, but I’ll remember him fondly for at least having this special surprise waiting for me when I returned to Brisbane.

As for GOMA, I was there again last week to take in Daphne Mayo visiting scholar James Meyer’s lecture “What is Contmeporary Art [History]?”. Apart from the ongoing nightmares bought on by the somatic shock of seeing/hearing tyrone noonan ‘do’ jazz in the forecourt during the opening week celebrations, the whole place is too austere for me. Maybe its the adolescent trees, too white concrete and emphasis on ‘zones’ that makes it more a port of call rather than a destination for me.

Aside from all that, how do you differentiate between a yummy mummy and a milf? I’m torn between which to aspire to. I preferred milfs when they were slightly overweight older women who had sex with younger men and videotaped it but now Tori Amos has co-opted it into some whole ‘mutton dressed as celtic lamb’ thing she has going on.