Thursday, December 6, 2007

An excellent adventure

Today me and the other mud slingers (bum crane, kamenendo and yet-to-blogged-up Ginny Jones) went on a little adventure, an exercise in random spatial experience! It was an attempt to step out of our usual environment without having to spend lots of money or take up too much time (you know, busy busy). Here’s how it worked. We all met at Central Station. Then we threw a dice to determine which platform to go to...

Then we had to get on the very next train that came along that platform, regardless of where it was going. Then we threw the dice twice more to determine how long we stayed on the train.
A three, followed by a four, meant 34 minutes. So we got off at the very next stop after 34 minutes. We ended up in a suburb none of us had ever heard of before, called Altandi. Its kind of amazing how far you can get in a mere 34 minutes on the train in Brisbane!! The deal was that wherever we ended up we had to stay a minimum of an hour, even if it was hell on earth! It didn’t look like anything special at first, which was fine - we had a whole hour to find special things! And it didn’t take long…..
Yep, hidden away out there in Altandi are MAGIC BINS! We’re forbidden to tell you anymore about them, but boy were they GREAT! Then we stumbled across some local ceramic sculpture….
...discovered a super yummy Indian restaurant….and a very special Golden Elephant...
...and then sadly our hour was up and we headed home with camera’s full of possibly useful/inspirational/kind of odd images, full bellies and all caught up on eachother’s recent goings on! A most excellent adventure indeed!

11 comments:

Bibbi said...

A truly great idea! Göteborg is so small, I would have to take the tram instead of train but it would also take me to different realities. Did you meet any locals?

(The blog links need fixin, the blogger address is also there)

All the best!

Anonymous said...

oh my! what a wonderful idea, I love it and magic bins!!!!!!! I have heard of such a thing but I didn't know they really existed, lucky you. Did you ride the golden elephant?

carole epp said...

sounds like a fun day, nice company too! say hi to those guys for me!

Mel Robson said...

No Miss Dot, I'm afraid I didn't ride the golden elephant. It's the scared Altandi Golden Elephant and I think the locals would have thought it disrespectful....we just put 20 cents in the slot as an offering....

Carole, wish you were here!

And Bibbi...do it!!

Mel Robson said...

That was meant to be SACRED altandi elephant....not SCARED. At least, it didn't seem scared....

reb said...

Brave Miss Mel- very very brave!!!

Anonymous said...

Mel , I think i saw you riding golden boy (twice) when you were making off to the loo

Mel Robson said...

That was just someone who looked like me Pru. Silly!

Amanda said...

An excellent adventure in Altandi???? That really makes me laugh! (At least I've heard of it...)What a great way to end the year.

pinholeman said...

HOW FUN!!! I'm going to have to try that. Wait, there aren't any trains in Logan. Dammit!

Mel Robson said...

Yes but there are buses Mark...AND they're FREE!!! If you're really lucky you might even end up at the Walmart for an hour!!