Australia Day

Happy Australia Day, everyone! Jen and I arrived back in Melbourne on Friday evening, with just enough time to spare to buy some groceries, order pizza, and drop our books off at the library so they wouldn't be overdue. We spent most of today with the laundry, the email, and all that other catching-up stuff. Wow did it feel good to be home.

When I was planning and booking our big WA trip, I hadn't at all paid attention to the fact that January 26th is Australia Day - and we were far too tired to go out and enjoy all of the festivities which went on all over Melbourne, all day long. However, we did end the day with style. All our housemates (and Irene and Ben, who'd come in from Tasmania for the weekend) got together for an impromptu barbecue, using whatever food we had on hand. Then most of us headed downtown to watch the fireworks over the Yarra River. They were pretty good... we especially liked how they shot half the fireworks off the tallest building in town. But the show was only 10 minutes long and left us feeling a little short-changed.

The crowd downtown was nothing like what I've experienced in Ottawa for Canada Day in the past. The whole atmosphere was much more laid back and relaxed than I seem to remember from home, even though there was just as much revelry and undercover drinking going on. The crowd was also pretty spread out and at no time did I feel like we were going to be crushed under the weight of all the people (unlike a few Canada Day experiences I'd rather just forget!). Also, once the fireworks were over, a good chunk of the crowd didn't simply head home - like us, many folks chose to wander up and down the banks of the Yarra River, where there are lots of good bars and night spots, and also lots of buskers. We watched one enterprising young man named "Dakota Jones" (yep, a complete take-off of Indiana Jones) balance on top of a pole and brandish a fire whip. Cool! We stopped at a bar for a drink (courtesy of our housemate Olivier), and then headed for home ourselves.

I spent a good portion of the day uploading all my pics from our WA trip to facebook, but of course I still have a ton of stories to tell you from that trip. However, they will have to wait 'till tomorrow, 'cause I'm going to bed!