It’s Australia Day.
Yay, a day off, party time! Lamb, beers, prawns, sleep in. How are you spending it?
The funny thing is I know more people who’ll be working on Australia Day than people who’ll be having a day off. So that got me thinking. What does it actually mean to us? Cheap lamb, as Woolworths and Coles battle it out for our hard earned dollars? Time to spend with family and friends? A day to contemplate the state of our wonderful diverse country?
Now don’t get me wrong. I love Australia Day. I applaud the choice of Geoffrey Rush as Australian at the 
Year. It’s good to see a talented member of the Australian Arts community being recognised for his contribution. I love having a day we can celebrate being Australians but…
For many people this will be another day at work. For the police, the ambulance and paramedics, nurses and doctors, the SES, the pilots, cabin crew and airport staff (and there are too many departments to list), bus drivers, train drivers, taxi drivers etc, etc, etc, today is a slightly more stressful day than usual because they are working while others are celebrating. They probably crawled out of bed knowing their partner or family would pull the doona back over their heads and snuggle down to snooze. The way the weather’s been these last few days anyone involved in public safety is going to face a tough day.
So this is a roundabout way of saying we should celebrate Australia every day, not just one day a year. There’s much to be grateful for in our magnificent country. Enjoy it!!
Take it easy like the Brits? I thought you lot were all hard workers, Jack:-)
its their choice to work they could relax if they wanted take it easy like the british
So does geting concussed by a druggie, mwhich is what happened the last Australia day I worked. Spent a week in bed with the world spinning!
Enjoy your day, Cathy, without the complications of a busy ER!
Flying certainly prevents most of us having a regular social life at home…
We will be taking it easy, Normally when I was nursing I would havew been rostered on in the ER to deal mwith all the drunks, fights, car smashes, stabbings, etc. When I was flying I might have had the day of, but I would have been out of the country so it would have been just another day
Do writers ever get a day off, Sandy?? GW certainly believes I don’t but, as you say, we’re not crying about!
Enjoy your day writing.
Here! Here! My Dad was a garbo, so he never got the day off unless it landed on the weekend and my other half…well you know the story there. In fact I believe he’s visiting Emerald and Gladstone today.
I think we live in the best country on Earth and our easy going attitude is part of what makes it great.
And you forgot to mention writers as not having the day off. Although I doubt you’d find many who cry about it. 🙂