Australia Day 2007!
Today is Australia day.
A public holiday entirely for the purpose of sitting back, relaxing, having a cold beer and reflecting on what a brilliant country we are living in.
Unlike St. Patrick's day and St David's day that are days to celebrate being Irish or Welsh, Australia day is celebrated equally by anyone living here, regardless of whatever other nationality they may be or how long they have been here.
On that note off we went at 9am, down to the Stiles Point boat ramp with the Red Dragon in tow. We launched without a hitch and then set out onto the peaceful flat lake. It was slightly overcast and there was a lovely fresh breeze. We pulled up at Anne and Kel's jetty and rang them to come down and join us for breakfast. We had warm croissants with ham and cheese, a flask of coffee and a few white choc and macadamia nut cookies that we had baked while the croissants were warming in the oven.. Heaven!!!
We had brought our "Biscuit" for its first try. This is an inflatable donut with a backrest that you sit in and get dragged behind the speedboat at speed until you scream and beg to be allowed to get off! Anne and Kel had given it to us for Christmas so it was great to be able to let them see the kids reactions to using it for the first time. We had great fun. The kids know the hand signals to be used that tell us if they want to go faster, slower or stop. They need to use hand signals because you can't hear anything being shouted by them as the boat is moving! We were impressed by Gareth who only ever used the "Thumbs up" signal. That one means "Go Faster!"
After dropping Anne and Kel home we stayed on the lake for another couple of hours. We dropped anchor in Secret Bay opposite our new house. We sat and drank more coffee while the kids swam off the back of the boat. It was very exciting to see our house through the trees. We tried to take a photo on Byrons phone. It is a bit fuzzy but you can just see the blue tiled roof of the house (with the help of an arrow that I drew on!)
We came home and had a traditional Australia day barbie. Prawns and sausages washed down with a beer!
Kids are now in bed sleeping fast so Byron and myself are going to sit out on the back deck with a bottle of cold white wine to watch the fireworks through the gum trees....
Life's tough here down under!
