Australia Day Festivities!
Yesterday was Australia Day... yes, the day we celebrate a bunch of convicts arriving in some god-forsaken land half a world away from their home some 220 years ago. When I was still back at home, it amounted to little more than a public holiday - a guaranteed day off work. But being so far from home seems to have awakened my patriotic pride, so Christine and I planned a fitting party!
We planned to organise a cricket match with our friends, followed by a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ. First though, we had to find a cricket bat... not an easy task in the US! We left things too late to order one off the internet, and phone calls to all the sports stores in Portland came to nothing. They all knew what cricket was, but thought we were crazy for thinking they had any equipment. One store used to have lots of them, but they were all bought for Shaun Of The Dead Halloween costumes and they haven't bothered to restock since. (If you've never seen Shaun Of The Dead, you really should! In it, our English hero – the eponymous Shaun – uses a cricket bat to ward off attacking zombie hordes... true!) In the end, Kevin's brother-in-law came to the rescue as he had a cricket bat in his office at Nike.
However, after five days of glorious sunshine throughout the week, Australia Day dawned raining and icy. We walked down to the shops to get last minute supplies in the morning and almost slipped on black ice on the pavement several times. We had a temperature of 33°F, rather than Sydney's more usual 33°C. The rain didn't let up all day, so – unfortunately after all our efforts to acquire the equipment – our cricket game had to be cancelled.
However, the BBQ still went ahead and we had a good gathering of friends to help us celebrate the day. I tried explaining cricket to everyone and was probably partially successful... they were definitely all impressed by the rock hard red ball! Most people made an effort to be "Australian"... Kim wore her summer clothes that she used most of the time while she was in Australia (under her rain gear!), Ryan and Spencer turned up in rugby jerseys from a high school in Perth that they had bought at a Salvo's in Perth years ago, while Lindsey had a strange shirt that proudly proclaimed "Tulips Down Under" in English and French!!!
Here's a couple of pix: Colin wielding the cricket bat in a most unorthodox fashion, and Ryan and Spencer doing their "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" impression. Fun times!
Posted in: australia, chaosboy, party time, portland on January 27, 2008 at at 12:54:00 PM
Whereas I managed to do Oz Day properly, being on a bus to Bathurst to play Rep cricket against Bathurst's finest... And in true .au tradition, some ales were consumed and a fine time had by all (And yes, Bathurst got 33 degree C, just the way it should be...)