Happy Australia Day! I am not sure if that's what you say here but today was Australia Day, Australia's July 4th holiday equivalent. In addition to being a national holiday, and a Wednesday off work (there is practically one public holiday a month, which I am not complaining about), it was Australia’s 223rd birthday.
January 26th marks the day that 11 convict ships from England rolled into Sydney Harbour to declare it their land (more detailed history here). Of course the official Australia Day website follows this information by saying, “though 26 January marks this specific event, today Australia Day celebrations reflect contemporary Australia: our diverse society and landscape, our remarkable achievements and our bright future.” Very PC…
It was an extremely hot and humid day, one of the hottest in several years (ranging between 91 to 104 in different parts of greater Sydney), a ‘scorcher’ as they say here. We took a quick 55 minute, air conditioned (felt so good) drive to Palm Beach for our friend Andrew’s surprise birthday party. Palm Beach, not to be confused with Florida’s equivalent, is about 41 kilometers outside of the CBD (Central Business District). It was a nice drive along windy, one-lane beach roads. It often felt like we were driving through the rain forest and then the water would apear.
We stopped for a meat pie (more on meat pies in a later post) along the way, which felt very patriotic. We took a quick mosey around the Palm Beach area before we headed to the party and then sat and gazed across an amazing view of the Palm Beach marina as we sipped on our cocktails (mine being non alcoholic, as I somehow became the designated driver), ate BBQ and chatted with new friends.
We drove back home and made it just in time to see the Darling Harbour fireworks from our patio. Unfortunately, the fireworks were hidden by the city’s buildings, just out of view, but we were able to see the reflections of light in the sky behind the dark shadows of the buildings.
It brought me back to last Fourth of July in New York (fittingly). The view in our NYC apartment faced east but the fireworks were on the west side. It was a similar day, nastily hot and humid. We unanimously decided to choose air-conditioning over fireworks. When they began we could actually see the reflections illuminating the facades of the buildings in the NYC skyline. It was way better then seeing the actual fireworks (see the video below, although it does not do it justice). So while we did not get to see the full extravaganza of Australia Day fireworks, it did bring me back to that great night in NYC with our friends (miss you all). OK, enough with the cheese. Of course, now it's back to work tomorrow even though it feels like it should be Sunday...
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