Australia Day

So January 26th was Australia day (or "'Strahliah Day" as the Australian's call it). Its just like Canada Day - we get a day off from work (however, by "we" I mean people who work in offices or the government - people who work retail, in grocery stores, restaurants, public transportation etc don't get the day off) and people get all patriotic by sticking Australian flags to the windows of their cars and from their balconies. And for some reason, most people who had a flag couldn't stick to just one - they would have a flag flying from each window and the driver and each passenger would have a temporary Australian flag tattoo on each cheek. Anyway, another reason Australia Day is like Canada Day is that most people have no idea what it stands for (and DON'T tell me that Canada Day is "Canada's birthday" - what does that mean anyway? Its not like it was the day the country passed through its mother's vagina, now was it?). I asked around and eventually someone told me it was the day the first settlers arrived in Australia. I decided to be satisfied with that answer because I couldn't be bothered to look it up in Wikipedia. Anyway, the important part was an extra day off work!

Now its a tradition in Australia on Australia day to go to the cockroach races. Yes, that's right. People gather up a bunch of cockroaches and put them in a ring of some sort and see whose cockroach makes it out the ring or across some sort of finish line first. I hear its great fun, but probably mostly so because people also get wasted while watching their cockroaches race. Sadly, I was unable to attend the PwC cockroach race this year because, well, no one wanted to go with me. Jordan maintains that its just an example of how Australians are really just a bunch of hicks who got rich really fast, and now are torn between their redneck habits and having money to spend on useless things.

Another great Australia Day tradition is having a BBQ. Nothing wrong with that - but people really take their patriotism to a new level here. When we went to the store to buy some kangaroo meat (I was determined to do something authentically Australian, since I couldn't go to the cockroach races) for our BBQ, I saw burger patties in the shape of Australia. At first I just cracked up but then realized these Aussies are on to something and have decided when I come back to Canada I'll sell maple leaf shaped burger patties. I expect to make a fortune, because Canadians love anything with a maple leaf on it.

Anyway, all in all I had a very Australian Australia Day. Jordan and I too Kubes to the beach, where I proceeded to get a bad sun burn on a portion of my back that I forgot to put sun screen on, we had fish and chips for lunch and then the aforementioned kangaroo meat on the BBQ for dinner. Jordan loved it and vowed we'll be buying it all the time when we move out because its incredibly cheap - but I wasn't completely sold on it. Its not bad tasting...just weird. Maybe I can't reconcile myself to eating a kangaroo, though I have no problem with eating lamb, which is even cuter than a kangaroo - now why is that? Lamb is not something I was brought up on...so I don't know what my issue is with the roo meat. It would have been the perfect day except that I didn't go to the cockroach races (and because my burn hurt like hell the next day). But its ok - my secondment is till November 2010, so I'll have to make up for it next year.