A Is For Australia Day

We celebrated Australia Day in our typical Australian fashion:
Visitors round for lunch - ham, cheese & tomato melted onto ciabatta, with avocado;
then a trip to a bayside beach, a little bit of snorkelling - saw the usual toadfish, many silvery little fishies, starfish, sea urchins and a beautiful grey-purple stingray - a small one, only about 40 cm across;
then a relaxed evening meal at the nearby cafe - king prawns & salad, greek dips and sourdough*;

while being treated to a spectacular lightshow put on by mother nature - lightning, rain squalls moving across the Bay, godrays and orange sunset skies;
then watched the Australia Day fireworks in the distance while we sipped coffee. They used the top of the Eureka Building (Melbourne's tallest) as a platform for some of the fireworks - spectacular!

*Australia's multiculturalism has its ugly side, for sure, but I love what it has done for local cuisine. And in typical Aussie fashion, cooks and chefs happily mix and match elements from all cultures. I love it. I can remenber as a child being thought of as really weird because I had salami sandwiches for lunch.

We didn't have a barbeque - it's not compulsory. On the way home, the Nylex sign showed the temperature at 10.00pm was still 27 C.
It was a lovely day.I reckon Australia is the best country in the world!