I come from a land down under …

‘I come from a land down under’ as various biographical notes might indicate. Today’s the twenty sixth of January and is our national day, Australia Day.  I woke at 6.30 to  an archtypical summer day’s – blue skies forever and the promise of beaches

'A day of beaches...'

and barbecues as we celebrate our national identity. It’s not a national holiday as such, businesses are still open, people supposedly at work but in this little seaside village where the summer school holidays are still in existence, I’ve noticed a plethora of incomers and am guessing a lot of people have taken this week off as a last holiday before schools go back next week.

This is the day our nation celebrates its iconic nature. A day to celebrate national heroes and to eat food that is reminiscent of the country in which we live. So I might cook marinated lamb backstraps and roast vegetable and feta salad because the beauty of Oz is its emerging multiculturalism, its mix of flavours. To sweeten the day I might make a pavlova and berries

Pavlova with berries.

or moist chocolate-covered lamingtons or maybe a salad of tropical fruits (those that weren’t ruined in the terrible Queensland floods) and fine icecreams.  But then I might just relax and do nothing and remember that people like Oprah Winfrey remarked on the vastly open and friendly nature of this place, how relaxed we were about life and who noticed the freedom and philosophy that harks back to the early nation-builders.

Today I’ ll look up at the flag flying over the house and I might even stick a tiny flag in the pavlova.