Many famous historian has debated over the times when Australia and NZ we're part of the African continent and eventually broke away to form a new land mass. This viral video gives you an idea (from a NZ perspective) of what happened next (or rather over millions of years).
www.aust.keanewzealand.com
Cheers
Tim
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Australia day in Sydney
Not being Australian I've never really thought too much about what the Australia Day celebrations are about. We have Waitangi Day in NZ to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, a treaty between Maori and British people to essentially make NZ part of the British Empire but Australia Day is slightly different and perhaps even more controversial.
Despite the controversy surrounding Australia Day where many believe it's more a celebration of the destruction of Indigenous culture by British colonialism it's a day off work and Sydney puts on a number of events in and around the city.
Mel and I spent the day with friends Ian and Jane, we decided to take it pretty easy and not try to plan things too much. I cooked up some bacon and egg pie, made a salad and took a chilly bin (esky, cool-box etc) with some beers. We jumped on a ferry from Balmain East to Circular Quay and had the opportunity to see some of the 'dressed up' ferries that has previously raced in the harbour. The most unusual one being a ferry with a huge yellow duck on top of it!
The city was alive and after a walk through The Rocks we found a spot under the bridge up on the grass bank where we chilled out, had some food and beers and waited for the tall ships to finish their race from further up the north shore. We had a couple of games of Boules (Pétanque) and a game of Grass (the card game) too.
Darling Harbour was our next intended destination, having run out of beers Ian and I we're keen to stop somewhere on the way for a quick pint. Strangely enough we ended up in the Captain Cook which is one the local pubs I go to from my office in Millers Point. It was relatively quiet compared to other pubs in the area (it's not as trendy and generally full of a considerably older crowd) but quickly became much busier when the heavy rain came down. Our intended one quick pint turned into quite a few more (well it was raining pretty hard outside).
The rain was not going away in a hurry so having consumed more than enough beer for one day we all grabbed a taxi and headed back to Balmain. The rain really did spoil the day a bit and the fireworks display in Darling Harbour later in the evening must have been a lot quieter than if the weather was fine.
All in all we had a fun day but I do question whether it should be such a celebrative day given the sensitive controversy surrounding it. I know all too well from NZ that we often celebrate things we really don't fully understand and treat it more as 'just an extra day off work' than for it's true meaning!
Cheers
Tim
Despite the controversy surrounding Australia Day where many believe it's more a celebration of the destruction of Indigenous culture by British colonialism it's a day off work and Sydney puts on a number of events in and around the city.
Mel and I spent the day with friends Ian and Jane, we decided to take it pretty easy and not try to plan things too much. I cooked up some bacon and egg pie, made a salad and took a chilly bin (esky, cool-box etc) with some beers. We jumped on a ferry from Balmain East to Circular Quay and had the opportunity to see some of the 'dressed up' ferries that has previously raced in the harbour. The most unusual one being a ferry with a huge yellow duck on top of it!
The city was alive and after a walk through The Rocks we found a spot under the bridge up on the grass bank where we chilled out, had some food and beers and waited for the tall ships to finish their race from further up the north shore. We had a couple of games of Boules (Pétanque) and a game of Grass (the card game) too.
Darling Harbour was our next intended destination, having run out of beers Ian and I we're keen to stop somewhere on the way for a quick pint. Strangely enough we ended up in the Captain Cook which is one the local pubs I go to from my office in Millers Point. It was relatively quiet compared to other pubs in the area (it's not as trendy and generally full of a considerably older crowd) but quickly became much busier when the heavy rain came down. Our intended one quick pint turned into quite a few more (well it was raining pretty hard outside).
The rain was not going away in a hurry so having consumed more than enough beer for one day we all grabbed a taxi and headed back to Balmain. The rain really did spoil the day a bit and the fireworks display in Darling Harbour later in the evening must have been a lot quieter than if the weather was fine.
All in all we had a fun day but I do question whether it should be such a celebrative day given the sensitive controversy surrounding it. I know all too well from NZ that we often celebrate things we really don't fully understand and treat it more as 'just an extra day off work' than for it's true meaning!
Cheers
Tim
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