They say the neon lights shine bright (or the Broadway Hotel)

So I'm in Brisbane at the moment. I flew in 9 days ago, and so far, I could live here. I'm staying in a dilapidated, underpopulated hotel in the middle of an industrial estate, and opposite Brisbane's most famous brothel, eighty eight.

It's a fantastic (and enormously cheap) place to live, mostly populated (there's only 10 of us in the whole hotel) by Irish people. For the first time since we left, I'm finding myself getting back into a routine.

There's a real, almost tangible, sense of community about the hotel, yesterday we all pitched in and cooked a massive Sunday roast, then had a pool tournament, followed by thousands of cups of tea & Far and away on the telly. I can already tell I'm really going to miss this place when I move on. Brisbane itself is great too - they have cheap good food, a nice town centre, and even an enormous secondhand bookshop.

in fact, barring the cashier at the local convenience store, life is peachy. See, this guy is...well, he talks too much.

-Hi, can i get this milk, please, and...um..oh, i'll take these mints too.
He takes my groceries, and my money & holds everything hostage over his side of the desk.
-No problem.
I stand quietly, while he rings everything up. He pauses & looks up at me...
-So how was your day?
-um...grand...you know...
-no?
-Oh, it was...y'know...i had a good day.
-and what made it good?
-um...I guess i drank a lot of tea...
-oh yeah? you like tea?
(every fibre of my being wants to run at this point)
-yeah. So how was your day?
-Oh, good, i guess. I reorganised that shelf down there...see it?
I look at his shelf.
-um...that's lovely...yeah.
My groceries lie forgotten behind the register as he begins explaining the reorganisation.
-So you think i should do this side too?
-um...whatever you think best, I suppose.
-WEll, I'll try it and show you.
-great!

This isn't just a one off. Everytime i go into the shop, there's this really strange ten mintue conversation. Stupid friendly people!