This has been something of an event filled weekend for me. I went to Gem club on Friday night and sawed a couple of rocks in half for my nephew, then after a late night, I had a very full Saturday. My cousin and I went to Creative Memories Scrapbooking day and scrapbooked all day, with a break for lunch - caesar salad at the Blue Bottle cafe - yum. Afterwards we walked down Gregory street to the Strand and watched the "Living Heroes" parade for VP60 day. Lots of veterans in very nice old cars, plus some very large pieces of current military equipment and people..the machines were large, not the people. After that we went down to the beach with the old picnic blanket and ate beef in lime and coriander with noodles (using chopsticks - in the dark) and waited for the fireworks display - we had a ring side seat. A jet went by at the end and hit the afterburners so we had a very impressive show.
Today I went to the memorial for the Battle of Porton (1945). My Cousin Bill (or rather my dads cousin), fought in it and was one of four survivors to unveil the plinth commemorating those who fought and those who died there. The death toll was pretty shocking and all who spoke said something about the tactical decision making to send the men in being badly flawed. The battle had been swept under the carpet until the daughter of one of the commanders wrote a book this year which brought it to the attention of those who make decisions about such things as memorials. Since Townsville was having VP60 this year, and most of the men at Porton came from Townsville regiments, they made a memorial at Anzac park. As my cousin Bill said, "about bally time".
Now I'm at uni setting up the freeze drier to refresh some silica beads. Speaking of which....
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