Oz day

[AlmostBob]

Have a barbie with the rellies couplea coldies

Happy Australia day

its yesterday
or
tommorrow ? I dunno this timezone stuff, I always ask Kathryn

My Country, (Dorothea McKellar)

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded Lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins;
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

The tragic ring-barked forests
Stark white beneath the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
An orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart around us
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.​

 

[Slim Pikins]

Thank you.

0500 Daylight Saving Time. Australia Day here, 1 hour after you posted. Have some vegemite and beer for us, and we'll have some for you

Slim

 

[battler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U9OTmLrrF0

 

[vbplease]

Soon to crack open the vodka and crank up some INXS here

Happy Australia day everyone!!

 

[topcropper]

We have a cricket match starting this morning for blokes and bigger kids. Townies and east of the ridge, verses the westerners. Beer allowed. Then family activities after the match, stuff like tug-o-war and gumboot throwing and ball games for the kids and dog lotto [the car tire the dog wee's on first].

It will be hot.


See ya's.




ps. I've never seen so many Aussie flags everywhere, especially on the Gold Coast where I was last week. I think some of the calls by some for people to leave the flags at home due to fears about racist overtones have made people bring em out in protest. Good stuff I reckon too.

 

[HomeBuyAU]

Well, I will be staying away from beer guzzling drunk yobo's who march in gangs yelling oi Oi Oi Aussie Aussie Aussie waving flags and beating people up who don't join them. I love Australia but I don't like Australia day, it stinks of patriotism while fueling the yobo mentality of people being proud because we love Bar-B-Q s, beer and thongs. I also enjoy beer & Bar-B-Q 's (just went to one in weekend) but when it becomes our national symbol then it shows a serious lack of culture here. There is much more to Australia than boganism & thuggery like beautiful beaches and wildlife, why can't we be proud of that? The whole getting drunk and beating our chests with a flag rapped around wearing thongs just doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Nards]

Well, I will be staying away from beer guzzling drunk yobo's who march in gangs yelling oi Oi Oi Aussie Aussie Aussie waving flags and beating people up who don't join them. I love Australia but I don't like Australia day, it stinks of patriotism while fueling the yobo mentality of people being proud because we love Bar-B-Q s, beer and thongs. I also enjoy beer & Bar-B-Q 's (just went to one in weekend) but when it becomes our national symbol then it shows a serious lack of culture here. There is much more to Australia than boganism & thuggery like beautiful beaches and wildlife, why can't we be proud of that? The whole getting drunk and beating our chests with a flag rapped around wearing thongs just doesn't appeal to me.

I dont think that is what Australia day is about at all - it is just what naturally gets the most media attention. As with any event of the year it is the morons who ruin things (think NYE, the tennis etc) and get the most publicity. Of course, as with anything, the retailers are getting on the bandwagon and flogging as much Australiana as possible...

Australia day is about having a BBQ with friends, enjoying a beer while wearing thongs because WE CAN - we are celebrating that we are a free country, with happy, friendly people and gorgeous weather and a beautiful natural environment...we are celebrating that we are very lucky to be living in this country! If that lacks "culture" then so be it...

As for patriotism, since when is it bad to be a bit patriotic? We should be proud to be Aussies..I am. Chest beating and getting boozed doesnt mean you are patriotic, just that you are an idiot. In terms of the rest of the world we are probably one of the least patriotic countries...

Anyway - I hope you all have a great day, with good friends of all cultures and remember how lucky we are to live in this country!

Cheers,
Nadia

 

[Mazda]

Happy Australia Day, everyone! Enjoy yourselves and be safe!

 

[WinstonWolfe]

There is much more to Australia than boganism & thuggery like beautiful beaches and wildlife, why can't we be proud of that?

I agree boganism on A-Day sucks.

But maybe it is a reflexive response by the less adaptive, to political ideologues socially engineering cultural change at too high a rate.

I for one appreciate that some Australians are adversely effected by the highest immigration rate in the developed world.
- its helped drive property prices beyond the reach of many.
- its causing our cities to become more congested and straining infrastructure (Melbourne and Sydney train services and roads). All this reduces quality of life for some.
- there's not enough university and apprenticeship opportunities to go around.
- it keeps downwards pressure on unskilled labor pay rates.
- tax channeled towards migrant programs has to be taken away from heatlh care, aged care, welfare, infrastructure, public education.

In the future, historians may look back with 20/20 vision on this period as the most potent in increasing the gap between rich and poor, haves and have nots.

If those being made poorer rebel, that's something elitist ideologues have to deal with better than they are currently.

And let's not forget, that its not always nationalistic bogans doing all the bashing, as this article in The Age today highlights.
Indians bashed in Melbourne's CBD

Multiculturalism isn't some pure Holy Grail devoid of introducing its own tangled web.

Apart from that, we are cycling (with Aussie flags flying on our bikes) down to our Vietnamese friend's cafe shortly, for lunch on the Bay. So my concern isn't with migrants, it is with an ill conceived rate of migration.

 

[natmarie73]

I've never seen any boganism on Australia Day so it must be a Sydney/Melbourne thing or a big beat up by the media . We were lucky enough to be travelling across Australia last Aussie Day and went to a lovely Aussie Day breakfast at Shark Bay. I highly recommend getting out of the city on Aussie Day to see how the real Australia celebrates - no boganism or at all just normal people getting together to celebrate what makes this country the greatest on earth.

 

[weg]

Beer, barbies, thongs, water (where applicable) and friends signifies the casual and relaxed way we have always enjoyed living in this country. I love it and I think most other Australians do to.

As for boganism associated with Australia day, I also have never seen it other than what the media has reported and that has been mostly as others have said, in Sydney and Melbourne.

 

[BayView]

I did a 10km fun run this morning along the foreshore from safety Beach Pier to Rosebud Pier with one of my mates. There were 1200 runners. All the proceeds went towards the local emergency services departments.

We both managed to get it done under 1 hour. Tough, but had a great time, and the legs are a bit sore now. Haven't had a run for about 5 months.

Going over to his house later this arvo for a barbie, some beers, swim in the pool with the kids and celebrate our great Country.

 

[HomeBuyAU]

As for boganism associated with Australia day, I also have never seen it other than what the media has reported and that has been mostly as others have said, in Sydney and Melbourne.

I have seen it in Sydney city several times, very ugly.

I can laugh at Sam Kekovich and Kath & Kim, good value but when you see the ugly side of bogans being thugs wearing flags then it's another thing.

 

[wobbycarly]

Just come back from a family day at Rippleside Park, Geelong. No bogans, no drunks, no racism. Free amusement rides, free slides, free jumping castles, free entertainment, $2 snags.

WHAT A WONDERFUL COUNTRY.

 

[Alabex]

woo hoo... go Australia.. the best! i love being australian... a great excuse to being several drinks down at home with hubby having silly two people dance parties while drinking alot. and hubby thinks i am typing rubbish... no way! i am typing insightful insights into the insightful world of property investing... i think... or is that too many emoticons????

 

[kissfan]

woo hoo... or is that too many emoticons????

Me thinkz it's too many drinkies, lol

Regards
Marty

 

[lizzie]

ahhh - we hopped on board a tall ship for bbq dinner last night, with the crew dressed as "yeah olde pirates". unlimited champange, wine, beer and stuffed myself with oysters (i looooooove oysters but rarely have them because no one here else does) and pavalova. drank too much, ate to much, we set the square mainsail and jib for a sail under the sydney harbour bridge as the sun set.

fabulous night - totally buggered - thrilled to be back in the more relaxing newcastle tonight!

 

[jaycee]

I've never seen any boganism on Australia Day so it must be a Sydney/Melbourne thing or a big beat up by the media . We were lucky enough to be travelling across Australia last Aussie Day and went to a lovely Aussie Day breakfast at Shark Bay. I highly recommend getting out of the city on Aussie Day to see how the real Australia celebrates - no boganism or at all just normal people getting together to celebrate what makes this country the greatest on earth.

Definitley not just a Melbourne / Sydney thing. I've seen it, the beat up wasnt perpetrated by the media on one occassion that I saw.

I think it's died down in the last year or 2 though.

 

[HomeBuyAU]

Definitley not just a Melbourne / Sydney thing. I've seen it, the beat up wasnt perpetrated by the media on one occassion that I saw.

I think it's died down in the last year or 2 though.

It happens every where and a lot more of this goes on that people want to admit but would rather turn a blind eye to it.

I think Australia day is a really bad idea, if it was called something else yeah it would be ok!. Just watching people with flags is bad enough, never mind all the other things like mentioned earlier. Why must people fly or wear flags? Every person in the world is equal, so whether you live in Australia or Greenland, who cares, get over it! The world should be not divided by walls and borders of flag waving patriots, The Berlin wall was torn down to stamp out that sort of thing but Aussies missed the show and now naive patriotism is reaching new heights here, they will want war next.... Some people even had the flags wrapped around their bodies with smaller ones on their face and hands etc and yelling out stupid chants. These were middle aged woman who were acting like 5 year olds, never seen something so shallow and pointless. I'm starting to realize I was born in a country of shallow idiots.