Unfortunately, this year’s Canada Day has been shrouded in mystery. Usually, the Canadian Flag is flown from the flagpole in Commonwealth Park (since the flagpole was a gift from Canada). However, cycling in to work today, I noticed that the flag was awfully blue and contained both the southern cross and the Union Jack. Obviously, I need to see whether the two countries have reached some sort of diplomatic impasse. In the meantime, I’ll use this photo I found on the web to give you an idea of how it should have looked (and certainly did last year).

We had a few people over to experience a spread of Canadian cuisine including home-made (where else were we going to get them?) butter tarts and nanaimo bars. And, just like cranberries at Canadian Thanksgiving, there was a shortage of Canadian beer at all of the local bottleshops.

The Wallabies returned to Canberra for the first time since 2001 (so I am told). With the recent signing of Matt Giteau, it was also our first chance to get a look at how the Brumbies back line might function next season. In fact, the game featured some great plays by the Wallabies which were carried out solely by players contributed from the Brumbies. I suppose it wasn’t surprising that the crowd was occasionally chanting “Brumbies (clap, clap, clap) Brum… er… Wallabies (clap, clap, clap)”.

It has been a fairly cold week here, and Saturday evening didn’t disappoint. I think the temperature was close to 0C by the end of the game. Good thing we weren’t playing the All Blacks — they might be accustomed to those kind of temperatures.

The game itself wasn’t too exciting. The Italians never had any consistent drive towards the try line. Matt Giteau provided pin point accurate kicking, and managed to be in the right place at the right time to cross the line too. As the announcers stated, the score at one point was: Matt Giteau 22, Italy 7.

The last few days have been unbelievably hot. I’m not kidding — it was 43C on Saturday. Our strategy for beating the heat has been to take in lots of movies and any indoor exhibits which have AC.

We didn’t get off to the greatest start. After walking to the Greater Union in Manuka, we were greeted with the devastating news that the theatre was closed. I figured their air-con was broken, but that wasn’t the case. It just wasn’t working well enough to run the projection equipment. I was tempted to pay the $10.00 just to sit in the air conditioned theatre and stare at a blank screen.

Instead, we took in the Degas exhibit at the National Gallery, and then stuck around for the KarismaKatz outdoor concert afterwards. Around 11pm the breeze from the lake started to feel “cool”. At the end of the concert, the thermometer in the car read 35C, if I remember correctly.

The Subaru now feels like a formula one race car when we drive along Gilles street. The road has melted several times over the last few days, instantly transforming everyone’s tyres into racing slicks. Bits of gravel have been flying everywhere, sections of the road are now missing, and most of the markings on the road have disappeared under a layer of molten tar. In the meantime, it looks like “us to” will have to stand for “bus stop”.

Well, it’s not like gdayeh.com is now officially up-to-date, but at least the photos from the Christmas road trip are up. Witty commentary to follow at some point (hopefully).

For all the Canadians who didn’t get the tag line, you’ll have to watch the Australia Day commercial on YouTube.

It’s a rare circumstance to see the Aussies battling for their pride. But after dropping the Perth and Melbourne tests to South Africa, that’s exactly what the Sydney test has become. I suppose the only thing worse than loosing a series (especially at home) is getting swept — so there is definitely something still worth playing for!

Since we had taken the inland route on the way to Coff’s, we figured a change of scene along the Pacific Highway would be a good alternative route home. And we’d be passing through Sydney just in time to avoid the post New Year’s Eve mayheim, as well as catching the first day of the Sydney test. So, with tickets in hand, we made our way to the Randwick end of the Sydney Cricket Ground.
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