Australia Day

Australia Day this year was celebrated on Tuesday. Depending on your social and political persuasion it is also referred to as Invasion Day or Flag Waving Idiots Day. I actually really like it, although I guess it's important to make a distinction between patriotism and nationalism.

Anyway we found ourselves in Commonwealth Park enjoying a traditional sausage sizzle. The prospect of free sausages brought Canberrans out in droves. I loved one of the official slogans of the Day, which rather than getting tied up in the politics, history and meaning simply read Australia Day - Barbecue like you've never Barbecued before. nice.

Being on a Tuesday Australia also recorded it's highest ever number of sickies on Monday, with over half a million people calling in sick and giving themselves a four day weekend. The Retailers Association labelled them 'un-Australian bums' with no concept of 'mateship' which I found pretty funny (I went into work by the way).

thousands queue for 30 minutes for an early morning free sausage in white bread.

Day Trip to Kiama

On Saturday we took a day trip to the seaside town of Kiama. The town has a famous blow hole, which last time I was there was blowing sprays of water thirty feet or more into the air. Amy hadn't visited the town before, and so I was looking forward to showing her the natural spectacle, so we ventured down to the cliffs to see...a hole, minus any sign of spray.

The lady in the visitor centre told us (and probably thousands of other visitors) that the blowhole was a natural occurance and relied on a South Easterly wind (in other words, I had been lucky last time).

Despite the lack of blow in the hole we spent a really nice day on East Beach which was a really child friendly beach. We found a shady spot by the cliff and enjoyed a picnic before heading home. Here's some pics

self timer (balanced on the rocks) East Beach, KiamaMaking sandcastles
Eli sleeping after his swim with Dad

Casuarina Sands

We took a trip to Casuarina Sands at the weekend. It's only a short drive out of Canberra and it's recently been subject to a big revamp with new toilet blocks, parking and a deck area. It's basically the closest that land-locked Canberra comes to having a beach.

There were lots of swimmers and inflatable dinghies in the water and we had a really nice picnic on the newly laid lawn in the shade. Here's some pictures;

Mount Stromlo Observatory

Both the kids were awake just before 5am this morning. Eli was laughing and smiling (when all we wanted was sleep) and his sister joined his awakedness not long afterwards.

Given the hopelessness of the situation I took the two of them kangaroo spotting at nearby Mount Stromlo which is only a 10 minute drive from our house. The place is noteable as it is the site of the Stromlo Observatory which used to have the largest telescope in the Southern hemisphere (the 4th largest in the World). It is still home of the Australian National University school of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Unfortunately the site was severly damaged by the firestorm that tore through Canberra in 2003 destroying five telescopes on the site and as a result much of the work previously done there has been moved to Siding Spring.

Despite it being so early in the day, there were already a number of cyclists who had impressively conquored the steep incline to the top of the Mount, presumably in order to beat the heat of the sun.

We were lucky enough to spot quite a number of kangaroos much to Audrey and Eli's delight making our quest a success. Eli flaked out in the car on the way home.

Early morning kangaroo spotting on Mount Stromlo

Best friends (most of the time)

I (Amy) couldn't resist taking this photo today. This is the view I get most times when pushing Audrey and Eli around in the double stroller. So lovely!! No wonder I get so many smiles from people as they go past.

On a bicycle made for two!

Braving the heat(!) Amy took Audrey on a quick bike ride round the block.

Eli eating Vegemite on toast this morning

Like his sister, Eli is a big fan of Vegemite. Here he is tucking into some spread on toast this morning.