Bug-Man’s Blog

Normally I don’t do very much for Australia Day but considering I’m living in London, but this year Lindsay and I went out and celebrated being Aussie London. Not surprisingly, London’s city streets were packed full of Aussies with aussie colours, flag tattoos on arms, cheeks and foreheads, flags draped over them like capes, and they were all hanging around the Aussie bars, of course. Lindsay, Michelle, Adam and myself went down to Covent Garden where we picked up a few necessary Aussie supplies: Chickos, Arnott’s Shapes, Mint Slice, Ice Magic, Vegemite, and a couple of other Aussie things. It’s amazingly strange standing in an Australian shop with just about every Australian food icon on display. It’s almost like being back home and going to a deli. About the only thing we didn’t buy was a carton of Coopers Pale Ale, for two reasons: a) It was sold out and b) It was £36.90/carton (around AU$80.)

Onwards with our supplies we headed to the pub.

No, we avoided the Walkabout because it would have been just far too busy, but went to another pub instead which we knew served Coopers Pale Ale. Downing a couple of those, we were surrounded by Aussies. Trying to explain exactly what a ‘Bush Pig’ is to Adam the Texan was something interesting and there weren’t too many examples of them around; they were probably all at home in Australia. It was getting late and Lindsay and I needed to head off to Justin’s place where there was a late night Australia Day BBQ. Outside the pub I let out one loud “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!” and was glad to hear several people immediately respond “Oi! Oi! Oi!” That made my day!

We headed off to Justin’s house and although he lives only a few miles away it still took 1 hour and 2 buses to get there. I carried my backpack with a carton of beer inside of it, and we arrived. We had a good night meeting a few other Aussies, watching Skippy, singing Australian TV commercial jingles and getting drunk like Aussies should. It was meant to be a late BBQ and it wasn’t until 11:30PM that we actually started eating! Nonetheless it was a good night. Here are some snaps:

But there are more on Flickr.

Sunday was spent in bed.