There is a good program this Saturday, although it is already 12th of the first month in the lunar calendar, Sunnybank Plaza has a New Year party. We are in Australia now, there is not a big deal! The New Year party is from 4 pm to 9 pm this Saturday (February 16) at the rooftop car park on the side of the cinema. During the event, there will be a few cultural performances at the stage such as lion dance and K-Pop dance. Also, according to their online information, there will be many children’s activities, such as face painting and making small lanterns. Also, many restaurants have also launched special foods, such as MOS Burger has Easy Cheesy Burger + Iced Peach Tea for $8.88. More importantly, there are fireworks display at 8.15 pm. This is worth to consider to go to this event. Please refer to the conference website for details.
From now until February 17th, Starbucks will have a 50% discount on all Frappuccino every day from 4pm to 5pm. If you are a member, you can start enjoying this offer at 3pm. Today, I also use this offer, $3.20 to drink a cup of Espresso Frappuccino, a cup of frozen coffee, so I can stay cool.
This Tuesday is the Lunar New Year. Although the number of Chinese in Brisbane is less than those in Sydney and Melbourne, it has a few celebrations for Chinese New Year. In some Chinese shops, they put some Chinese New Year Decoration in their storefront. Also, some shopping malls and Brisbane Council have some Chinese New Year’s celebrations event. Of course, the most important Chinese mall, Sunnybank Plaza. There will be lion dances every day from 10.30 am for the next seven days, starting from Monday. Besides, the garden city will have more fireworks at 8 pm on 7th February. Also, the Brisbane City Council will hold a Chinese New Year event at the China Town at 4 pm on 9th February, including the dragon dance performance. We have full-on Chinese New Year!
If you mention New Year’s fireworks in Australia, of course, everyone will think of New Year’s fireworks in Sydney, because this is the largest in Australia, and fireworks on the famous landmark, harbour bridge, they are spectacular, so everyone are especially familiar.
However, there are also New Year’s fireworks in major cities across Australia! Also, we have New Year’s Eve fireworks in Brisbane, and we will have two sessions of fireworks on the Brisbane river! The first session will start at 8:30 pm on December 31. This game is called Family Fun Fireworks. It is mainly for families with small children. You can go home early to make it easier for children to sleep. The other, of course, is the one that started at 0:00 on New Year’s Day. It is relatively more significant, and more people watch it, so the atmosphere is better. If you can, I would recommend you to see this. Besides, the best vintage point to watch will be South Bank, followed by the North Quarry or riverside in the city.
Finally, I want to remind everyone. According to the experience of previous years, there are many people watching fireworks. So I suggest everyone use public transport! Moreover, all bus, train and citycat ferry services will be free from 8 pm on the 31st to 5:30 am on New Year’s Day! Detailed information can be involved in Translink.
On our Calamvale suburb, it seems that there are fewer fast food restaurants. However, when I went to the Calamvale Marketplace a few days ago, I found out that there was a new KFC, with the Drive-Thru service too, it was effortless for us to buy fast food! You don’t have to go out of Sunnybank or go to Brown Plains. For us, even that is more convenient, we can walk to buy KFC!
Calamvale Marketplace
2605 Beaudesert Road,
Calamvale,
QLD, 4116
In Australia, the biggest sale event during the year is on the Boxing Day. In the tradition, most of the people are already a lot of money for buying the Christmas Presents. Thus, the shops will start sales on 26/12, the first date after Christmas, to boost the customers spending again!
I heard about the major cities of Australia, there are some people will start to line up in front of the stores tonight and wait for their opening. They wish to get the best deals tomorrow. Well, We are in the age of online shopping, a lot of major department stores’ website, such as Myer, Target, and UNIQLO already have started the sales. You can sit back and relax in front of the computer, just place the orders and wait for the delivery.
But if you decide to do your boxing date shopping in person, that won’t have easy parking, you need to prepare more time for looking for a parking spot
In Australian, people like to buy Christmas gifts for family and friends, Therefore, to facilitate everyone’s shopping, many shopping malls have extended their opening hours. The Garden City Shopping mall where is near our home also extended their opening hours this week. Both Tuesday and Friday are open until 9:00, and even open until midnight on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Also, on the 23rd, there was a fireworks show at the town of Town Square at 10:00 on Sunday night. It also sounds very exciting, but according to our previous years’ experience, not all stores are trading until the mid-night, only major chain stores, such as Myer, Target, and BigW, are open for the whole extended trading hours.
If you want to shop, check the opening hours of the major shopping malls near you. I believe it is similar to Garden city.
In Brisbane, a lot of passionated households setup Christmas lightings and decorations in their own garden, turn it into a Christmas theme park! Some of them joined the competition from 4 KQ radio. The winner’s garden city looks very beautiful. I went to 1 st runner-up of this year in Algester. It seemed impressive! There is a Christmas tree made by LED lights.
Moreover, there is some “man-made” snow. It gave you of White Christmas! Please note that, the “man-made” snows will fall on your head, you may need to take a shower afterward.
Besides of lightings, there are some inflated Christmas decorations. The family must spend a lot of efforts on this. I think that is worth to check out whether there is a winner at nearby you. That is worth to pay a trip for visiting.
In the United States, Black Friday sales are on this weekend, it happens every year for a while, and many big department stores will have some good deals on this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This year, I have received emails from many Australian online stores, such as Amazon, which has black Friday sales. This afternoon, when I had lunch in Carindale, I found that there were a lot of shops, such as cotton on and JB HiFi, which had significant price cuts, up to 70% off. That is another event to attract us to spend more!
