Australia Day
January 26th – Australia Day
Well G’day mates – stone the crows and something the lizards it’s Australia day today where we get to celebrate what it is to be Os’traylun. The festivities have been highly advertised so we decide to hit the big Aussie bbq in Hyde Park. There are food tents galore selling everything from solid Aussi fare – that’s pies to you and me – to Turkish, Indian and Sushi. O and I settle for a spinach bread thing from the Turkey tent – delicious. Josh went for a pie and was not very impressed that it had veg in it too, “I didn’t think veg was very Aussie” he moans. We walk around – beer in hand for me, complete with Aussie flag tattoos on, mine on my cheek and enjoy the vintage cars, live music, air displays and sunshine. It hits me again that we have nothing like this at home. I am proud to be a Brit and it would take a lot for me to even consider changing my passport and yet there is no celebration. The nearest thing was the world cup when every house and car was decorated with the flag – of course with our track record we did not have an excuse to leave them up for long but it was great while it lasted. I reckon we should start a small unofficial holiday one day in August and just let it grow from there………………….
The climax of the day for me was knowing there would be fireworks in the harbour. I was really gutted to have missed NYE but this would sort of make up for it. We arrived in Darling Harbour early to crowds of people. We were lucky in that just were we standing some guy off the tele was doing all the commentary so we got to wave behind him looking stupid. It was interesting seeing how all the technical aspects worked. For our entertainment there was a boat parade and live music. Some guy (who I have completely forgotten his name) sang Southern Land which got nearly all of the 150,000 people singing. I think Ice House did the original? Anyway it certainly gave me goosebumps. We had to stand for the national anthem and look like idiots as none of us had any idea what the words were – thank God it was dark by then.
The fireworks were incredible – loud – bright and enough to gain lots of oohhs and aaahhs from the crowd. They interviewed the guy who sets them up beforehand – he is 7th generation his family had been doing it since the 17 or 1800’s – amazing. We have seen some fireworks in Sydney!
Strange sight today – just next to us in the crowd for the fireworks arrived a man – 40’s. He was wearing the full Australian gear including hat with corks. Every time we had to shout “Australia” or something similar he got sooo excited his flag waving reached fever pitch, he looked care in the community but bless him when the fireworks were on he was absolutely beside himself. The only thing that worried me was the rather large laundry bag that he kept hugging to himself………………….The contents still remain a mystery.
Tags: Australia, Travel
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