AUSTRALIA DAY PARTY !

It looks like becoming an annual event at our house.  The gathering together of friends from UK, France, USA, Thailand, China, Canada, Poland, anywhere.

Welcome all 

Despite the cold wet weather, we tried to evoke an australian feel to the party with flags everywhere and  a playlist of australian bands in the background ( and the heating turned up).

Lots of prawns, chicken sates, thai fish cakes, salmon rolls, and to finish, anzac cookies, lamingtons and a pavlova. 

C'est quoi ce "pavlova" ?

We even had vegemite on fresh baguette slices for those brave enough to try something truly australian. The verdict by the english – better than Marmite. Don’t know if that is a positive or not. The french were too polite to comment.

some were not so brave about trying vegemite

"Cheers" to you too !

Lots of deep conversation, before the singing broke out

Couldn’t find any decent australian wine available here so had to settle for french, c’est la vie.

We were asked by many why the 26^th January was the chosen date for this special day, so we explained it commemorated the arrival of the first English colonists (prisoners and marines) at what was to become Sydney Harbour – our first boat people. When we mentioned that La Perouse had arrived just a few days after the First Fleet, and that we could easily have therefore been french instead, there were cheers from our french friends who broke into a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise.

The party deteriorated from here until finally, the playlist reached “A Pub with no Beer”, the words to which a few of the english actually knew!  Time to go home, I think.

Thank you to all those friends who made it to the party. Some couldn’t due to illness, or being  out of the country and we missed you. It’s the wonderful guests who make a party a success.

Bonne semaine à tous

PS… for our friends back in Australia, it is the custom here to bring a gift when going to a friend’s house for a meal or a party.  Our very generous friends brought  wine, chocolates, including some from the very good chocolatiere/patissiere in our town square, and some lovely pot plants. The most unusual was from our french neighbours – a pot of soup and a boudin noir (black pudding) all made by his mother to local recipes. We look forward to a great lunch today.

And Lily had a wonderful time at her first party .