A Year of Blogging: January 26, 2011

I'm a little behind with my daily blogging. January 26 was Australia Day. Last week, I wasn't sure what Australia Day was. Fortunately, I work for an international association. We have chapters in several countries all over the world. Including Australia. While my primary responsibility is to handle the US Membership; occasionally I interact with the other chapters. In fact, I met the head of our Australian chapter and his wife at a conference a couple of years ago. They were lovely people, and so easy to talk to. Although I did have a hard time with their accents sometimes. I email them semi-regularly. On Monday they emailed me and were telling me that Australia Day was Wednesday. They said Australia Day is the equivalent to 4th of July in the USA. It is summer in Australia right now. There have been devastating floods in Australia (or OZ as they call it), people have lost their homes, their livelihoods, some have even lost their lives. I see it on the news, and just cannot imagine what that must be like. Today I had a lovely email from our Australian chair, and he was telling me what they did on Australia Day. He played trombone in the brass band he belongs to, at a lake, while people enjoyed crocodile, or kangaroo burgers. That seemed so exotic to me, but I remember him telling me that kangaroos in Australia are like the deer here. There are so many that they are almost a nuisance. He also told me a neighboring town had a horse race planned, but had to cancel it because a pack of kangaroos got on the track just before the race started. Reading that made me laugh. I know the organizers of the event probably weren't pleased, but for some reason it made me think of Mary Poppins. Overall, I think it sounded like a lovely way to celebrate your national holiday. Very similar to the way we celebrate Independence Day. Well, except for the kangaroo burgers!