11. Australia Day

On a lovely, warm, summer's night, (last night) I ventured out to the Jetty again to see Lights on the Lake. (I was a bit hot because I was afraid of getting cold like I did last time.) As I'd been there twice before, I felt like a local and didn't follow the crowd, that arrived at the same time, up the hill but walked directly down the hill, past people picnickers and the stalls and kept going until I easily stopped, and not directly in front of anyone, right at the front of the crowd. There was no pushing, no shoving, no arguing and although there were a few, I didn't notice many children. There were, however, a lot of international visitors. It was a bit like going to see something at Docklands but without the aggro.

The tourist came to watch 😉

The show began with a welcome to country and throughout, contained images from Australia.

This morning I listened to podcasts about how Australia day should be a day of mourning from someone who is an advisor on the voice to parliament. She doesn't think that there should be a celebratory day until at least there is a First People's voice to parliament. Then I met Eleanor at the National Library for brunch. We chatted for a couple of hours and she invited me to go to The Vinyl Lounge at the National Film and Sound Archive next weekend. It sounds really interesting. It's on every month. It reminded me that there is Comedy at the Durham every 2nd Thursday of the month. I was thinking about going tonight but had a big day.

                                 

After brunch, I looked around the exhibitions at the library. They were interesting. The first one contained a lot about explorers, mapping Australia, first settlers, Mabo (in which I found ot how interesting a person Mabo was) but also Bob Hawke, Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson. The second exhibition was all photos around Australia. There were a number from Melbourne (I particularly liked those) and some I recognised from the Portrait Gallery. They depicted the land and the people of Australia. I did see the no photo sign, on the door to each exhibition, so I took some photos around the library. These first Realia items were not part of the exhibition.

 

If I'd had the patience, I could have watched some of these reals.

The views from the library were pretty good.

I wonder how well the book shop does.

Of course, after exploring the library, which, by the way, is next to Questacon, I had to walk along the lake, further than I had been before. 

The James Cook Memorial Fountain. I didn't see the Globe.

I'm yet to discover what the building behind the fountain is. Do you know?

I saw a number of pillars along the water's edge with blank faces and wondered what they were or might have had on them until I found this one.

A reminder that you can be Australian of the year one minute and a disgraced tax evader the next. Also, the recipients have risen from two to four. 

Another guy that was considered wonderful and then not on this one.

And in my birth year, there was one recipient only, except, this one was a group 😀

These bridges annoy me. Whenever I miss my turn, I end up going over a bridge and then I have to come back. My trip time increases from 5 minutes to 8 minutes!

Lazy fishing. These guys were sitting in the car.

Dry grass / Green grass

There was lots of action on the lake today. You will see!

I really want to know what this building is too.

Hargs, this one was for you!

I stumbled on a pretty great park. There were lots of picnics today.

Stand up paddling.

I walked past the ducks and sat on a seat. They all followed me and didn't ask for a thing. I am almost convinced there aren't many children in Canberra.

I found the yacht club too.

I think I see this every time I get in the car.

The park was next to the Chinese Embassy. It is a pretty attractive embassy building too.

seagulls sight seeing

swans swimming under the bridge

My second peace symbol for the day. I know what Canberra needs them. 

I don't know how long I spent walking. I had considered walking on to the yacht club for fish and chips at Snapper (It seemed the type of thing to do before the weather gets cold) but didn't know if I wanted to continue walking all the way there and then back. It took me longer to get to where I went than it did to get back, so maybe I could have instead of driving all over the place because I missed my turn to get there. I found that there are two versions of Snapper. One on the deck (table service) and one on the grass, go and order yourself. I treated myself to the deck, mainly because the grass side seemed to be a wind tunnel. The bonus of going on my own in the middle of the afternoon meant that I didn't have to book.

The salad was huge. Carolyn, it cost $6.50. The fish and chips were very good. And yes, I'm getting fat!

There is a lot that goes on on this small lake. I think the yachts were racing. I don't know how exciting the lake can be for stand up paddling and yachting etc, as it's flat, flat, flat and you can see the other side of the lake without going there.

I found out today that Canberran's think that their parking is expensive because they have only just started to have to pay. If they spent time in Melbourne, they might change their minds. 

I don't understand why they say the beach is close when it takes 2-3 hours to get there and everything else is 5 - 30 minutes away. It would probably take 30 minutes to get close to the border.