Maikeru.cc - Blog

Did you know people get out of bed at 7am? Because I didn’t…well, certainly not on Australia Day. I thought Australia Day is when you get to sleep in and rest your voice ready to shout “OI OI OI” in reply to the random, usually intoxicated people who run around frantically shouting “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!”. Not that I reply in such situations, of course . But anyway, everyone in the house had to get up early to go and watch our mother become an Australian Citizen at our local citizenship ceremony, where she took “the pledge” with 19 others. After 30+ years of being in the country, she finally decides to become one of us Yes, 30+ years… Now I thought Australia would be quite an appealing place for people to apply to be a citizen, but maybe that is just me? :S

So what do you get for becoming an Australian Citizen on Australia Day? Well, not only do you get to stand up in front of a crowd and pledge your allegiance to the Queen (of England), and also sing the national anthem for the first time as an Australian, you also get your certificate and bag full of little gifts. I would say the most notable gift is a small, native Australian tree wrapped in decorative plastic. I would assume the purpose of the small tree is to symbolize each person’s birth or life as a new Australian, however, that tree is eventually going to die…and quite quickly if someone manages to bury it with the decorative plastic still around its base :O But besides that point, I think it is actually a very thoughtful idea

Oh, and before the ceremony the organizers were actually kind enough to provide a free breakfast for everyone. I was quite surprised as quite a lot of people turned up for it…which made my mother even more nervous about the ceremony as she doesn’t like standing up in front of crowds But she didn’t really need to be worried, as everything went really smoothly. Well, besides the part where all the to-be new Australians had to get up from the crowd and sit in their designated seats on the stage… By accident, a man had sat in my mothers chair, causing her worry-levels to skyrocket for a few moments as organizers tried to find her a replacement one. But after THAT, and having to sit in a chair with a males name on it, everything was fine.

So after the Citizenship Ceremony, we went home and me and my sister lazed around watching the Border Security marathon on Foxtel (Lifestyle Channel) for about 3-4 hours…which surprisingly took a lot of energy out of me :p . The most funny thing on there was when a Border Security Officer (or whatever they are called) took about 7 apples from a lady who couldn’t speak English. The non-English-speaking lady got really upset, and eventually chucked a tantrum and grabbed an apple back from the Officer and threw it at her :O And then again attempted to shove them all back in her suitcase…lol…It turns out though that in Chinese Medicine apples are prescribed to cure a sore throat, which is why the lady got so upset, and apparently also justifies throwing an apple at an Officer, as she managed to walk away without a fine lol.

After working hard all day watching Border Security, at about 6:20pm I headed off to the train station with all my Australia Day gear (including a wearable flag, hand held flag and a “yobbo hat”) to meet some friends to go to Perth to watch the SkyWorks (fireworks). Because there was already an Australia Day party going on at my house, I had to walk in the sweltering heat to the station…OK it wasn’t sweltering…but it was hot…and at the time I was too embarrassed to even attempt to use my wearable flag to help protect me from the heat (I could just imagine all these people beeping their horns at me as they drove by, or worse shouting “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE” ). So after fighting a losing battle against the sun, I manage to arrive at the station…and miss my train Meaning I had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train… But soon enough I met up with my friends (Chloe, Jen and Jared) to head off to Perth by train, which thankfully wasn’t as packed as I had feared it was going to be…but it did fill up quite a bit as we neared closer to Perth.

We arrived in Perth at about 7:45ish, and walked around for a while to check things things out…and within minutes were greeted to “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE” which would be a common occurrence throughout the night, but you eventually get used to it. So after checking things out, me and Jared decide we are hungry, and Jen decides she wants a frozen coke, so we headed off to McDonalds in the inner city (we had time to kill, as fireworks didn’t start until 9pm). After walking against a crowd who were heading down to where we came from, we finally made it to a McDonalds only to find quite a long line that stretched out the door, so Jen suggests we go to another McDonalds close by (yes, there is more than one McDonalds in Perth lol…)… So we walk to the next one only to find a BIGGER line (thanks, Jen ) and more people shouting “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE”, but not being energetic to walk back to the one with the shorter line, we simply waited in line until we got what we wanted (I had a large McNugget meal, if you were wondering :p ). After that, we walked alllll the way back down to the foreshore and found a place amongst nice, non drunk families ready to watch the SkyWorks. Whilst waiting, a little girl insisted on apologizing to Chloe for her brother *accidentally* hitting her, after which she ran and almost tackled her brother A nice thought, but I really don’t think the tackling was a necessary punishment lol. 

To the right is a picture that the father of that little girl kindly took for us

So at about 9pm, right on time I guess, the SkyWorks started. They lasted for about half an hour, and not only came from the middle of the river off of floating barges, but also from the rooftops of some of the city buildings. Because we weren’t sitting South of the river, the river was in front of us and the city behind us, so at times it became a little confusing as to where to watch, but overall they were really good (Apparently costing whoever pays for them a few million more than last year). They were so good, in fact, that Chloe, who is a dedicated English-woman (as in, loving all things England as she is from there), surprisingly said they were much better than the famous London fireworks :O Oh, and that the London Eye isn’t as good as it as made out to be… I believe this was Chloe’s inner patriotic Australian side trying to escape, but she did manage to suppress it by stating that the new multi-million dollar Perth Ferris Wheel isn’t any better :(  But hey, I can dream After the fireworks were finished, we battled the huge crowds for about half an hour to get back into the train station, and then waited inside until we could fit on to one of the packed trains. On the way back, you couldn’t really move inside the train at all…but Chloe insisted on giving up her seat for somebody else, which nobody actually took until Jared stood up too…lol To amuse themselves standing up, Chloe and Jared attempted to bluetooth files to any mobile they could on the train, which included a picture of Jared rummaging through a bin, an audio file of me singing , and even a picture of the chair that Chloe gave up to try and advertise it and get someone to sit in it… Me and Jen were still sitting down, and eventually we got in on a plan with the lady in front of us to try and get Chloe or Jared to bluetooth a file to her phone…Why, you may ask? Well, me, Jen and the lady in front of us wanted to see the look on Jared and Chloe’s faces when they found out that “HOTMUMMA”, the bluetooth name they were debating loudly about (trying to figure out who it was) actually belonged to the lady standing right next to them. Everyone got a laugh out of it when it actually worked, and Chloe and Jared were indeed shocked Sadly, we had to say goodbye to HOTMUMMA soon after, though.

When the train got less and less packed as we went past each station, we were able to meet up with our friends, Alex, Tiarne, Kate and Trent, who were also at the SkyWorks and despite lining up later than us, managed to get on the same train. So we chatted to them the rest of the way back. When it came to me getting off the train though, because it was dark I couldn’t see where the platform was and didn’t know where to exit the train, but after going between both sides of the train trying to figure out what door to use, some friendly people directed me to the correct door and thus saving me some embarrassment (if not knowing which door to exit from wasn’t embarrassing enough…).

So THAT was my Australia Day…Citizenship Ceremony-Border Security-Perth Skyworks-HOTMUMMA :> How was your Australia Day? (leave a comment :p )

Oh and a site related note: I have fixed up A LOT of the pages the past few days, and something more exciting, if you search “maikeru” on Google, you will find my website and blog on the 14th page!! *cue woo girl voice* WOOTTT!!. Of course, I hope that my ranking on Google gets better over time, but just being in the database makes me happy for now

For now, Jya Mata.

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