It is Australia Day today. This is a national holiday which falls on 26th January every year. It’s when we recognise the first white settlement of Australia. It’s a day that’s becoming more and more controversial, with Aboriginal and ethnic protests and gangs of teenagers roaming the streets waving and wearing Australian flags (considered a racist gesture?!). But it’s also a day of BBQs, going to the beach, drinking beer and enjoying a day off. And if the day happens to fall on a Thursday or Tuesday, most people make the most of it and have a four day weekend.
Australia Day
Last night we went to the Suzuki Night Market, an annual event held from November to March at the Queen Victoria Markets. The markets run a few days a week selling produce, gifts, souvenirs, clothes etc, but the night markets are a showcase for international cuisine and handcrafts. There is a great array of food, from Ethiopian to Greek to Chinese. I tried some Columbian food – white tortillas with beans, guacomale and chicken. For dessert I had fried donut balls with honey, chocolate and ice cream, I need to go on a seriously long walk to work off all the oil in those donuts!
Night Market
So…I mentioned a wedding. Last Sunday we went ot visit my mother for her birthday. Her partner Bob has a birthday 10 days after mum, so they decided to have a joint birthday party. We all arrived and started to enjoy the great food and company. I made chocolate coffee meringue brownies.
Mmmmm...brownies
Then as we were all sitting outside enjoying the perfect weather, a woman arrived and started talking to us. She had an authoritative voice and I knew right away she wasn’t just any ‘usual’ friend of my mother’s. She was in fact a marriage celebrant and was there to marry mum and Bob.
I had suspected that they might do something like this – since they met 10 months ago they’ve been inseparable. It was not the first marriage for either, with Bob being married once before with 6 kids and mum being married three times before with two kids. So I guess you could say that they ‘knew’.
The dragonflies are a symbol for mum and Bob, since a few years ago mum and I got tattoos on our wrists – a bee for me and a dragonfly for mum. Bob has since got the same dragonfly on his wrist. They decorated their cake with little dragonflies.
Destiny
January 27th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Congratulations are in order for your mum and Bob! May they enjoy many more dragonfly cakes in their future!
January 27th, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Felicitations to your Mum and Bob, sometimes you just know when it is right and they were lucky to find one another.
Bon week-end a vous, Leeann x
February 4th, 2012 at 3:56 am
how wonerful! congratulations to your mum & Bob. sounds as if it was a sweet mariage made in heaven. i am happy for them. Bestest,Denise