It's Party Day

We're all gathered.  Everyone is here.  It's Australia Day.  It's Birthday Party Day.

So let's party!

Belinda has a hurty toe (it's probably broken).  I still have a hurty ankle (though it's much better). William and Sage are only 9 and 11.  The RACV Club on Bourke Street is probably too far to walk.  So we trammed.

And then we partied.

There was wine. There was food. There was dessert.

The family makes up a party all on its own :-D

There was merriment and chatter and fun.

And there was the birthday girl.

It was a great afternoon

Click on the birthday girl to reach the party

And then we moved on to Australia Day.  Lindsey, Matthew, Sage, William, The Builder and I took the tram down to Docklands for the Australia Day fireworks display at 21:30.  It is not lawful in Australia for private individuals to set off fireworks so all displays of pyrotechnics tend to be public events, often over water.  So New Year fireworks over the Yarra, Australia Day fireworks over the marina in Docklands.  And loads of people gather to watch.  We weren't in the main arena, where there were announcers and activities and things going on.  We were around the back where there was less going on, but far fewer people.  And it was great fun.  Sage and William hadn't seen a big fireworks display before and were absolutely entranced.  And you could easily see why the Japanese call fireworks "hanabi" or "fire flowers".  There were lots of fire flowers in the sky :-)

There are no photos of the hanabi.  But here's the Victoria album, so far, which does have photos of Docklands.  More photos will be added to this album over the course of the next couple of weeks

Click on Bourke Street to reach Victoria