Yesterday Ann, Tom and I went with Da and her children (Perry and Lana) to the Australia Day Celebration at Glenbrook. I am not a big one for Australia Day, a national day chosen not uncontroversially on the same day that the First Fleet sailed through Sydney Heads. So it is an occasion of joy for some and of disaster for others. There is no other way of characterising the event from an Aboriginal perspective. It was an unmitigated calamity.

I am not much of a patriot either. Nevertheless, it was pleasant enough to hang out at the low-key celebration in Glenbrook, an event that doesn't take itself too seriously, with markets, music, food stalls and civic displays. There is also a gnome festival, which struck me, if not the organisers, as a subversive element. Ann liked it well enough and the kids had a swell time. And we took a few photos.