Australia Day 2014

Our first as a little Aussie family!

But probably the quietest since we've been here.

We went to our local Australia Day ceremony to re-make our pledge, catch up with a few friends and celebrate our new little Australian. And you can't get much more Australian than a gathering under the gumtrees with the Kookaburras laughing throughout!

To celebrate the day, I made BubbaBoo most of a shirt before he arrived (10 days ago) and just fit the side seams in the last few days (the plan was a shirt onsie, but that was way to much for this new mummy).

How fabulous is this fabric for Australia Day:

And how fabulous is this pattern matching for a first attempt, even if it was fudged slightly:

It still ended up a bit big for him, especially around the shoulders, but he is only 10 days old and it was a 0-3m ish pattern. He still looked super cute though (I'm biased)

Now were home and recovering, and planning a little BBQ for three this evening.

And for future reference, the only time BubbaBoo cried was through both verses of the National Anthem.
Where is the national pride?!

Australia Day 2013

Australia Day started early, playing at the local Australia Day Ceremony - a big citizenship ceremony and the  "Local Australian of the Year" awards, with lots of music and fun and games. It is where we hoped we would become Australian last year, but our application was approved too late so we missed out on the fun!

In the afternoon, we had some people around for a BBQ. There is a push to finally do away with the adage "throw another shrimp on the barbie", since we don't call them shrimp and its rare to BBQ prawns anyway! So the suggestion is to "throw another steak on the barbie", which is exactly what we did.

And I made Green and Gold cake with lime icing- the colours of Australian sport, based on the Wattle- our national flower.

I forced my over-enthusiasm onto everyone, even poor Nixon!

In the evening we headed down to the Skyworks, and managed to get much further around the foreshore than previously, so we had a great view!

This year they ran a vote to choose some of the fireworks, so may I introduce Koala Fireworks!:

We recorded some of the fireworks- take a look at how awesome shaped fireworks are!

From around 50s - 1m20s.

We took the obligatory "Australia Day Foreshore" photo to add to the collection:

And had a nice evening walk back home.

Here are some more of the fireworks:

Its a date!

We got a date for our citizenship ceremony!

In fact we got two; they split the group in half alphabetically, and as I didn't change my name after we got married, we were on separate halves of the list and therefore a week apart in ceremony dates.

A quick call to the council and it was all sorted.

By the end of March we'll be AUSTRALIAN!

Australia Day '12

Yesterday was Australia Day.

We were hoping to be making our citizenship pledge, but apparently we didn't get our applications confirmed in time for this round, so instead we will become full citizens in a couple of months.

So once we got over this disappointment, we made the most of both being home together to celebrate for the first time.

We joined the hoards and headed to the beach for the Thong Challenge, like I did last time I was in Perth for Australia Day. I generally freak out in open water, but with so many people in and splashing around with our yellow inflatable Havaianas, I figured the sharks would have a hard time picking me out. Plus, there were at least 4 helicopters flying over, so they would see anything as it approached... And I won't listen to any suggestions to the contrary!

Western Australia came out tops with 2088 people all chained together. Apparently people are more willing to go to the beach when its 42 degrees C than when its cold (and rainy) as it was in much of the rest of Australia! 

The surf life savers were obviously not too happy to be there, as when it was announced that we had enough people in the water to beat the record, the ones at our end started sending people back in. We kept trying to explain that the record attempt hadn't actually begun- we had to wait for the horn and link up etc etc, but he wouldn't listen. Kind of spoilt the occasion, but we stayed out despite his insistence, so managed to be part of the record anyway :)

Once the heat and sun got too much, we headed home, washed the salt and sand off and met up again at a pub close to the city, had some drinks and food then walked down to the foreshore to see the fireworks.

When we got out of the pub, the clouds were looking very ominous... when we got to the foreshore, it started raining a bit, on and off... 

When the fireworks started, the heavens opened and the lightening put on its own show!

I spent the 20 minutes of the show hiding under the trees, freaking out about being under the tree, going out in the rain, getting too wet and going back under the tree again...

We weren't too sure if this was the planned big ending, or if the lightening just made them all go off at once :)

In previous years we've attempted to Drive home, but its only 5km, so we got the train down to the pub (delayed because of the heat... the tracks warp is its over 40 so the trains have to go slow) then walked all the way back. Luckily the rain held off! By the time we got home, the heat and salt and beer and excitement was quite enough for us, and we fell straight asleep.

2008 - I don't think I even knew it was my first Australia Day! I was in Kambalda... I remember a bit of a poster about there being an event at the pub, but I was crazy busy at work and it just wasn't on my radar!

2009 - Australia Day breakfast BBQ in a truck stop on the Newman-Marble Bar road

2010- Dave flew in from work for the fireworks

2011 - I flew in from Work

2012!

Happy Australia Day!

Australia Day

What a great day!

We started off over at Cottelsoe Beach for the Havaiana Thong world record challenge. Sophie and I were there by 7:30 to ensure we could enter, and spent the day at the beach soaking up the atmosphere, and the rays, and generally chilling out :)

Then at lunchtime the real fun began. The record attempt for the longest line of inflatables on the ocean. Sydney had set the record high earlier in the day, with 1262 (up from about 900 last year), but Perth could beat that, right?

Of course!

Despite the population difference, Perth managed to put 1301 people onto the water, thrashing the previous record. And much fun was had in the process :D

Then icecream at the beach for lunch before heading back home for showers, air conditioning, shade, water, and to pick up fresh supplies for the evenings festivities. We headed to the South Perth foreshore to watch the air show. Those tumbling aerobatic planes are scary! I've never watched them before and my heart was in my mouth and I was telling Sophie that "look- that plane- its just falling. OMG sophie, the planes just falling out the sky!"
To which the response was "yes, Thats the point..."
So yeah...

Fireworks!

We chose the worst spot, with a big tree in the exact line of the fireworks, but with a bit of shuffling we got a great view. And will know better for next year. Fireworks have always meant a lot to me, and its been 3 years since I'd seen them. They brought a tear to my eye at one point (how geeky!) but were great! The OH managed to get there in time for them, just: 8 minutes to spare. His plane landed at 7, so not too bad an effort!

nearly Australia Day!

Now, I know I shouldn't get excited about a celebration of the arrival of an invading nation which turned into a genocide, but y'know... Its Australia Day. Maybe they should change the day, but having a national celebration is a great thing. No one in the UK even notices St Georges Day (sometime in April? Maybe the 23rd but potentially not).
I've never been around for one before- the first year I was in Kambalda and while I seem to remember there was a bit of an Australiana quiz at the wet mess but otherwise all was quiet. I seem to remember I spent the day in the core shed learning how to pronounce 'Strayla the most ocker way possible.

Then last year was the big road trip to learn escape routes out of the southern half of our tenements (we're closer to Newman than the mine down there, so if anything were to go wrong we would be better to head there than home, but only as long as we don't get lost). We got to the southern road and set up camp, then the dust storm came through. Very cool. Then another came through, starting to wonder...

Then the heavens opened:

It put the fire out and the ground was flooding. We knew we had to bolt before it got too bad, or we could have been trapped there for a couple of days due to the rivers and poor road conditions. We got to Newman (2 hours ish drive from there, especially in those conditions) and cooked our camp food on the BBQs in the caravan park then had to head out again because there was no room in town. Anywhere. Gotta love Newman for that. So we ended up in a truckstop just as the sealed road stops, hoping that they wouldn't close the road first thing in the morning and that we'd make it back.
It was my first night in a swag. It rained all night, though not as hard as it started out. And I was terrified that a road train would pull in and somehow run us over, though we were way away from where that could happen.
We got up at first light, freezing cold from sleeping in wet leaky swags, cooked up bacon and egg sangas and wished each other a happy Australia Day.

Then the massive drive back home. We tried to stop off in a small town on the way, but nothing was open because it was holiday, so not even any ice coffee or cola to keep us alive. Definitely different, and very Australian, but not really what I had in mind.

This year, my friend and I have decided to do the Haviana Thong Challenge. Should be interesting :)

Packing a picnic and spending the day at the beach, then heading into town for the Skyworks. I have lots of dodgy Australia clothing and bits and bobs, and intend to look like the worst back packer out there. But at least if anyone from immigration happens to be watching, they'll see me showing my love for this beautiful country :)

So Excited!!