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ANZAC Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

We will remember them.
– For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon

Today is ANZAC Day, which without a doubt is the most revered day in Australia and New Zealand, more so than our respective national days (Australia Day and Waitangi Day).

Today is the day when we commemorate those who didn’t come home and honour those who have, the day we thank those who have served and those who are. We know that peace and freedom do not always come without a sacrifice and we thank those who made that sacrifice.

World War I forged the Australian identity, as a federated nation we were only 14 years old at the beginning of the war. We sent 40% (330 000) of our male population to the war, they were all volunteers. 60 000 of these did not return. Australia had the highest casualty rate of WWI and New Zealand had the highest casualty and death rate per capita of any country involved in WWI. It was not a war that threatened either of our nations personally but as members of the Commonwealth we felt a duty to serve.

The Last Post
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We now pause for two minutes to reflect on the significance of the day and to show our respect to those who served. The idea of a minute’s silence is credited to Edward Honey, an Australian journalist in London during WW1 who published a letter in the Evening News on 8 May 1918 appealing for a moment of silence during the celebrations of the first anniversary of the Armistice (11/11/1918)

Rouse and Reveille
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Since this is not a Dawn Service, we follow the moment of silence with Rouse instead of Reveille which is played as the first call of the day.

Advance Australia Fair
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Lest We Forget

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five days in one post

I have not done anything really exciting since my last post which is why I am always at odds if I should post or no. In saying that, here are my adventures from the last couple of days. Tonight brings to a close the Easter break from uni, which means that in the morning I start the uni routine again

Wednesday and Friday
I worked for Fiskars at the Stitches and Craft Show running make and takes through-out the day, making cards/tags to hang up on the wall and of course showing people how to properly use a Fiskars Shapecutter. Every couple of minutes or so, we would get a person walk up to us and say in these exact words, “I bought one of those things and I just can’t get it to work properly”. We would then sit them down and walk through the main areas in which people make mistakes and after a couple of minutes with us, they would be pros with the Shapecutter. Yeah!

Out of all the pretty stands at the show and all the pretty goods I walked away with two reels of 32 gauge wire and one reel of 28 gauge to crochet with. There were all these pretty things but I couldn’t justify buying things for which I had no planned use.
Thursday and Sunday
I was dreaming of doing uni work all day but yeah do you think that happened? I have though decided on the topics for the four essays I have left to do and done my readings for classes this week. In the time that I was not doing uni work (which was most of the time): I got rid of some more clothes in my wardrobe and rearranged what I had on hangers and what was in drawers, made “my best ever biscuits� with peanuts instead of hazelnut meal and some cinnamon as well mmm.

Saturday
I went to work as I usually do but in my lunch break I nipped down to my old Girl Guide hut where Chermside Guides were celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. Unfortunately in the time I was there none of the girls from my “vintage� where there which was a bummer as I would have liked to have caught up with them instead I caught up with some of the leaders and some of the girls who were in Brownies when I was a Ranger Guide Helper.

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The Mountain Goats

Some bands you love because you can rock out to them, other bands you love because they let you indulge an inner persona when you dance round the room singing. Some bands you love for the ambience they provide, how they just melt into the background of what you are doing.However, there is small group of bands that you love on a whole other level. They are the ones where the songs reverberate through your soul, you smile/frown/cry/get angry/laugh at their songs. They are bands in which you feel connected to every other person at the gig, knowing that you are a select group of people taking part in something special. They are the bands that don’t need pyrotechnics, fancy lighting or 99 costume changes to make music. All they need is themselves and their instruments to create music that you can feel in the air. It’s music that tells a story, it’s what makes me live.

The very top of this list of this small group of bands for me is without a doubt The Mountain Goats.

The ‘Goats were incredible last night and as a matter of fact I even had a partner in crime last night, Karl’s friend from his Cisco days is currently in Aus doing the grand tour and last night came over for dinner. Discussion leads to what time I will be leaving for the concert, Scott enquires as to whom I am going to see. “The Mountain Goats”, I reply. Blah Blah Blah, turns out that when Scott was back home in NY at a NYE party a girl had told him if he had the chance to see The Mountain Goats, to go. Here he was in Brisbane, with his mate’s little sister raving on about The ‘Goats as well, so I ask him if he wants to check them out. Scott says he doesn’t want to intrude with my mates and I just say mate, I was going by myself anyway, come along so he did.

To cut a long story short, The Mountain Goats were incredible as they were when I saw them for my birthday last September and to make it better they will be back by January 2007! (I’m guessing that means they might be doing Big Day Out?) Rock on! And I have a shirt 😀

Giving you all what I know you want to see, the photos of course!

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🙂

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Easter Weekend round up

Ok so it is only day 3 of the 4 day weekend but  I know what will happen tomorrow so I may as well save time and blog about it today 🙂
Four days of Easter weekend goodness so just how did I fill my time?

Friday – blogged here (Fun times with one of my dudettes) and my new monitor arrived – Dell 1707FP – so pretty 🙂 and so nice to have a large screen again – mine died back over Christmas so I was struggling with a 15″, it was painful.
Saturday – Worked (double time and half :D), watched some DVDs, purged clothes (2 bags to go to lifeline) and bought 2 more Country Road pieces (a skirt and a pair of shorts) from Myer on my lunch break at 75% 🙂 Myer is always so good to me unlike all the other stores in the shopping centre who rarely have anything I like and I get a staff discount could it get any better?

Sunday – Painted my toenails (required when going to the beach later in the day); went up the coast with the family, Grandad and Aunty Margaret for fish ‘n chips and a swim at the beach (fantastic surf but a strong current, gave the legs a work out keeping between the flags); afternoon at the farm, with the beach crew as well as Max, Julie and the boys; read Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Skyes, what a book, slightly trashy but a total crack-up and very readable. Of course the Easter Bilby aka Mum came – photos tomorrow.

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Monday – ok so it isn’t here yet but I can tell you what will happen. Work: 6am to 1pm (double time and a half :)) and maybe some shopping in the arvo, as well as a photo with my funky egg that I got 🙂

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the present day

the present day

You know how there is some things you just can’t get enough of? Well Tracy’s designs are one of those things, they always put me in a mood to scrap or just put a smile on my face when I see something using her designs.

You might just be sick of this photo because I used it on the post from 3 days ago but that is life 🙂

I am sitting here chatting to Ms Ali who I actually also visited with this arvo 🙂 Going through lecture notes preparing for exams and trying to think about a design for a birthday card 🙂

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hectic

I don’t know how I am going to live through this coming week, though I of course know I will.

Next week I have two mid-semester exams and a 750 word analysis on how a Chinese government whitepaper contributes to a better understanding of internal policy perspective (which is going to be hard).

Then in non-uni work I have five graduate programs to apply for between this Sunday and the following Sunday. I need to get into one of these programs, hopefully from the 20+ I am applying for I will get one. Otherwise I have no idea what I will be doing next year.

Tomorrow is a write-off in terms of getting uni work done as I am working 7-3 and am then driving up to a friend’s 21st/grad party 1hr north of here. Saying that I will get a bit of uni work done on my breaks at work but not much.

Though I haven’t had any late nights yet, I think next week might have a few 🙁

On a less woo is me topic, check out these things.

Tracy’s wonderful new digital kits, that girl has “it” and always has and she’s my second mother so I am obliged to brag about her. Go check her kits out, you know you want to.

After all the hoo-ha the recent Tourism Australia ad caused in well everywhere except Australia. There was bound to be some spoofs. First is the original for you to watch and then some of the spoofs.

Where the bloody hell are you?

Spoof 1 – Really well done but if you don’t know much about current Australian politics it probably won’t make much sense.

Spoof 2 – Not as well done, this was from CNNN/The Chaser and still is mainly about current affairs in Australia but still great.

Spoof 3 – This is a series of interviews with tourists at Sydney Harbour, asking their views on the wording of the campaign and what would be more appropriate