quicko: australia day!

Happy Australia Day!!

Like the 4th of July, Australia Day commemorates the history and patriotism of its people. It's a fun day off of work and, like the 4th, most people spend it bar-b-que-ing with friends. As there's a bit easier access to the beach than, say, Ohio, lots of people flock there to celebrate. There's fireworks at night, though the most specatacular display was already used up at New Years' Eve.

Traditional Australia Day fare includes meat pies, pavlova, lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits, as well as plenty of meat on the "barbie" (grill) and an abundance of beer. Pickup games of cricket are common (I witnessed one where an adorable toddler was the star player, and cheered most highly for thrashing his bat to the ground when he missed a ball), though more people spend the day watching the tennis or the cricket on TV. Green and gold are the colors to wear (if you feel like it -- that's really the essence of Australia Day: you don't have to do anything you don't feel like doing), and of course there are Australian flags draped around shoulders for good measure.

Interestingly enough, the Australia Day celebration I found myself at in Kirribilli featured just as much, if not more, Scotish and Welsh music than Australian. The Welsh choir sang, and the bagpipers in kilts played proudly. Since many Australians are of British descent, it makes sense, though still struck me as a bit out of place.

We had a couple fly-overs, which we couldn't quite reach out and touch, but really could have had a few of us stood on each other's shoulders and stretched, which I found a tad bit nerve-wracking.

Models of a First Fleet ship (you know, the first batch of ships that sailed over from England) and two others sailed past the Opera House in a grand display of national history, that was promptly and sincerely photographed by approximately half the crowd present.

The day ended rather abruptly with an onslaught of rain followed by nonexistent buses that would have been an hour late, had they cared to show up. Ah, well. Seems the drivers were just exercising their Australian rights, oi, oi, oi!