Anzac Day

Anzac day.  Fionn promised to wake his dad in the morning so they would get to the dawn service in time.  Fionn took this responsibility very seriously and came into our room at 4.15 am.  He tried again at 4.46 and eventually we rose at 6am.  Fionn and FH went to the dawn service and later on I took Mary K to the cemetery service.  We collected flowers from my garden and hers and took them, with poppies, to Mary's husband Lou's grave and to his brother's grave.  Lou was a prisoner of war in WW2 and it was on April 25th that he was captured in Crete.   For all of Mary's long married life, the Women's Section of the RSA has been very important to her and she was glad to see some of those women today, even though she is now too frail to join in with making sandwiches and serving tea after the dawn service.  We weren't Anzac day service attenders before we moved to the Coast and I am in no way pro-war, but knowing Mary and Lou has given this day a significance beyond the general remembrance for us.

Blue Milk brings an interesting series of articles relating to Elisabeth Badinter to our attention.

Wednesday 25 April
Breakfast: I had beetroot salad and I think the others had eggs.
Lunch: I had chicken sandwiches and the others had baked beans.
Tea: I made a stove top stew of garlic, onions and anchovies with pumpkin, chopped bacon ends, tomatoes and broccoli.  Then at serving time I added chopped brasil nuts.

Bacon ends are cheaper than sliced bacon at our butchery and give plenty of flavour in a stew.  I put in anchovies for flavour and for omega 3 benefits.

And truly the best part of the day in terms of a treat for me?  FH took the children to the park in the afternoon and I had a sleep.  There is no present better than peaceful sleep.

Comments

Annanonymous said…
I think that reflecting on people's actual, real experiences during war (and thinking critically about war itself) is exactly the way ANZAC day should be spent. I feel like the day has become less reflective over the years, which is a shame.
April 25, 2012 at 10:14 PM
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