[dropcap]It’s[/dropcap] a little late but happy Australia Day for Monday Australians! For overseas readers, yes, the 26th of January is Australia’s day of union/unity. You probably have a similar day in your country and so you’d understand the significance of the day. Australia Day is our day of national/patriotic pride. It’s a day to be thankful for our rights and privileges and to remember that we are all really just part of one big happy/loving extended family, warts and all.

One big family, we are all connected, love is the answer, and love conquers all. All very idealistic and dreamlike/utopian statements and it sounds like the words that one would probably babble after a few drinks. But in fact, I drafted this post on the phone on Monday, sober and before any drinking commenced, so you can imagine how sentimental and saccharine I was by the end of the night. Oh so what, I love life.

You can do as you please on Australia Day and you can celebrate it any which way you like. It’s a perfect day to just relax and be happy, and enjoy the patriotic energy/buzz that engulfs the country. It’s also a good day to remember and appreciate just how lucky we are to be Australians and to embrace our community/neighbours with love, acceptance and tolerance.

Whether you were having a backyard barbie or beach picnic with family and friends, cooking prawns or eating them raw or none at all, enjoying a cold beer at the pub with some mates, salt and pepper squid in Darling Harbour, watching the tennis or cricket on the telly, working on your tan at the beach (I wish I was, but it was too overcast here), finishing off some work, or elsewhere in the world doing whatever you do, I hope that you had a very happy and safe Australia Day. Australia is truly a beautiful/wonderful country and I’m so proud and glad to share/enjoy it with you all. Let’s look after it and each other together, shall we?

We spent the day driving down to Narooma listening to Triple J’s hottest 100 on the radio and then having a delicious dinner and a bottle of white wine at the Narooma Chinese Restaurant. Albeit overcast and slightly drizzling, there was still a lovely and warm atmosphere in the air. Listening to Triple J made me realise just how eclectic and noisy some contemporary music can be. This made me realise that it’s probably just a sign of old age. Either way, you would have to agree that some modern music can be excessively annoying and cryptic, no? Along the hwy, we drove past wispy gum forests, roadside fruit/mango stalls, servo/bottlos, farm animals chewing and posing on the grass and cheery towns with equally cheery folks and passersby.

By the time we were ready to eat, it was already getting late, and considering that Narooma is a small town and it was a public holiday, we were lucky to find the Narooma Chinese Restaurant still open. Our meal was delicious and perfectly matched with the wine. I can’t remember what the wine was, but it was a white and light and from NZ. It was very easy to drink cold in the slightly humid weather, with the mild dishes.

While we were eating, I observed and admired the prowess of the lone chef as he coolly and swiftly managed the restaurant all by himself. He easily took orders, cooked and served, not just for the two of us but also for other tables and several large groups of people who walked in for takeaway orders. I was so impressed with his speed and skill and it made me realise that I really need to pick up my game when cooking at home. He also managed to still give us his signature sincere smile when we left and exchanged Happy Australia Day wishes.

That was our Australia Day; relaxed and easy going. I do hope that you had a very happy and safe one too. I was planning on sharing an Australia Day recipe with you for the day, but with last week’s website deletion dramas, I just wanted to keep it really simple and have a hassle-free long weekend. I look forward to sharing a recipe with you later this week though. Until then, take care of each other.