Australia Day Evening, and the day after

We had a lovely Australia Day evening. The weather was glorious, if a little on the chilly side for late January. But we sat outside with light cardigans on and had a fairly traditional, old school Aussie barbecue for tea.

This was made slightly more complicated by the fact that Lindsey and Ian's gas barbecue had been borrowed before we had thought that it might be nice to have a barbecue ourselves.  There is a second, briquette fired one, but it hadn't been used for some time and was a little on the rusty side.  And its inner things that hold the cooking grille on have disappeared, along with the grilles themselves.  No matter.  Ian cobbled together a means of holding up some oven racks and a griddle.  Lindsey had acquire fire lighters and barbecue briquettes.  Now then.  Where are the matches?  No matches???? Then we might have to revert to Plan B and cook inside.  Ah - but how will we light the gas stove which requires matches?  Ian went to the Buninyong store and came back with matches :-D

In the meantime I made a bowl of thrice cooked chips (should have made a bigger bowl!) and some slightly spicy (with ginger and paprika) rissoles ready to rock and roll.  We remembered not to let the magpies think all this was for their benefit. We didn't take the salad that Lindsey made outside until we were ready to sit and eat. And we dined on home made chips, sausages, rissoles, lamb chops, salad and garlic bread.  And there was a glorious sunset.

Jim, Lindsey and me, after being well fed and watered.
With thanks to Ian for the photo (and the food!)

A lone, quite young kangaroo in the bottom paddock

The sun is setting on the day

There was a fireworks display by the lake in Ballarat.  We didn't drive in to watch it there.  Instead we stood on the side of the hill that Lindsey and Ian's house lives on and watched in from there. It might have been in the distance but it was beautiful to watch.  And a surprisingly good illustration of the difference between the speeds of light and sound.  The lake is only a fifteen or twenty minute drive away.  There was a noticeable lapse of several seconds between us seeing the fireworks and then hearing the booms.  Sam apparently did not hear the booms.  He can sense the presence of thunder several states away; the fireworks perturbed him not at all!!!

I came back to Melbourne with Lindsey fairly early this morning.  I wouldn't normally have bothered but I have an appointment in Richmond at about 9:30 tomorrow morning and it would have been difficult to get there on time if I left Ballarat tomorrow morning. I could have come down by train later today but that seemed a bit extravagant when there was a car heading down this morning. So I dropped into the surgery and did a few hours work and then I went into the city and spoke to my bank.  I went for a wander up Bourke Street which was very busy; people have not been deterred from going there by the events of late last week although there is an enormous pile of floral tributes by the former post office, and smaller piles of tributes in other places on the pedestrian walk. There were lots of people looking at the tributes. There were chaplains and Red Cross workers wandering around. And there was an unusual number of police cars and ambulance cars dotted about.

I, however, had not gone to look at the tributes.  I was just going for a potter in town. Then I saw a tram heading out to Docklands and jumped aboard.  I had a lovely amble around the Harbour Shopping complex, and then a lovely walk by the marina and along the esplanade.  I may perhaps have had an ice cream :-)

I quite fancy one of these apartments, though I fear I would need more than one Lottery win to be able to afford to buy and then maintain it!

And then I took a tram back to the city, hopping off at Parliament House, from where I walked back along the park to the flat in East Melbourne.  It's been a lovely, sunny, gentle day