Daily Detours for the Week of December 4
Featuring a burger packed with mac 'n' cheese.
Daily Detours for the Week of December 4
in partnership with
Featuring a burger packed with mac 'n' cheese.
When your nine-to-five plays out like a well-oiled machine, it can sometimes feel like each week is a little same-same. But Brisbane is brimming with a fine bounty of things to experience and explore each and every day. So aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing some adventure and spontaneity into your schedule.
We've teamed up with Mazda3 to help you celebrate the little things that bring a sense of adventure to life. Shake things up, as we give you seven different detours to take each week in Brisbane. From Monday to Sunday, enrich your everyday with one completely achievable activity that inspires you to take the scenic route as you go about your daily routine.
This week, cuddle some cats at a dedicated cat cafe, cool off at some old-school baths just outside the CBD and get someone else to cook Sunday roast for you. Plus, we've got your future detours sorted for the new few weeks here.
All require no more effort than a tiny break from the norm — what's your excuse for not trying them all?
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7
This time of year sometimes feels like a mad sprint towards the festive season. Between your office Christmas party and obligatory catch-ups with every relative this side of the equator, December can disappear in a blur. Catching up with friends on the weekend can seem near-impossible, so to ensure you still get some face time with your crew, opt for a weekday meetup. (Pick Monday and feel like the weekend’s still here.) Northshore Riverside Park is a bit of a local secret — just up the river from Eat Street Markets, this is the perfect spot to roll out your picnic rug. With plenty of barbecue facilities and a rolling lawn for a quick kick of the footy, this is the ideal spot for a post-weekend debrief.
Image: Steve Woodburn.
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6
Owning your own pet in a rental property can be a nightmare — and we are willing to guess that you might be a few avocado toasts away from that luxe house deposit just yet. So what’s a feline-loving Brisbanite to do? Here steps in Red Hill’s Cat Cuddle Cafe. With more than 15 rescue kitties in residence, you can be assured that you will be purred and nuzzled into a state of cat-induced euphoria. Even better, all the cats and kittens are rescued via animal welfare group Pussies Galore (brilliant name), so you can feel warm and fuzzy knowing that these little guys have been given a second lease on life.
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5
There’s only one place in Brisbane that serves Mac Daddy burgers filled with mac ‘n’ cheese. Well, three if you count Miss Kay’s different stores in the CBD, Mitchelton and Woolloongabba. Whether the Kris Kross joke came first, or the idea for a macaroni and dairy-filled burg, we don’t care — when you’re going to put cheesy pasta between two slices of bread, no one does. The pop culture-themed, American-style diner’s concoction also features a beef patty, American cheese, lettuce, sweet barbecue sauce, mayo and fries; however jump jumping for its other ingredient is understandable. Cheese lovers can also enjoy a poutine burg with haloumi, or a good ol’ fashioned cheeseburger of the single or double variety.
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4
Fortitude Valley’s Institute of Modern Art wants you to kick off December in an engaging and artistic fashion, so they’ve curated the perfect series of events to help. At First Thursdays, artists are invited to take over IMA — and you’re invited to enjoy the fruits of their efforts this last first Thursday of 2017. Participatory art experiences take over the Brunswick Street venue, be it performance, dance, visual art, food or music, for a night of experimentation until 9pm. Radha La Bia, the alter ego of performance artist Shahmen Suku, kicked off the series earlier this year and was followed by the likes of Jemima Wyman & Zach Blas in April, Hannah Brontë in May, Chantal Fraser in June, and Archie Moore and David M Thomas in July. Keep an eye on IMA’s website to find out more on December’s curated program.
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3
As soon as the mercury hits anything above 25 degrees, Queenslanders will drop everything to find the nearest body of water — working commitments be damned. On a bad day, said ‘body of water’ might look like a room temperature bath, or a partially deflated kiddie paddling pool. But on a good day? Well, it might look a bit like the Spring Hill Baths. Don’t waste your time battling highway traffic to get to the beach, this heritage-listed pool is just a stone’s throw from the CBD, so a perfect spot for a post-work dip. With more aquatic group fitness classes than you can shake your goggles at, Spring Hill Baths is famed for being Brisbane’s first in-ground pool. The brightly painted changing room doors and traditional grandstand seating gives this swimming spot a sweet, nostalgic touch.
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2
Go dotty about the world, and it’ll go dotty about you: that’s the Yayoi Kusama story. For seven decades, the Japanese artist has thrust polka dots to the centre of her paintings, collages and installations, making her a contemporary art favourite — and all of those years of circular creativity have now come to the Gallery of Modern Art. This weekend, head to GOMA to see Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, a major showcase of her lengthy and prolific career since the 1950s. With the celebrated artist no stranger to the Queensland Art Gallery and GOMA, a number of her iconic pieces have made a return. Of course, the beloved interactive experience that is The Obliteration Room also brightens up GOMA’s Children’s Art Centre for the first time since summer 2014-2015. Fans of plastering a white room full of coloured dot-shaped stickers, rejoice. Fans of Kusama’s bright riot of dots and hues, rejoice as well.
Image: Yayoi Kusama in front of Life is the Heart of a Rainbow (2017) ©YAYOI KUSAMA, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore, Victoria Miro, London, David Zwirner, New York
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1
A Sunday roast is the ultimate way to cap off a perfect weekend or celebrate how close Christmas is. But the thought of cranking up the oven in this heat is nothing short of atrocious. Cue The Victoria Park Rotisserie Kitchen. These guys are the experts when it comes to slow-cooked roast meats. Grab a table in the shade, and let the chefs do the legwork. Overlooking the park, this is an ideal spot to stage a Kris Kringle gift exchange over rotisserie chicken and porchetta with sides of roast potato and seasonal salads — aka home-style cooking that you don’t have to whip up yourself.
Personalise your next adventure via The Playmaker, driven by Mazda3.
