Chuck and Rhys celebrate Anzac Day with the Aussie Expat Contingent
April 25th is a national day in Australia held in remembrance of the “diggers,” Australian and New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives in the Dardanelles in Turkey during the Second World War.
After what could only be described as a hefty pre-anzac day session the night before, during which we made several promises (with the best of intentions) to rise and shine only hours after arriving home to attend the ex-pat dawn service, Rhys and Chuck overslept by 45 minutes and went back to sleep until midday. We then dusted ourselves off, held a private moment’s silence and headed down to Jumeriah beach to meet up with fellow Aussies Russ, Tess, Mark, Jess, “Gillian” and Knighty to carry on the day. The beach was packed with people reveling in not only the weekend but the 38 degree heat, and no time was lost getting together with our fellow patriots and having a drink in the sun and on the sand. The beach had great atmosphere due to several decorated camels wandering around and the about 50 cars backed up onto it, pumping out all kinds of music from Arabic hits to top forty.
Chuck on the Beach
We took up spots in the water and as the sun began to slowly go down, we took the advice of our Aussie friends and moved on to the beach Bar “Coco Cabana’s.” We sat down for a very long lunch to the sounds of Phil Collins and the Eagles in this brilliant little spot that was straight out of Miami in the 80s, and wound the afternoon with some cocktails.
Rhys with the camels
As we were moving back to the beach to collect our belongings with a somewhat depleted crew after suffering a few casualties, Rhys, Gill and Knighty got involved in a brief spot of beach volleyball before we headed back to Knighty and Gill’s house for a few more glasses of Champagne. Upon arrival, Gill realized that one of them had dropped their house keys, and had no other option but to go back and comb the volleyball court for the keys for a few hours in the dark while Rhys and Chuck moved on to Barasti Bar to keep the party going and rendezvous later. Although Knighty and Gill were understandably spent by the time the key surfaced at 10pm, we kicked on well into the night and made a few new friends in Barasti, including a nice lady who told us her name was Mrs. Robinson. After she had bought us several rounds on her husband’s credit card to tune of our ironic vote of thanks, “here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson,” we said our goodbyes and collapsed into bed, but not before a quick trip to the local petrol station for a well earned visit to the Golden Arches. All in all it was an incredible ANZAC day that I’m sure we’ll both remember for a long time.
Aussie Beach Volleyball Session
The following day we were invited around to Tim and Gill’s place again to make up for being locked out of afternoon drinks the day before and watch the Waratahs brilliant in the super 14. After a few very slow beers and a world class, hangover-busting surf n’ turf lunch cooked by Gill on the Barbie, things really gathered pace when Tim opened a few extra cases of beer and a bottle of Tequila, then Mark and Jess arrived, we put on Phil Collins and once again we had a party on our hands. Although it didn’t go on as late as the ANZAC day, we had a great time and thanks again to Tim and Gill for having us around to their place for a memorable afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment