Tina's wanderings around the world

It seems as though Australia has more public holidays than we do in the states. I have to say, in terms of days off, Australia kicks the states' ass. I get four weeks of paid vacation per year, plus 10 (11?) sick days. Although around the Christmas holidays when the offices are closed, there's forced vacation which kind of sucks, but overall it's pretty good. Today is Anzac Day. Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is a day of rememberance for the troops who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey in World War I--it was the first battle against their troops during the war. They were attempting to force Turkey out of the war, but after eight months the battle ended in a stale mate with loss of life of tens of thousands of soldiers. The day the battle began, April 25th, is now the day they recognise the armed forces for their sacrifices. There are memorial services, marches, and a dawn service to link back to the quiet, pre-dawn moments experienced by the troops prior to t...

I'm not entirely sure I have anything in particular to write about at the moment. Marcus is out of town at the moment visiting a friend who lives in rural NSW so I'm holding the fort down at home. Last night we held a donor thank you event, and invited our 280 highest donors to a special dress rehearsal of our production opening at the opera house next week. Other than the director being unhappy that a few people left during the play (rude, certainly, but theater is meant to be divisive and to challenge), it was smooth sailing. It's funny, most people here would go out for a night on the town after a Friday night play (especially one that gets out at 9:00 pm), but I was really happy to go home afterward. I really enjoy being at home... Then today I went and picked up the lovely Maria from the ferry wharf (that's right, another stint at driving on the left side of the road) and went outlet shopping. A sweater, a hat and a scarf for $30. That's cheap even for US stand...