Happy Australia Day.

January the 26th is Australia day, so happy Australia day to you all!

Australia day is generally a day of celebrations for Australians to celebrate all that is great about Australia. It's also a good excuse to have a day off work, BBQ and few beers too.

One of the main events in Sydney on Australia day is the ferry race. It's about an hour race around the harbour by four of Sydney's ferries. Here you can see the very end of the race and four decked out ferries in the middle of the photo. One is just behind the military frigate, which marks the end point of the race just under the Harbour Bridge.

It was quite good fun to watch the race but it wasn't the sort of race that you would normally get, as there isn't any commentary or cheering on for one of the ferries to win really. They don't even really race the ferries either as a few years ago one of them sunk when they did used to really race them. Still it was fun watch and quite entertaining to see all the other boats around the ferries as well. The boat sponsored by Aami won the race but only just, apparently that boat has won the race in the last four years or so even though it's the oldest one in the race. There were also competitions for the best dressed boat and other races by tall ships in the harbour.

Here you can see Allen, Emily and Deirdre who were with me on the Harbour Bridge to watch the race.

There are also plenty of other events on throughout the day. They are mainly family orientated events but there was a fair bit to do for us too. We went to Hyde Park after watching the ferry racing to have some lunch. Like the noodles in the park last year they have a range of stalls mainly selling BBQ food but also a big range of Indian, Japanese and Thai food too.

On the Opera House front there were several big screens showing the Australian Open, as well as the cricket. Unfortunately for England they suffered one of their worst defeats in one day cricket against Australia today. I even had someone have a laugh at me for having an English accent but all in good nature.

There was also a fly over by F-18 jet fighters in formation and a rescue display by the coast guard helicopter. Here you can see the helicopter that they use to rescue people. It really did come very close to everyone sitting on the harbour front. Doing several loops around the harbour and stopping at some points to drop their lobster pot cage and pick it up again.

We spent some of the afternoon sitting in the opera house bar drinking beer in air-conditioned comfort while watching the world walk by. It was yet another bloody hot day here today.

In the afternoon we went to the Rocks to see some live music. There was a band called Angus and Julia Stone playing that Allen had heard of. They were quite good despite a nervous start. Julia looked and was quite obviously very
nervous but gained confidence as they played more tracks.

In the evening there were some events and fireworks in Darling Harbour so we went down there. It was very crowded but we still managed to get a good view despite the number of people. There were some spectacular fireworks right in the harbour which looked even better because we were only a few yards away from them. I would say that they looked much better than the New Year fireworks because they were so close.

Then just as the fireworks ended there was a F-111 bomber fly over which was really amazing. It was quite dark and you could just make out the plane and see it buring fuel out the back in a big flame. It flew very close right over my head which made and incredible noise and sight.

To give you an idea here's a libary image of an F-111 doing a dump and burn.

I'm all for Australia day and will be celebrating it every year on the 26th January.

Something else that happened last Thursday which was quite good. Allen and I were having a drink in the local pub after work when a film crew turned up from SBS TV station. They said they were filming a documentary on immigrants getting citizenship in Australia and did we mind if they filmed on our table and had us in the background. They sat four people next to us who talked about citizenship as one of them had just come from America and successfully applied for citizenship in Australia. Allen and I were just trying not to do anything silly like trip over or spill drink when drinking. The program should be shown in a few weeks time on SBS TV, so we're looking forward to seeing us on the telly soon!