Australia Day 2012

Wow, what a beautiful day! Today is Australia Day and if you take away the people who want to cause controversy or to make a name for themselves and the long drawn out speeches by politicians it all really comes down to celebrating the wonderful country that we live in.

It is all about being grateful that we have the opportunities that we do, the ability to voice our opinions and the freedom to be who we want to be. Yes of course there are things that we don't like or agree with but isn't it nice to know that we can openly discuss them? And like a good Aussie the day is all about spending time with family and friends...mateship is important to Australians.

I was honoured to have been nominated for an Australia Day Award, Citizen of the Year for the City of Darebin. Russ and I headed up to the Preston Town Hall along with other nominees and 100 people who were about to take the Citizenship oath and become Australian Citizens. Boy did that bring back memories from 2005 when I too became an Australian citizen.

Darebin is amazingly multicultural. There are 130,000 people living in the area and they are from 148 different countries, speaking 105 languages. No one can tell me that Australia isn't multicultural!

It was wonderful to see people of every age reading the oath and receiving their certificate, congratulations to all of our new citizens.

As for me, no I wasn't named Citizen of the Year, but I was very proud to stand up there on the stage with the other nominees!

So to all Australians...Happy Australia Day! Oh and now for the traditional Aussie BBQ with home grown Australian Lamb!