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!