Friday – Anzac Day Dawn Service

I've been in the apartment for a week now. It is fabulous. I may put some photos of it soon. You'll be amazed how big it is. I constantly get lost in it, with the kitchen/dining room/living room all in one area. I'll tell you more of that later.

On April 25^th 1915, 50,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers waded ashore at a small cove on a peninsula in Turkey, as a place called Gallipoli. The beach was surrounded by very steep dunes, and at the top of it was a large collection of Turkish soldiers. The soldiers were there for about 5-6 months; and an awful lot of them were killed during that time. That is where the Aussie Digger legend came into being.

Every April 25^th there is a national holiday (another one, I know, there hasn't been one for a month, so we need another one) to take time to reflect and remember what the soldiers did – at Gallipoli, and in other wars. The Australians celebrate their remembrance day with dawn services. This day is called Anzac Day (Australian New Zealand Army Corp).

I thought that I would go along to a dawn service and see what it was all about. I went to the Western Australian War Memorial in King's Park for the dawn service. I was joined by (according to the radio) 40,000 others. It was a very respectful service, and very impressive to watch the sunrise, while listening to bagpipes, and a drum tattoo. The service was finished off with a lone bugler playing the Last Post. I was glad I went.

After that I trundled off to work. I was doing to overtime, and it was down in Rockingham, which is about 60 km. away from where I live. I thought that I was supposed to be working from 10 am until 9 pm, but when I arrived, I'd been told the wrong time, and work was from 8 am until 7 pm. As it wasn't my fault, I get to claim for work until 9 – if you can call it work. We didn't do anything until 5:30 pm, and that was just a simple hospital admission. I almost feel bad getting paid $50 (about £25) an hour to sit around all day.

Almost but not quite, and I need the money anyway. 1 overtime shift a week will easily pay the rent for the mansion I am living in at present, and so I'll not have to use my salary!!!