photos: highlights of july (4th, mystery and melissa's visit)

quicko: ANZAC day

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia, which is a holiday to commemorate those who lost their lives in war.  Its particular focus is those who died in Gallipoli in the First World War, and today is the 100th anniversary of this tragedy.  There are dawn services and marches every year; here are some photos from Darwin's march this morning.  I found it impressive that in a town of 120,000, there were 10,000 at the dawn service (and I'm guessing a similar number at the march?) -- 1/12 of the town!  Even though Darwin is small, it is a capital city so it has many important features that other cities of its size wouldn't.  It has a huge army base, and in today's march we saw the Australian navy, army, air force and American marines (second to last photo).  The march was actually mostly made of up all these regiments -- of which there were quite a lot.  There were a few army bands (note the tuba -- not a sousaphone!) and such, and a few veterans, and a few kids at the end in Girl Guides and Scouts, and a few huge army tanks that were a bit terrifying, and a few flyovers, but mostly it was lots and lots of servicemen.  Lest we forget.

photos: it's beginning to look a lot like advent!

Thanks, Mom, for my special Advent decorations!

photos: happy thanksgiving

We had a belated Thanksgiving this year on the Sunday after.  It was a ... partially traditional menu.  I did win the battle for turkey (over lamb), and we got pork thrown in for good measure.  I made stuffing and (burnt) applesauce and brought cranberry sauce, and we also had a green bean salad with radishes, roast potatoes (in duck fat, though I think most of that stayed in the pan), corn on the cob, a bean salad and tabouli.  For dessert, I made (burnt) gingerbread and apple crisp with (melted -- we seem to have forgotten to close the freezer) ice cream.  All in all, we were all full at the end.  Thankful for good friends to help me celebrate the holidays I miss most!

quicko: santa claus is coming to town

As of November 1.  Seems to be the unofficial day for Australia to begin Christmas decorating.  Not that it remotely feels like Christmas, but there's ... wildly out-of-place greenery and gaudy ornaments in most shopping centers these days.

happy remembrance/veterans day

Australia (and the Commonwealth at large) celebrated Remembrance Day today at 11 am.  It's observed mainly by standing for 2 minutes of silence and the purchasing of/wearing of poppies.  Oddly enough, previously I'd never known about the 2 minutes of silence ... guess my workplaces for the first 5 years were a bit slack ...

America celebrates Veterans Day (wikipedia and Garry say this is the correct way to go -- no apostrophe.  I'm not convinced, but, well, I'll be edgy this year ...) today, which differs from Remembrance Day in that it commemorates those still alive, whereas our Memorial Day is to remember those who have died.

Remembrance Day differs from the Australian ANZAC Day in that ANZACs are just soldiers from Australia/New Zealand, but Remembrance Day is for those from England and the rest of the Commonwealth, too, thus potentially explaining why ANZAC Day is, from what I gather, really the bigger deal here.  (There's a public holiday for ANZAC Day, always exactly on the day, though just two minutes of silence at work for Remembrance Day.)

photos: melbourne cup day

photos: jack-o-lantern carving

photos: happy halloween

public service announcement: carols under the bridge

Get ready, guys, this year's Carols Under the Bridge service is coming up on Saturday, December 14.  There's jazz around 5 pm followed by awesome carols around 7 pm.  Come on out, bring your friends, put it on your calendar now -- it's always a fantastic time!

quicko: pumpkins!

I was thrilled to see pumpkins on sale today -- real good-sized, appropriately oranged pumpkins!  Australians aren't big into Halloween, but it was fun to find a taste of home in my friendly neighborhood Coles.

quicko: no election day holiday

In Australia, where voting in mandatory, there is no federal holiday for election day.  In America, where it's not, there is.  (The first Tuesday in November.)

quicko: merry christmas in july!!

Including:
--lamb roast
--Christmas crackers
--crumble
--decor
--carols, at the top of various lungs
--"winter"

Not Including:
--presents

happy fourth of july!!

Happy Fourth of July!!

I was scheduled to work, but got let off early at the last minute, leaving me with no time to plan any holiday festivities.  Instead, a few friends came over to play cards.  I decided to be all American and offer them marshmallows.  It turns out Australians hate American marshmallows.  They are slightly more interested in watching them poof up in the microwave (Australian ones don't do that), but still seem to think they're disgusting.  At least I got them to admit that they're different!  (After years of Australians asking how the heck a marshmallow could be different ... they can be!  They don't all come in bags with half of them pink for one thing!)

Anyway, after that Kiril decided to humor me and treated me to the best hand display of "fireworks" I've ... well, ever, seen.  We all joined in for the grand finale, which was ... special ... though, rather lacking in ... actual fireworks.

Maybe next year.

happy mother's day!

Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Mom!

It's one of the few holidays that's the same in both America and Australia ... and one of the many that makes me wish I was home.

photos: fort denison

For years, Glen and I have been talking about going to visit Fort Denison.  I even put it on my "30 Things to Do Before 30" list -- and can finally cross it out.  We very nearly didn't go -- when I learned that, despite it being distinctly closer to the city than Manly (which my MyMulti travelpass would easily get me to for $44/week "free"), it actually costs $20 to visit (on account, evidently, of it being accessible only via tourist boats instead of Sydney transport boats -- unless, of course, you'd like to shell out a couple hundred for a water taxi), I very nearly backed out of our trip entirely.  But because we'd been talking about it so long, we went anyway.  And looked for five minutes (no, really, five minutes) and caught the ferry back.  Gosh, why can I never remember the Latin for "I came, I saw, I conquered"?  All I've got in my head is "cogito ergo sum," but I know that's not right ... and I'm pretty sure it's not "cum tacent clament" either, though that's not a bad blog ... usually ...

On with the photos!

photos: happy easter!!

quicko: life lesson

It seems it is not such a hot idea to rent a car on Easter Saturday without pre-booking.  There won't be any left.  (And even if they were, they wouldn't be able to be returned on Easter Monday because it's also a holiday here and everything's still closed.)

Good thing Manly is only a gorgeous ferry ride away.

quicko: st. patrick's day

I hope you had a fantastic St. Patrick's Day!  There was tremendously little happening in my life this year to indicate the holiday, but I heard there was an abundance of festivity in the city -- and that Scruffy Murphy's in particular was full of nothing but Irish accents.  It seems of the four million Irish -- well, tons and tons are in Sydney, mostly as a result of an unfortunate economic situation there at the moment.  Lots of 20-somethings are seeking their (literal and metaphorical) fortunes abroad -- many in Australia.

quicko: not aware

It just kind of dawned on me for the first time this month that there was no African-American History Month going on in Australia.  Not that I ever really did much for it in America, but I was usually aware of it, with school announcements every day about inventions invented by African-Americans and such.  Not a peep about George Washington Carver and goodness knows how many uses of the peanut here.