Monday 25 April 2011

A longer than usual long weekend in Australia




Aussies love a long weekend. We can't get enough of 'em. And I'm not about to complain.

This year an extraordinary clash of public holidays has led to a five-day long weekend. Usually, there's the four-day Easter long weekend that includes a holiday on Good Friday and another the following Monday.

But this year ANZAC Day, a national public holiday, fell on Easter Monday. Rather than roll the ANZAC Day and Easter Monday holidays into one, the powers-that-be added another day to the break. So, Tuesday is also a day off work for millions of Australians.

We're not bludgers. No way.

Anyway, the weather today is miserable and I feel for the Diggers who've joined ANZAC Day marches across the country.
There's also an ocean swim on today, from Coogee to Bondi. This one's a 5 km trek, which I'm definitely not ready for even though I was encouraged to participate by several delusional swimming associates.

Maybe next year.

The photos were taken yesterday when Spanner, The Hiss and I went to Bondi for a swim, though Spanner just sat on the beach while The Hiss and I practised body surfing. Afterwards, we had a small but nice cuppa up the road at a hole-in-the-wall cafe/tapas bar called Massive. And on the way home we stopped in Paddington for a squizz at the old reservoir, which has been preserved. Would you believe in 1985 there were plans to turn this historic piece of Sydney into a car park? Love it or lump it, this is Australia. Lucky there were no iron ore deposits under it.

3 comments:

AJ Blythe said...

Shayne, the weather here has turned ick as well. Normally we'd have all faced dawn service, but as we are in isolation thanks to mr7 and his chickenpox, we missed it this year.

Unknown said...

The Coogee swim was not much fun. Coogee was very choppy and Bondi was worse, so the lifeguards wouldn't let us swim from Coogee to Bondi. After waiting in the rain for about an hour, those of us who remained finally went ahead with a shortened to 2 laps around Coogee Bay.
Any swim is better than no swim I guess, but sometimes the weather wins.

Shayne said...

Hi Anita,
Chicken pox! You poor thing. I mean, Mr7 is the poor thing. I hope it's not a bad case. PP had them on her eyeballs and in her ears. Shocker.

Hey Richard,
I don't have your drive or stamina (read: stoopidity!). I went to the pool.