Today is Australia Day, a public holiday downunder and a day off work. I'm a recent citizen, yet already Australia Day means as much to me as it does to the vast majority of dinky-di, true-blue Aussies. It's a day off work. It's a celebration of modern Australia, a day when new Australians are welcomed in Citizenship ceremonies, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 raising of the British Flag in Australia (when the First Fleet arrived) and this year it is the day our Prime Minister made Prince Philip a Knight.
It's complicated.
With boring predictability I got up and went for a run. Sal wanted to take Rowlf for a walk and is not a fan of the early start so I went early, setting off pre-dawn, at about 05:30. It was cool with some drizzle and still sticky. The bin-men - "garboes" in the local patois - were busy dealing with the mountains of bottles left after Sunday's scorcher. Bins overflowing, but a least most of the trash was in the vicinity of the bins. If the weather cleared up they'd have an even bigger mountain waiting tomorrow.
It was a standard beach run. I don't like the get-up-and-go run and it showed. I huffed and puffed and it was a slow start to the day. But I got it out of the way, got home, Sal took Rowlf for a walk and I took the kids out for breakfast and to do a little bit of shopping.
We had friends over for brunch, their kids and our kids went a bit mental, we ate and chatted, they left, we tidied up, Sal and the kids chilled and I decided to head out for run #2. The temperature was an arctic 19.4 degrees (I jest.) It wasn't raining as such but it was a bit more than drizzle. I toyed with the idea of heading up to North Head and punching out 19 or 20km, but decided it was smarter to stick to the script and do my beach loop. I grabbed last night's DVD (Fury, staring Brad Pitt. Quite good.) I dropped the DVD off, adding an ever-so-slight variation to the standard run.
My pace was far better this afternoon and I went through 10k in about 48min in the better conditions. he weather was a bit crap for people celebrating Australia Day with the beach far less of an option. I think the garboes will be happy with the reduced crowds, and it made it an easier run for me with less ducking and weaving between drunkards. As I got to Queenscliff I passed a guy who was the image of the actor Chris Evans. Pretty sure it was not him, but the guy was solid. Just off the beach there were some decent waves being ridden...and I'm struggling to come up with much more to say.
So I'll wrap it up. Didn't take the opportunity to add a few extra miles on a public holiday that the Brits don't have, and the schedule provides a day off the plank challenge - huzzah! Beer o clock.
Janathon total 579km.
It wouldn't be Australia Day without a bit of Chisel. Here is one of my favourite Australian songs, Cheap Wine by Cold Chisel.
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