ostraya day

for the non-australian 'mongst you, today was australia day. national holiday to celebrate... y'know. like, straya (which is how our country is pronounced in our oddly lazy accent).
it's also the day that the publically funded national youth radio counts down the listener-voted hottest 100 songs of the last year. so for many young-uns, australia day = hottest 100 day.

and what did we do?
this, of course:

a bbq was so patently obvious that people turned up with packs of meat without even knowing whether we owned a bbq.
look, we did throw prawns on the barbie! For me, who does not eat the piggy-animal (pork chops, and pork sausages, i think, for others). the pot has potato salad with chilli mayo in it. and there was other bread, too. solid, basic barbie food.


today was the hottest day this summer by far. 41C! 106F! so what these photos don't show is the afternoon we spent laid out like lizards, with sweat-sheens, listening to the radio and drinking revolting quantities of beer.
then after our guests left, badly coloured boy and i drove across down to the nicest beach we know. we went swimming in the gloaming with quite a lot of other people still down at the beach. the water was the clearest i have ever seen it. it was clear like a swimming pool. BCB couldn't swim up and grab my ankles because i could see him every time.
driving home at night we saw the fireworks put on over the river next to the city, through gaps in the trees. and now i am eating toast for dinner. quite a lovely day.