Red Beverage Case ...

We've enjoyed many picnics over the years, refining our picnic gear over that time. I talk about some of those upgrades, here.

When posting that update, I'd recently changed the contents of our beverage case.

Two years on, the vintage lawn bowls case has been used often and is still going strong, as is the Engel esky that was bought to fit in with the vintage vibe.  

The Engel esky incurred minor damage during our Valentines picnic in February, when it was being used as a windbreak.  It's OK, the blemish is heart-shaped and adds to the cooler's charm!

In August 2024 I spotted a red vanity case on FB marketplace and organised to purchase it, so I could have a matching red set for my picnics.  

The seller had purchased the case new in the 1970s, used it for her makeup business - and then packed it away in 1983!  It was in such great condition!

It's a bit larger than my others (which now live in my craft area, storing various notions), with almost the same footprint as the former bowls case.

The red beverage case came away on our Eight Weeks of Awesome adventure in 2024 and has been used regularly since we returned home.  

These days the red beverage case, the former lawn bowls case and the Engel esky are our usual choices for car-based picnic outings.  Setting up my 50-cent adventure bag has prompted me to cull excess picnic cutlery.  I'm looking at some of our other picnic/camping stuff to see if anything else could be sold or donated.

I regularly use the other, smaller bowling bag as a handbag, particularly when wearing my custom tea towel dress!

50-cent Fun - Adventure Bag Testing!

"It is fun to have fun but you have to know how" said The Cat in the Hat - and the phrase is used here, at times.

After finishing my custom adventure bag, I rounded up items to put in it - and researched others. As much as we bought opshop cushions for our return trip from Caboolture, they were cumbersome for ongoing use.

Bunnings had $9.98 foam kneeling pads.  We bought two of those, which I had considered using for 50-cent adventures.  After more thought, I decided they'd be better suited for car-based picnic outings.

I spotted these Hikelite seat pads on sale at Anaconda. - $9.99 rather than $19.99.  Even better, if I bought two the price dropped to $14.99, plus click and collect orders received a $5.00 voucher.  Bonus!

Nick and I both thought about a hiking stove, pretty much at the same time.  We looked at those when picking up the seat pads.

Erin offered her $20.00 voucher, which brought the sale cost of the Furno Stove and Potset down to $67.99.  I was then able to discount the butane cartridge to just $5.59 using my $5.00 voucher.   

We took our new gear for a local test today, to a park fairly close to home.  Mr Dog was very happy to come picnicking with us!

The 50g seat pads are quite neat and definitely made the bench seat more comfortable.

I tried different ways of packing the stove this morning.  The gas cartridge fits inside the pots, along with the cannister stabliser stand.  

The pot set fits neatly into a padded lens bag that I rarely use, which then sits quite nicely into my adventure bag.

The stove, in it's case, will be packed separately - probably inside the stacked mugs.  I'm still working on that bit.

We were hugely impressed with the little stove, which has been dubbed "pocket rocket"!  It was so much quicker than the butane stove we take on our car outings - we know cos we did some back-to-back time-trial testing!  It's also much, much quicker than the Spacevan's gas burners, so it might become a multi-purpose gadget!

I've used our kitchen scales to weigh the various components.  On it's own, the stove is 109 grams, then 140 grams packed.  The lighter adds an extra 15 grams - so 155 grams in total.  

The pot set weighs 194 grams and 217 grams with the stabiliser.  The 230 gram cartridge weighs 337 grams?!  When all items are packed into the lens case, the total weight is 888 grams - when is less than my large lens!

50-cent Fun - Adventure Bag!

For our first few 50-cent adventures, I used my pink basket bag.  I think it had been a $2.00 opshop find - and then I replaced the handles with a pair I made.

As an adventure bag it was OK but not really what I wanted to use long-term.

It took time to decide on a suitable replacement. I don't find backpacks comfortable, so opted to make a custom bag, using fabric from my infamous stash.

My Granny was born in 1915 and relied on public transport all her life.  I remember when she travelled by train from the Blue Mountains to visit us on the Central Coast.  

She would pack all kinds of stuff into many pocketed bags. There were always small gifts for all of us, even a bone for our dog!

Nick carries two lunchboxes in our insulated backpack but I wanted some insulation in my bag, also.  Just in case I carry any provisions.

I used thermal batting between the main body and the lining, then wool batting for the pockets.  The bag is lined with the bright batik print and there was enough for a matching tablecloth.  All fabrics were on-hand, with some of the batting having been sourced from opshops. The vintage tea-towel with steam train graphic is perfect for a bag that will spend lots of time on the railways!

50-cent Fun - Witton Barracks and Walter Taylor Bridge!

Brisbane Greeters offer a free tour of the Walter Taylor Bridge - an activity that had been on my radar for at least seven years!

Tours run on select days, with only four participants on each - so scheduling a suitable time had been tricky due to Nick's shift-work.

Today's tour was eagerly anticipated!

We caught the train to Indooroopilly and met our tour guide in the park, beside Witton Barracks.  

We had a morning tea picnic in the same park, on our previous visit to Indooroopilly.

We'd read some of Witton Barracks history, during our heritage trail walk but on this tour, we entered one of the buildings, now converted to office space - and viewed a former cell.  It was a very interesting site.

It was a short walk from Witton Barracks to Walter Taylor Bridge, our primary focus for doing the tour.

The bridge is one of only a few in the world designed for residential living and the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The north tower was home to the Green family for more than 75 years.

I'd been keen to see inside the bridge apartment since realising tours were available - but as we listened to our guide, we realised there were lots more interesting facts about the bridge and it's builder, including a link to Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We had plenty of time for a good look through the rooms, photos and records.  We even stood on the balcony to view trafffic below!

(Some people remember driving on the bridge and seeing washing hung over the balcony)!

The National Film Archive has a short film from 1954 - titled "Living in the Walter Taylor Bridge".  

At the end of the tour, Nick and I walked back to the Jack Pesch (pedestrian and cycle) Bridge, to cross the Brisbane River.  We then walked under the four bridges to the Walter Taylor Reserve, where we sat beside the river for our picnic lunch.  It was a great shady spot to view the bridges from another angle and we stayed for a while, watching the world go by.

After lunch we walked back to Indooroopilly, on the Walter Taylor Bridge footpath. By that time, out of the shade, the temperature was 34 degrees and we made a snap decision to have a drink in the Indooroopilly Hotel (which had been a point of interest on our previous heritage trail walk).  We really appreciated the air conditioning while we waited for our train home!

Total fare cost was $2.00 - 50c each way, for each of us. How good is that? 

Our previous Indooroopilly train adventure was 12 days ago.  Since then the price of diesel at the same fuel station had risen to $3.21 per litre. Using the same calculation method, today's return trip would have cost just over $16.00 - plus $6.00 for parking, so $22.00 total.

50-cent Fun - Indooroopilly!

We've had a busy week and I was looking forward to some time out, on another 50-cent adventure.  

Some tech prep was necessary for this one.  I'd tried to re-borrow a book of walks around Brisbane suburbs.  

It was no longer in our local library collection and I didn't want to buy a copy (cos cheap and cheerful is our current focus).

Brisbane Council has lots of heritage trails though, which can be downloaded as .pdf files. That seemed a great option but my phone has a few quirks, so wasn't up to extensive use on a day's outing.  

I remembered Nick's iPad, which he uses for his music files.  I borrowed it the other day to save some bookmarks and also download the first heritage trail. 

We set off this morning with our lunchbox backpack and fully charged iPad - ready to view the map and info on its bigger screen.

Indooroopilly is about a 40-minute train ride from our local station.  Once there, we walked to the trail's starting point, a memorial in Keating Park.

There are 17 points of interest on the trail.  Nearly all of those were new to us and we liked the snippets of history.

We had a morning tea break half-way round, near Witton Barracks, to lighten the backpack load!

I've admired the Walter Taylor Bridge on our previous drives to/through Indooroopilly.  I liked seeing it at closer quarters.

We stopped to read some history of the adjaent Albert Bridge.  The first of the same name was destroyed by the 1893 floods in spite of attempts to weigh it down with a fully loaded train!

That bridge was subsequently swept away by floodwater, in dramatic fashion. 

"A desperate plan was hatched. A fully loaded steam train was parked on the bridge, its weight meant to pin the structure in place ... 

With a crack that could be heard over a kilometre away, the bridge’s central span snapped like a twig. The train, the steel, the timber—it all collapsed into the floodwaters below."

I haven't found any photos of the original bridge with the fully loaded steam train in place but there are other photos of it's destruction, here.

We continued walking to see the remaining sites and then had our picnic lunch in Keating Park (near our trail starting point).

By the time we got home, we'd walked around 6.5km! 

Total fare cost was $2.00 - 50c each way, for each of us. How good is that?

As we walked around, we saw diesel adventised for $3.15 per litre.  If I calculate the Mahindra's consumption at 8 litres per 100km, our return trip would have cost just over $15.00 - plus $6.00 for parking, so $21.00 total.

50-cent Fun - February edition!

We've had a few 50-cent train rides over the past 18 months.  

Queensland's 50-cent fares became permanent in early 2025 after a six-month trial period. The scheme applies to all Translink buses, trains, ferries, and trams.

As much as I usually blog of our road trips, there were a couple of train trips from our NSW days. 

Back then we travelled as a family of four - and carted picnic provisions in our trusty trolley.  

Nick is currently off work and we've been seeking cheaper entertainments -  even before all the rising fuel costs.  Mostly it's just two of us, so no need for the trolley.

Our first planned 50-cent adventure was to the State Library's "Driven" display - yep, spot the irony of catching the train to a car exhibition!

We hadn't packed lunch, so walked from the Library to West End and bought some lunch items from Woolies.  There was more walking to a shady spot beside the river where we sat on a huge rock and enjoyed the view. 

All up we walked 7km that day and spent $26 on lunch, plus $9 later in the afternoon for drinks and snacks.  $37 total spend, which included $1 each for our train fares.

After the Driven day out we bought an insulated backpack from BigW, on clearance for $6.50.  

We already had two insulated lunch boxes that fit inside and I made a simple tote bag to tuck into a side pocket. 

Our next outing was fairly impromptu.  We caught the train to Rosewood.  

We poked around opshops, found a few bargains and then bought some lunch items from Drakes supermarket.  

We found a shady picnic table. It was hot out, so after lunch we sat in the air conditioned library till it was time to go home.

Total spend was $10 for lunch and $2 for our train fares -  with 3.5km walked.

Rosewood is one end of our local train line.  Caboolture is the other end - and that was our next destination, a couple of days later.

The Art Gallery had a very interesting exhibition. We then picknicked at Centenary Lakes, while watching various bird antics. Highlight was a dozen cormorants doing some synchronised swimming! After lunch we walked a bit further to a couple of opshop and scored some excellent bargains - including a pair of cushions for the nearly two-hour trip home!

I'd packed excellent lunch provisions that day - a ham roll for Nick, Greek salad for me and juice boxes for both of us.  There was even apple/almond cake. Our fares were just $1 each - and we walked 5km.  

I'm currently researching for more public transport outings - here's to making great use of our 50-cent fares!