Where are my clogs?: January 2007

There are lots of different names for this day in Australia...Aboriginal Sovereignty Day, Australia Day, Invasion Day.

26th January means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

People hailing from 111 different countries officially become citizens of Australia today.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra holds a Sacred Fire Ceremonial Gathering and a Corroboree for Sovereignty.

1000s gather in locales around the country to Look Up and Smile.

Sydney enjoys the Big Day Out.

I sit inside on the other side of the world and wonder what I'm missing again.

So I plug my headphones into my laptop and listen to one of my favourite songs, From Little Things Big Things Grow, by two of my favourite artists, Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly.

http://www.aboriginaltentembassy.net/music/Paul_Kelly_and_Kev_Carmody_-_From_Little_Things_Big_Things_Grow.mp3

This beautiful song was written for Vincent Lingiari. To read more about him check out:

http://www.vibe.com.au/vibe/corporate/celebrity_vibe/showceleb.asp?id=372

The time between my last post and this post has been festive indeed! Shopping, Christmas breakfast, Christmas presents, Christmas dinner, more Christmas presents, a road trip to Copenhagen via Hamburg and finally NYE in Breda.

Christmas day was chilly and my new year's resolution is to have the next one at home where the sun shines and lures my glow in the dark white body down to the beach. It was still a great day with lots of presents and a champagne brekky while talking to my family who were no doubt working on their tans at the same time. Nico and I braved the winds and went out for a Christmas stroll and coffee. In the evening it was down to Panningen for perhaps the best meal I've had since arriving here!

On boxing day we hauled our over eaten selves into the car without any winter tires and headed to Hamburg. In the city centre we saw a replica of our Christmas tree.

Hamburg is a shopper's paradise. Unfortunately we arrived in the evening and left the next morning so we missed the shopping hours. I think that was well planned by Nico.

We made it to Copenhagen late in the afternoon of the 27th although it felt like it was about 8 in the evening because it was so dark. We got a parking ticket on our first day there which was a lovely post-Christmas present that hasn't been paid for. I expected Copenhagen to be very proper and really clean but it's not all that! It reminded me of a cross between Amsterdam and London. Different parts of the city had some peculiar odours floating around which were peculiar in a not very pleasant way. Again, it's a city with some great shopping but I didn't buy a thing! We wandered around and saw the sights, including this at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon: