Australia Day!

Australia day is Jan 26th! This year Australia day landed on a Tuesday and so everyone took a "sickie" the day before to get a 4 day weekend. There were so many people who didn't show up for work that Monday, the newspapers covered it as some kind of controversial subject. The biggest debate I saw was that the government leaders were calling those people un-Australian, and their rebuttal was "you mean un-American"...which I of course thought was funny as an American. Another thing that made me laugh was a poll asking people before hand if they planned on pulling a "sickie" or not. The poll showed about 40% planned on taking a sick day and another 20% planned on being legitimately sick, brilliant!

Sadly, public holiday and all, Stan was down in Melbourne Monday and could not fly back to Sydney to celebrate with us on Tuesday as he had to be back in Melbourne on Wednesday. So we celebrated separately. Stan took a long run through the city that morning and got to see all the festivities and parades and market stands. He also got to see the Melbourne fire works (which are supposed to be good). I took the kids to Putney park and then to McDonald's. I was laughing to myself because I was pretty much the only person at McDonald's (it must be un-Austalian to eat there on Australia day). Usually on Australia day you go to the beach and then have a bbq. You are supposed to eat pavlova for dessert and then watch fireworks (which go off in Darling harbor, a 20 minute ferry ride from our house). I went to the park thinking it wouldn't be as crowded as the beach (and I was right) but it was still really crowded. I just didn't think I could manage three little kids alone with a lot of excited teenagers and random drunk people on the beach. Also, if you go to the beach you MUST be in an Australian cossy (swim costume) which is usually either a speedo with the Aussie flag on it, or a bikini also with the Australian colors. Our neighbor was nice enough to put a minimum of three Aussie tattoos on each of my kids. We skipped the fireworks and went to bed early. After being lame on New Years AND now Australia day I have some serious plans for next year...its called a babysitter!

Welcome 2010

This year for New Years Eve we went to a friends house who lives on the water overlooking the Harbor Bridge. We made it to 9:00pm with the three kids when the first set of "family" fire works were set off. After the show we went home! We fell asleep at 11:20 (boooo) and missed the biggest, best, most amazing fireworks display in the history of Australia (just ask the newspapers). Apparently, 1.5 MILLION people were in the heart of Sydney for the display. It was about 20 minutes long and was Australia's first microchip display of fireworks (whatever that means) and it cost a little over 1 million dollars. Six firework locations were used around the harbor and they all synchronized their shows to complement each other since they all went off at the same time.

To make up for our party pooperness we woke up in the morning and watched it on Utube so I guess that makes it OK! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmK2SkwtQ_k

Next year I want to rent a boat and watch everything on the water...serious, how cool would that be?!!?

We kept Thomas in his stroller (or pram as they would call it out here) the whole time since they were just a few meters from the water with no gate! He hated it!

Mary ready for the 9:00 fireworks display...Thomas FREAKED out this year!

The girls and their popsicles (I mean "ice blocks") it is HOT here during New Years b/c we are in the middle of the summer here.

Sparklers!

And next time we will bring a tripod...or just get pix off the Internet!