Australia Day, I think we have found, seems to be an inimitable mix of bonhomie, tackiness, good-will and thuggery. Plus it was very, very, VERY hot today so all in all a heady mix. Heading off to the 'foreshore' today (the harbour area) pretty much as soon as possible, we were none too early turning up at quarter to ten - the first cross-harbour race was already finishing.
Now, I found this whole event pretty impressive: at a rough guess at least 100 people plunged into the harbour and swam across it - that's the 700 meter race, and then minutes after the first lot got clear of the water the second lot plunged in, and swam across and back again - that's the 1,400 meter race. With typical Australian directness they all have their race numbers etched onto their shoulders in indelible ink. At least I assume it was, certainly looked like it. Now, can you imagine trying to hold something like that in the UK?? Never mind the cold factor - discount that. I'd imagine 50% of them would sink like stones within five minutes, the other half gently wafting across the harbour for the next three weeks or more, waiting to be scooped up with shrimping nets. This lot bolted across like you've never seen before, fair took my breath away. As we came up to the event they were calling out the names of the finishers, and someone was having trouble with a name reading it out over the tannoid, and the mum with two children walking up in front of us explained to her daughter - 'That's Granny finishing now, she's just coming in - they couldn't manage to say Woslowskovich' (or whatever the Polish-sounding name was). Apparently the record for the 1,400 meter is 14 minutes - that's 100 meters per minute, including tide-drift factor, waves, and sustained over that distance. No joke. These guys can definitely swim.
The whole harbour area was entirely given over to various activities, and there was a patch that was doing kiddie-activities pretty much non-stop. The Non did the Australian Animal Mask making (chose a cockatoo, turned out quite nicely actually), and then a kite. She could have also made a recycled material boat, and floated it in a competition, and had we stayed until the 4pm kite flying competition she could have flown her kite in it, but we headed off home before that. The heat was making us all go a bit floppy and funny, despite all our efforts at suncream, hats, staying in cool spots, drinking water, you name it. She rode in some bumper car equivalent that were actually mini-motorised boats in a large pool, which was all fine and dandy for a little while but then she started to just wiggle the steering wheel madly and ended up gyrating in tight circles, with cries of 'I'm getting dizzy!!' but wouldn't respond to any of the instructions to 'TURN THE WHEEL TO THE LEFT A LITTLE!' so was quite happy to be pulled out onto dry land.
It being Australia day, we tried some 'traditional' foods at the stalls. One of the favourite things here are (yes) Meat Pies. These are not any meat pies like you or I know them. They appear to have so rather underdone and paper-thin pastry on the outside, barely holding in a mass of pressure-cooked meat in a sauce that is so thick with cornflour that I fear I shall probably not visit the toilet again in a serious capacity for at least the next week. As an experience, it was worth having, merely to know what they're on about. Having now experienced it, I believe that will suffice me for the remainder of my days. I can now nod sagely when a Meat Pie is mentioned, understand what's being said, and pass on with as little comment as decently possible. We also tried Lammingtons, a traditional Australian cake. This is somewhat like devil's food cake sponge encased in a thin coating of chocolate-like substance and then rolled in desiccated coconut. Well, it wasn't unpleasant, that's for sure. I can think of worse things. I can also think of more exciting things - perhaps mashed potato, or toast with some half-decent marmalade on it, but pleasant nonetheless. Again, we can now nod sagely.
Scattered about, there were fire-jugglers, various stall and entertainment rides (there was a whole major section down the other end that we just didn't go to, we could see the fairground rides whirring away over there and just didn't bother). As our energy levels ran down to almost zero, we thought it would be a good thing to go and take the free harbour tour that was being offered on a ship - relaxing in comfort and not moving seemed rather attractive. However, there were so many people there that firstly the boat looked more packed than an illegal immigrant ship, and secondly even at that we just didn't manage to get on. So we decided to call it a day and went home. On the way we stopped off to top up our dwindling alcohol reserves and left the car parked outside for perhaps a total of 20 minutes. When we got back we found that some oaf had seen fit to punch it at roughly shoulder-height (you could see exactly where the fist mark was) as a gesture of Australia-Day jollity. Well it's not a big deal and hopefully when it goes in for it's first service they can just magnet-suck it back out again, but really. What the fuck. Just one of those things that really gets one's goat.
Back home, we sat down and drank copious quantities of juice. Just so hot and sticky. (That refers to us by the way not the juice). Then a little work all round, and at about 5:30 we went down to the beach. By then actually it was chilly enough for me in just a swimsuit, and when Ian cast off his T shirt to go swimming with the Non I appropriated it with gratitude, and promptly fell entirely asleep on the beach. They almost had to shake me awake to get at the towels when they got back probably about 45 minutes later - I have no recollection of the intervening time. The heat evidently really takes it out of one.
Anyway so there we are. Back to work tomorrow. Mind you I still won't have a computer at home during the day, and I don't know how long I'll last tonight to do anything so I'm not sure that 'work' will entail anything much more than just education and childcare as far as I'm concerned. Haven't got any further at all with school hunting, it's all almost stopped since Ian's needed the laptop at work but hopefully we'll get another laptop in a few days, I guess it's not far away. Anyway, lots of love to you all, and many thanks again to the Pie for her exhaustive efforts at mitigating my terrible room-decor taste and saving the Littles (more anon, Pie), Nancy xxx
Now, I found this whole event pretty impressive: at a rough guess at least 100 people plunged into the harbour and swam across it - that's the 700 meter race, and then minutes after the first lot got clear of the water the second lot plunged in, and swam across and back again - that's the 1,400 meter race. With typical Australian directness they all have their race numbers etched onto their shoulders in indelible ink. At least I assume it was, certainly looked like it. Now, can you imagine trying to hold something like that in the UK?? Never mind the cold factor - discount that. I'd imagine 50% of them would sink like stones within five minutes, the other half gently wafting across the harbour for the next three weeks or more, waiting to be scooped up with shrimping nets. This lot bolted across like you've never seen before, fair took my breath away. As we came up to the event they were calling out the names of the finishers, and someone was having trouble with a name reading it out over the tannoid, and the mum with two children walking up in front of us explained to her daughter - 'That's Granny finishing now, she's just coming in - they couldn't manage to say Woslowskovich' (or whatever the Polish-sounding name was). Apparently the record for the 1,400 meter is 14 minutes - that's 100 meters per minute, including tide-drift factor, waves, and sustained over that distance. No joke. These guys can definitely swim.
The whole harbour area was entirely given over to various activities, and there was a patch that was doing kiddie-activities pretty much non-stop. The Non did the Australian Animal Mask making (chose a cockatoo, turned out quite nicely actually), and then a kite. She could have also made a recycled material boat, and floated it in a competition, and had we stayed until the 4pm kite flying competition she could have flown her kite in it, but we headed off home before that. The heat was making us all go a bit floppy and funny, despite all our efforts at suncream, hats, staying in cool spots, drinking water, you name it. She rode in some bumper car equivalent that were actually mini-motorised boats in a large pool, which was all fine and dandy for a little while but then she started to just wiggle the steering wheel madly and ended up gyrating in tight circles, with cries of 'I'm getting dizzy!!' but wouldn't respond to any of the instructions to 'TURN THE WHEEL TO THE LEFT A LITTLE!' so was quite happy to be pulled out onto dry land.
It being Australia day, we tried some 'traditional' foods at the stalls. One of the favourite things here are (yes) Meat Pies. These are not any meat pies like you or I know them. They appear to have so rather underdone and paper-thin pastry on the outside, barely holding in a mass of pressure-cooked meat in a sauce that is so thick with cornflour that I fear I shall probably not visit the toilet again in a serious capacity for at least the next week. As an experience, it was worth having, merely to know what they're on about. Having now experienced it, I believe that will suffice me for the remainder of my days. I can now nod sagely when a Meat Pie is mentioned, understand what's being said, and pass on with as little comment as decently possible. We also tried Lammingtons, a traditional Australian cake. This is somewhat like devil's food cake sponge encased in a thin coating of chocolate-like substance and then rolled in desiccated coconut. Well, it wasn't unpleasant, that's for sure. I can think of worse things. I can also think of more exciting things - perhaps mashed potato, or toast with some half-decent marmalade on it, but pleasant nonetheless. Again, we can now nod sagely.
Scattered about, there were fire-jugglers, various stall and entertainment rides (there was a whole major section down the other end that we just didn't go to, we could see the fairground rides whirring away over there and just didn't bother). As our energy levels ran down to almost zero, we thought it would be a good thing to go and take the free harbour tour that was being offered on a ship - relaxing in comfort and not moving seemed rather attractive. However, there were so many people there that firstly the boat looked more packed than an illegal immigrant ship, and secondly even at that we just didn't manage to get on. So we decided to call it a day and went home. On the way we stopped off to top up our dwindling alcohol reserves and left the car parked outside for perhaps a total of 20 minutes. When we got back we found that some oaf had seen fit to punch it at roughly shoulder-height (you could see exactly where the fist mark was) as a gesture of Australia-Day jollity. Well it's not a big deal and hopefully when it goes in for it's first service they can just magnet-suck it back out again, but really. What the fuck. Just one of those things that really gets one's goat.
Back home, we sat down and drank copious quantities of juice. Just so hot and sticky. (That refers to us by the way not the juice). Then a little work all round, and at about 5:30 we went down to the beach. By then actually it was chilly enough for me in just a swimsuit, and when Ian cast off his T shirt to go swimming with the Non I appropriated it with gratitude, and promptly fell entirely asleep on the beach. They almost had to shake me awake to get at the towels when they got back probably about 45 minutes later - I have no recollection of the intervening time. The heat evidently really takes it out of one.
Anyway so there we are. Back to work tomorrow. Mind you I still won't have a computer at home during the day, and I don't know how long I'll last tonight to do anything so I'm not sure that 'work' will entail anything much more than just education and childcare as far as I'm concerned. Haven't got any further at all with school hunting, it's all almost stopped since Ian's needed the laptop at work but hopefully we'll get another laptop in a few days, I guess it's not far away. Anyway, lots of love to you all, and many thanks again to the Pie for her exhaustive efforts at mitigating my terrible room-decor taste and saving the Littles (more anon, Pie), Nancy xxx
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