Expat Australia Day

Ahhh Australia Day. The one day of the year we can behave obnoxiously patriotic in another country! That and ANZAC Day, AFL Grand Final, NFL Grand Final, State of Origin, any sports event when Australia plays.....

The good thing about celebrating Australia Day (or 'Straya Day as it now seems to be called) in Canada, is that it's almost a full day behind so we got to celebrate it twice! Friday (technically the 26th in Australia) we had an Australian themed morning tea and Saturday we went to Vancouver for a party at an Australian bar.

So it turns out 'morning tea' and 'smoko' do not translate into Canadian. It took a while to explain it's just a mid-morning break, and we wouldn't actually be drinking any tea. Instead we had Milo, Cherry Ripes, Jaffas, BBQ Shapes, Vegemite and cheese crackers and Killer Pythons. Not really traditional Australia Day fare, but stuff that can't be bought in Canada and I didn't have time to bake the night before. I really need to make lamingtons at some stage, I've made more pavlovas here than ever before I think!

Snacks!

Before everyone was allowed to eat, we made them tell us why they loved Australia. In true lovely Canadian fashion, they told us no hesitation. Mostly they said the people, which I think is possibly the worst part of Australia. Ha! Friday night I flew to Vancouver, trying to listen to as much of the Hottest 100 as I could where we met up with some old colleagues from Peak.

Questionable tattoo locations

Saturday in Vancouver, we put on our Australian best and headed to Moose's Down Under for some shenanigans. Flags, tattoos, attempted lip tattoos, XXXX, Bundy Rum, New, snake bites, vodka lemon lime and bitters, Australian tunes, singing and meat trays made up our night.

Double dipped and Captain Australia

A meat tray raffle raising money for Red Cross Tasmania finally saw O'Hara and I get our meat tray mojo back. Though it took us being somewhere we couldn't get it home to finally win one! I think meat tray raffles need to become a thing in Canada. They are awesome.

Pretties

I loved that it doesn't matter if Australians are at home or abroad, they still dance in a circle and sing. Standard! I also didn't realise how much I missed standard Australian pub tunes. There are some classics.