AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE... Australia Day

SETTING THE SCENE: so i woke up on australia day to -2 degrees, cycled to work with aching throbbing joints, the frozen snow-covered canals illuminated in the morning darkness... all the aussies at work were proudly bouncing round the school in a corny collection of Australian ties and socks...
I tried in vain to explain to our children the 'meaning of australia day' as part of our 'international understanding' of different cultures and their celebrations. sun, bbq's, beer and the countdown? does it go any deeper than this? let me know if you have any thoughts on this...
(by the way we also have lunch days celebrating food from each country - Australia was the other day, and it was, well, confusing to say the least. granted, there were chocolate crackles, anzacs and vegemite, but what else is there? can you honestly tell me you feel a great Australian affiliation to grapes, spinach pie or asparagus and red pesto sandwiches?)


Deja vu? I think you've seen a similar pose in a similar place before... but perhaps not with such patriotic spirit.


Coco's Outback bar, our regular weekend dwelling... sort of like the Amsterdam version of the 'Walkabout' Aussie bars in the UK. It was a pretty happening party, unfortunately the number of Aussies were challenged by the number of dutch and english... so the most common pick up line was 'Hey! Are you actually from Australia??' yeahcool.


All the bar guys know us now... they're pretty cool guys. It's a very international place... this is Fraiser the Scottish guy and Ferdie from South Africa


Ummm... forget the left guy but Jamie's from Seville.


Okay notice that it is a glass of WATER i am holding... I was NOT that bad, it was just a bad moment (and Alicia has this great tactic of 'looking after' the camera when we go out so she's always on the safe side of it).


3 am... dinner time at the falafel bar.