Australia Day

No idea who the bloke in this picture is or what was on his mind, but he makes a nice shot for Australia Day, January 26th. A day when Australia celebrates the arrival of the whitey and therefore, as everyone now knows, when Australia became a real place. The day it became a penal colony. I think the celebration has moved on a bit since then, but the date is right and the day off dates back to the early days of the residence of us imperial overlords. A day off of work is not to be sniffed at and with nothing planned Sally, Mara, Maureen and Mike and I headed over to the Rocks to see what was going on. And there was quite a lot happening. Bands and buskers, ferry races, surf board paddles, the HMAS Gascoyne minesweeper was frolicking in the Harbour and a nutter military jet was frolicking in the air; very impressive that was too. We had to watch for it because at the speed it was whipping around it was gone by the time we heard it. Very cool.

But despite all the people and the boats and the flags and the stuff I did not feel any great sense of meaning. Certainly nothing personally - hardly surprising as the English celebrated the day by being even more shit at cricket than I thought possible. But I sensed no real reason for the day, more a sense of hanging around with loads of other people who were just hanging around because they had nothing better to do. Still on the wagon I did sneak a beer at the Lowenbrau beer house on the rocks - a Lowenbrau Alkohol Frei that I am told tasted just like the normal lager. So this Englishman ate Schweinshaxn in a German(style) beer hall with stein of alcohol free beer beer on Australia Day. C'est la vie, and I am looking forward to another day off work for no good reason in 2008.

And I may be working full time as opposed to contract as on Friday I got a job offer that may see me bail out of of my current excrucuiatingly dull contract a month and a bit early. They want me to start asap so they don't have to wait until after I return from London and it's marathon, the fligt now booked and now no turning back. The deep joy of paying for a flight to London to run a race I should have run last year when I was living a bus ride from the start. Ho-hum, it is my home town race and I will not not run it.

Other running news is that I posted another personal best on Thursday's Tec Trot. But better was to follow when one of my competitors Slatered me. I reckon we all have a celebrity double, and mine is Robbie Slater, journeyman footballer and sort of Australian. I should make it clear that I do not award myself Slater, rather the comparison has been made several times of me or to me and therefore it must have some validity. For what it is worth my brother has James Hetfield of Metalica, The Doc from Kiln has Heather Smalls and Simon, still holding on at Kiln, has the voice of the Churchill Insurance dog. From the adverts. JCJ has a bit of Ade Edmondson and I am now as bored with this as you, dear reader, probably are.