Struth ! It's Australia Day 2012 !

Today, 26th January, is Australia Day, so today's blog will contain a fair bit of the Aussie vernacular....''fair dinkum' (true, real)

Today is the anniversary of the first fleet arriving in Botany Bay in 1788.  Australia Day was first known as 'First Landing Day', followed by 'Foundation Day', 'Anniversary Day' and finally 'Australia Day'. The indigenous population (Aborigines) also know it as 'Invasion Day', which you can't really argue with.

OK, that's the history out of the way ... today is now best known for having a barbie and getting pissed! Even though it is a national holiday today we did notice that the 'garbos' (dustbin men) were still working!  There are also lots of citizenship ceremonies, Aussie of the year awards and honours etc.

We normally go over the city, where normally thousands of other 'dinky di, true blues' converge as there are a multitude of activities going on, but as today it is (yet again) pissing down we decided to go local.

We walked down to Dee Why Beach where they have a council run Aussie Big Breakfast Party.

We passed this house on the way, as you can see the Aussies are a patriotic bunch.

The council supplies the breakfast and drinks, but you can make a donation to a charity...

They also have a stage with bands playing etc...

We don't do queues so we had breakfast at a local cafe, as you can see Elaine loves having her photo taken ...

We just sat down and the heavens opened, it bucketed down for about half an hour (great timing!)

 

This old boy was playing a squeeze box in a cafe and they were singing Happy Birthday to Australia ...

They also had a car and bike show with a variety of different machinery -

 

Ford Capri with a 5.8 Litre Ford Motor! 

1912 Triumph which was ridden there!

Australia,s first car 

The 'old bill' was on display; they were also walking around to make sure no one was on the 'turps'. There was no sign of the 'Ambos' (Ambulance Officers) or 'Firies' (Firefighters) though !

There were a few 'Sheilas' on the beach dressed up as like 'galahs' ...

There was a good turnout even thought the weather was very dodgy, it isn't cold - just wet and very humid!

On the way back home we spotted this 'dinky di, true blue' drive past in his ute (pick up); he wasn't real true blue though as they wouldn't be seen dead in a Toyota, it would have to be a Holden Ute

On the way back we stopped at the 'bottlo' (off license) to buy some 'piss' (beer and wine) - so we can get 'rat-arsed' later (just kidding !)

All joking apart, Australia Day is a fantastic day celebrating Australia and what a great country it is to live in. You would have to try very hard to find to find anyone whinging and moaning about this country; my only whinge is it is very anti dog, and that is mainly in Sydney plus (as I may have mentioned previously) the drivers are worse than Arabs!  Apart from that Aussie Aussie Aussie - Oy Oy Oy !!!

It is also a year ago today that we sat in our pool and after a few beers and champers decided to bring the canal plan forward a couple of years !  We didn't really expect to still be here for another Australia day, but - in the nicest possible way - we hope this will be our last here !  'Stone the flamin' crows' what a year of ups and downs the last year has been - we are ever hopeful of selling the house soon!  There has been a fair amount of interest already and things aren't really back to 'normal' yet after the Xmas Holidays - so it is all promising ! Back to work for a day tomorrow, for some 'hard yacka', then another open for inspection on Saturday ... fingers crossed !  'Avagoodwegend' everyone !