Celebrating heritage and being patriotic is something that we don’t really do very well in England. I know that the Scots celebrate Burns Night, and the Welsh have St. David’s Day, and the Irish (everyone helps them out as well) have St. Patricks Day, and technically as English people we can celebrate St. Georges Day, but they aren’t national holidays.The Americans celebrate the day we let them make a hash of it on their own (July 4th) and here in Australia they celebrate the date that Captain Phillip (Captain of the first fleet of Prison Ships) founded the colony of New South Wales (actually he arrived in the Sidney Cove a week earlier than they celebrate it, but no one can come up with a decent reason they have delayed the celebration.)
Anyway that said, today was the 26th and that makes it a public holiday. One of the guys from the course (Pete) had invited everyone around to his house, which he had just rented, and was getting it ready for his family which are coming out in March from the U.K. It was a very new house, and really quite
nice.As there were a few South African people of the course, I thought it would be nice to make them feel at home, and went to a South African Deli nearby my house. I bought a couple of things, of which the highlight would be Curried Chillies. They did go down a treat.
Anyway other new housemate arrived in the early afternoon. (I didn’t hear if we had an encore concert from David Hasslehoff this morning, although Hagen wasn’t home when I got up). He was just unloading his truck, before going to the Australia Day celebrations near the city. Now we have a full house, and the other two work 6 days a week, so I feel like I’ve still got a house to myself.
Deon and Madelyn gave me a lift to Pete’s house, where the BBQ was hot, and there where loads of cold drinks. We munched are way through loads of food, washed down with a lot of drinks, and had a lot of laughing and joking. It was be strange not seeing everyone every day, as we have been evenly divided around 4 different shifts, in a lot of different shifts.
When I got home, I watched coverage of the fireworks from the foreshore downtown. The facts are just staggering. Western Australia is the size of Western Europe, but with a population of about 2 million people. The news reports were saying that at least 500,000 people were watching the fireworks from the foreshore of the Swan River, and the surrounding parks. It is hard to picture a ¼ of the population of Europe all a couple small parks.
We do need to celebrate Australia Day and 4th of July in England, as the days when we made the world a better place (Dropping off of a load of convicts on an island half way around the world, and letting the Americans become the sole owners of the “Most Hated Nation” in the world status.) I wonder what the Aussies will do when I hoist my Cross of St. George on St. George’s Day
2 comments:
Dave all your pictures of food is killing me. Especially the sausages. I don't know why we are not getting any thinner on the diet of rice and veg we eat. something must be wrong. Well enjoy your first week at work. What will you do with your days off.
Obviously I do eat salad, but it isn't as photogenic. I haven't decided about days off yet. Maybe I'll go for a cycle ride, or something like that.
Sausage was a South African Delicacy called Bourowurst. It is very tasty.
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