Happy 4th of July!

As far as I can tell, Americans celebrate the 4th of July the same as Australians celebrate Australia Day: with fireworks and BBQs.

A group of us reserved some tables at a park and 20-30 of us hung out, played games and ate all day. I loved the massive charcoal BBQ.

You could have 4+ people grilling on this monster, and meat tastes so much better over charcoal. I was so impressed. The BBQs at public parks in Australia are always those shitty electric plates that automatically turn off after 20 minutes, and there are always stories about people peeing on them.

There was so much food! We had burgers, hot dogs, steaks, corn (OMG best corn I’ve had in my life!), vegie burgers, potato salad, pasta salad, cous cous salad, brownies x 2, vegies and dips, chips and salsa, potato chips, fruit, ice cream sandwiches, icy poles, pies, cookies, soft drinks, water, homemade lemonade, lollies and choc chip muffins. 

Here are some of the Aussies eating their red, white and blue icy poles. 

John said he had a surprise for us. And we were like “huh? Random blocks of wood?”

No, Jenga! (Or rather, JohnGa)

I swear I didn’t get them to pose like that; they just naturally happened to all be in thinking stances. I would have taken more photos but I left my phone at homeand James’ phone ran out of battery from using the GPS and videoing JohnGa.

Also three dogs made an appearance. There was Annie, who enjoyed the fresh air and smell of meat:

Bud, who was very pleased to meet James:

And of course, Dewey.

At the end of the day we made smores (Graham crackers sandwiching marshmallows and chocolate) over the remaining charcoal.

Check out my super patriotic outfit: red (the sports bra), white and blue.

Nobody is as patriotic as Dewey though. I gave him a little American flag and he ran around carrying it while everyone laughed at him. Unfortunately this is the best photo I got, but at least you can see how much he looks like a little dumpling.

It was a super fun way to spend the 4th of July. =)

Picnic at the Carlton Gardens

It has been a long time since James and I have gone on a picnic – long enough that it counted for my new experience that week. =) A couple of weekends ago we took advantage of the lovely weather to head to the Carlton Gardens.

James picked a nice picnic spot under shade, with a nice view of the water, and far away from shrieking children.

We packed some water, sandwiches and scones, and while we were walking to the gardens we decided to pick up some oysters too. They were $10 a dozen at the Vic Market, and the lady there chucked in one of their display lemons too. =)

Here are the scones, made from this recipe. These were a big hit with James, who gave me his second sandwich so he could eat more scones.

There were supposed to be ducks at the park, so we bought a loaf of stale bread at the Vic Market. We only saw 2 ducks, which was probably the biggest disappointment of the day. We threw some bread at them, but they weren’t really interested. I guess when you are the only 2 ducks at a park you get fed a lot.

This guy was at our lake and kept flapping his wings very elaborately in what we assumed was some sort of mating ritual. Unfortunately there were no other birds around to see it.

After we ate we lounged around on the picnic rug a bit, and then we walked home. It was a nice day, but marred a bit by the lack of ducks – the main reason I wanted to go was to feed them! When we got home I put the loaf of bread in our freezer for next time – no sense in wasting perfectly good bread. =)

Week 1: Made vanilla extract
Week 2: BJJ day camp
Week 3: Used Myki and went to Beatrix
Week 4: Tried new skincare
Week 5: Competed at the Pan Pacs
Week 6: Joined Kiva
Week 7: Tried durian and frog fallopian tube
Week 8: Attended a chicken auction
Week 9: Graded for my BJJ blue belt
Week 10: Went to Isthmus of Kra
Week 11: Makeover at Mecca Cosmetica
Week 12: Tried the Melbourne Bike Share
Week 13: Picnic at the Carlton Gardens