Dawn Service

The 4am alarm jangled me out of my deepest of slumbers.  I was dreaming of getting into a fist fight over who was first in line to be sitting in a grandstand.  I had my ticket in my hand when a guy cut the line and I told him to get back to the end of the line... in the dream, he punch me.  I was about to take my swing and punch him back when the whole grandstand collapsed! As it did my alarm woke me.

It was dark outside and I nearly didn't get out of bed.  But I had to. It was ANZAC Day. Quickly I got dressed in the bathroom, grabbed my phone, my shoes, brushed my hair and put on my make-up and perfume. 

By 4:30am, I was out the door and quietly driving out of the unit complex.

I was the only one to do this.

Sad really - isn't it?

I arrived at Logan Diggers on Blackwood Road at 4:45am and found a parking spot easily.  Police were out in force (there were around 10 police cars parked everywhere), 3 ambulances, SES workers and Army personnel as well as Army Cadets.  Yes, the place was packed!

The public were filling up a metal grandstand nearby and I sat on the lowest-most seat I could find; as I don't like heights.  We watched the preparations in the darkness as people grabbed tea and coffee and milled around; as the grandstand filled up, as the road and surrounding footpaths filled up too.

Then, I looked down at my phone as the grandstand move! 

Without a second thought I jumped off and walked away! A feeling of deja vu crept over me as people on the grandstand quickly filed off and SES workers started looking it over with torches.  Within 10 minutes, they pulled tape across it advising people to not sit on it; that it was unsafe.  

The dream I had glimpsed only an hour or so before had come back to haunt me just a little... I really didn't want to look at the grandstand.  And I didn't tell anyone about my dream this morning; they would have laughed at me.

The ceremony was amazing.  There was a Haka, 3 National Anthems, The Last Post, wreaths laid down and The Lord's Prayer was said.  We even sang 'God Save the Queen' without music; which was quite an accomplishment when you think of how long it's been out of the curriculum since the early 1980's.  I even scored a lovely program from a Vietnam Vet who raced around and made sure every last person received a program... man, did that guy have some energy!

I went inside to have a Gunfire Breakfast and ended up sitting with some lovely people and chatting to them for the morning before coming home at around 7:30am to post my photos online.

What a Dawn Service.  I will most certainly do this again next year... seeing how many people showed for this one - the Centenary of World War One - I'm sure we are going to commemorate the ANZAC's even more as the years go by.

ANZAC Day

Today, Mum, Dad and I had planned to go to one of the services around the area.  However our plans to go backfired as we didn't have any idea what times they were on.  I didn't see any of the usual diggers who sold the badges from last year around the shopping centres and so wasn't handed the timetables of the services for the day.  When Dad got up there around 8am this morning, the service had finished and people were going home; so we had missed it for the first times since Mum got her hand operated on.  What a disappointment!  I really wanted to go.

But I'm wearing one of my badges from last year, and Triple M is playing a Two-Up for ANZAC Day all day today.  This is where each band they play, they'll play two of their songs instead of just one; and part of 'The Last Post' is played each hour just before the news to make us remember why we've got tomorrow off.

Today, started out as a cloudy, looking-a-bit-like-rain day.  However, the sun's made an appearance and so it's looking nice and it's windy too.  It's our first 5-day weekend... a good long one; where everyone loves it, mainly because it's as long as a working week!  How cool is that?   All I'm missing is collecting the mail... and I do like to collect my mail from the post office.  It's just nice to get outside and walk there and back some days.

Yesterday, I spent some time at Mum and Dad's place for Easter Sunday.  I took across the remaining eggs for them to choose from; and those eggs turned out to be delicious!  The were Australian Made; and I will buy them again.  Dad had the cookies and cream while Mum had the chocolate with orange and I had the toffee and chocolate.  I was very surprised at the quality of them.  Mum had bought me a Lindt Dark Chocolate Bunny... yummo; and we stuffed around on the internet and computer for a bit and then we ended up eating a late lunch at around 3pm.  While eating out the front, we watched a lady doing her weeding on the footpath in the cul-de-sac across the road and more than enough people walked their dogs.  There was one little Maltese that looked like he was so excited about his walk that his fur was going to be shaken off his body.  Such a cute little thing!  But we found that the owners of all the dogs didn't seem too excited about walking their pets.  We remembered how excited we got when we had to walk Jessie; and how happy it made us (and our pooch) to go for our walks around the place.

Well, I was driven home by Mum about an hour later and she saw how bare the yard looked and my painting I'm working on.  She didn't know it was as big as it is.  And she also commented on how nice and clean my house smells now after I vacuumed with the Dyson (I think she realises now how bad my bagged cleaner is for me; and we'll be looking for something like it to replace my vacuum soon in the coming months).  Then, we were upstairs to look at books of short stories for her.  I found three and gave them to her.  There was one F. Scott Fitzgerald, one Ray Bradbury and one Australian short story book... I hope she enjoys them.  I had already left her the one with 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' at her house too; so that made it four books that she has of mine which have short stories in them.  Today, I'm just bummin' around the house.  I gotta get into some of the book I'm reading about the universe, tidy up a bit more and throw out more junk, wash up, wash the kitchen floor and clean the toilets and the rest of the bathroom.  Then, I'll see how it all goes with folding the laundry and getting the basket downstairs before the day is through.  It sounds like a plan.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and remember, I'm always here.