Australia Day – the one day of the year where we Aussies totally and completely embrace our Australian-ness on the world stage. A day where not drinking is considered a hanging offence, and where the ‘drunk & disorderly’ law doesn’t really mean that much. Australia Day is my favourite day of the year. I am aware that for the most part, the audience of this blog is from the UK, but I don’t think it’s fair that Australia should be the only country to get a taste of our special day… SO, here’s my Australia Day wrap-up!
Morning: This part of the day is possibly one of my favourites for the sole reason that breakfast foods don’t count for sh*t. It’s Australia Day! Eat whatever you like for breakfast! My breakfast consisted of an iconic Australian BBQ meal of sausages, bacon, eggs and tomatoes, along with BBQ sauce and copious amounts of salt & pepper. Another great part of the whole ‘Australia Day’ concept is that the ‘don’t drink before lunch-time’ rule does not exist. So, if you ever have the privilege of experiencing Australia Day, take full advantage of that. Wash down your mixed-grill breakfast with an alcoholic beverage of some sort (or five) and enjoy it! About mid-morning, the TripleJ Hottest 100 will begin. (TripleJ is an Australian radio station which plays the hottest 100 hits of 2013 every Australia Day, it’s a pretty big deal here, we all love it… I will elaborate on this later.) What a way to kick off your Australia Day morning – great food, great drinks, great friends and/or family, great music. What else could you ask for?
Lunch: My lunchtime consisted of a ridiculously competitive game of backyard cricket followed by yet another dose of meat from the ‘barby’ (BBQ), and yep, you guessed it, a few more drinks. The Hottest 100 plays all day and is a great source of entertainment for those who stick around for the long haul to #1. The greatest part of Australia Day is the way everyone embraces our ridiculously amazing culture. There are so many stereotypes about Aussies and our way of life, and while some of them may have an element of truth, on Australia Day, our true way of life shines through and I’m not going to lie, it makes me proud. Proud of my country, proud to be an Australian.
The festivities continue until about 3pm, then, in my house, it’s nap-time. Eating, drinking and having a laugh all day can take it out of you!
Evening: At about 5pm, everyone began to emerge from their napping places, (some of those are very creative) and it was time to crank up TripleJ again and so, the beginning of the end of Australia Day commenced. This part of the day is called the Hottest 100 Party, you can register your party with TripleJ and you’ll most likely get a call from the radio hosts Matt & Alex (formally Tom & Alex) during the evening to check in on how you’re spending the end of the hottest 100. We had our call from Matt & Alex at about 6:30pm, which was great because the top 10 was about to start. This is actually the most exciting part of Australia Day for music fans. HAIM with The Wire came in at #11 and then it started to get serious. The bets on what song would bring home the bacon with #1 began (and by the way, I guessed it). After the immense disappointment of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ coming in at #3, we were all pretty disgusted actually. As I predicted, Lorde’s ‘Royals’ came in at #2 and the beautiful voice of Vance Joy with ‘Riptide’ made it to #1 by a margin of only 1100 votes. Hands down most exciting part of the night. At this point we genuinely celebrated the win and kept partying on Vance’s behalf. It’s really funny to watch because the #1 is announced at about 7:30pm and as soon as that’s over, you always notice people whisking away to bed. The 3pm nap just really isn’t enough sometimes. I give my full respect to the people who can go out after 8pm on Australia Day. I, unfortunately, do not have that kind of alcoholic stamina.
The day after Australia Day is always brutal – the hangover, the mammoth clean-up and of course the social-media walk of shame (realising how much crap you posted online and having to shamefully hit the ‘delete’ button). All in all, Australia Day is a great day for family and friends, it brings people together and regardless of what kind of shape our country’s in, that is the greatest gift. I’m a person who loves to travel and have spent several months living and travelling around Europe and Asia, but there really is no place like home. I feel very lucky to have been born into a country such as this one and days like this give me the chance to show it. SO, if you’re reading this and thinking “I wish I loved my country that much.”, then get over here!
I hope this has given you an insight into Australia Day in the eyes of a tired and very hungover Australian. I’m going to bed now. Enjoy.
– Maggie Fowler TW @maggiefowler IG @_maggiefowler
Image from www.sheknows.com.au