Celebrating Australia Day...

eating lunch overlooking the bowling green, overlooking the sea

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..or 'Straya Day as I'm learning to say it, or even Invasion Day as the Aboriginal community call it. Australia Day gives us a long weekend and lots of celebrations, although since it commemorates the day that the first fleet of convicts and settlers arrived in Sydney Harbour the aboriginal lament is quite apt.

Anyway, Jont was off living it up in Sydney for the weekend with his old college mate Gill, but the rest of us went down to the Scarborough & Womabarra (lawn) Bowling Club called the Bowlo. The Bowlo is the last bowling club on the Illawara coast to be wholly community owned rather than flogged off for its real estate potential which is huge as it's a prime spot. They held a Last Man Standing bowl off (with a $200 prize) and various raffles, keg throwing competitions, kids activities, cream teas, barbequed food and beer. Lots of beer. It was quite a lot like the St Giles summer fete but with better weather.

Fuddy bowling a (near) winner in a very professional pose

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We had an idyllic day sitting under an umbrella watching the bowling competition unfold, letting the kids race around like maniacs getting their faces painted, do competitions and boiiing-ing on the bouncy castle slide thing. We ate steak sandwiches, drank beer and Shane tried his hand at bowling and keg throwing. The kids joined in with gum boot throwing and all had a ball. When we were quite certain that none of them had won the 'Guess how many jelly beans in the jar?' competition we headed off to the rock pool for a quick dip.

There are quite a few rock pools along the coast, basically a man made swimming pool concreted into the rocks so that at high tide it fills up with sea water and at low tide you can swim safely away from the huge surfing waves and sharks (a shark plane regularly flies over the beaches, radioing surf rescue stations when they see one hanging around waiting for dinner). We had a blissful swim in the salt water, the kids now very happy and confident in and under the water after a weeks swimming lessons under their belts. It was a wonderful day and we are very happy to be temporary 'Strayans!