Brisbane’s Entertainment – Alright if you can get there

There are good and bad aspects to Brisbane’s entertainment scene and the old adage, depends where you go, is truthful here. West End, for example, has entertainment potential, if you are really into ethically produced coffee and don’t mind the art/hippy/vegan set. New Farm is great if you are a model or some trendy young professional. And then there’s Fortitude Valley – fine if you are just out of nappies and the next thing you grew in to was a back pack.

Then there is the problem of getting home if you want to indulge in the popular Australian pursuit of “getting a bit pissed”. Brisbane is the most spread out city on the planet and so taking a taxi home could mean paying the driver your life savings (especially if you’re really pissed – there is a danger you have emptied the nearest atm some time during the course of the evening).

Buses and trains – I would love them if they weren’t so sparse. Trains to where I live in Doomben go about once every two years. Buses stop at about lunch time. Okay so it is not quite that bad but can feel that way after a night out waiting at midnight (except trains have well and truly stopped by this time to Doomben). Don’t even bother to try and get anything public transporty to the suburbs after midnight unless you can tailor your party animal ways to catching the one train Cityrail provides somewhere between midnight and about 6am – and this still excludes Doomben.

I find the best entertainment pursuits in Brisbane occur during the day. A barbeque at one of the public parks. Catching the ferry for fun (if you’re lucky enough to live near one). A stroll around South Bank markets or any of the other markets scattered about the place. A leisurely bike ride – provided you stay away from the main roads where there are no bike paths and frustrated drivers want to turn you in to road kill.

The Brisbane shopping centres actually have potential for entertainment of the superficial, cynical kind. They seem to be a breeding ground for teenagers who are carbon copies – cloned perhaps - of each other and dressed so appalling they obviously don’t own full length mirrors. The line for McDonalds is about 10km long because that is the staple diet of the shopping centre set. The entertainment here is just gawking in amazement. Where do so many aesthetically challenged people come from? I know I’m no oil painting but really. The place is obviously crowded too because there are no parking spaces left. Do so many people have so many consumer needs or are they just there for “entertainment”?

Like me? I do avoid them like the plague unless some thing comes up like needing to get out of the house before my boyfriend and I kill each other. The retail therapy aspect is especially good for him. He’ll buy anything that stands still long enough or constitutes a completely needless random gadget.

So entertainment in Brisbane is vast if you broaden the definition a little! Dianne Williams