Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

What date is ANZAC day? Answers: A. 28 April B. 25 April   C. 25 March D. 26 January E. None of the above You can’t become Australian without knowing the answer. It was one of the questions that had me thumbing through the answer booklet, during my on-line Australian citizenship practice test... I was excited to attend my first ANZAC Day ceremony, as an Australian citizen. Luckily jet lag worked in our favour, as we were in Hong Kong on a stop over.  We were up bright eyed and bushy tailed, at the crack of dawn. What is ANZAC day?  ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. It was a typical dreary, slightly muggy, Hong Kong day as we gathered at the Cenotaph. The tall buildings of Central emerge statuesque in the half light of dawn, towering above the small monument below. The flags on the shine are limp and lifeless.  The t...

Wandering in Washington Part One… Georgetown Our daughter choose Washington, when we offered her a weekend  ‘ anywhere you like in America’.   The nation’s capital was a great choice... 28,000 college students live within one mile of Georgetown! She had initially been interested to study at Georgetown University for her semester abroad with Melbourne University, but the courses didn’t match her exchange requirements. However, it is an option for a post graduate exchange. So one of the first things we did, was to take the ten minute taxi ride from our hotel at Dupoint Circle*, to the lively student area of Georgetown to check it out! We were starving that morning and with no hotel breakfast on offer with our bargain room rate, and only a sandwich on board the train the previous night, we weren’t walking anywhere without some decent food, or so we thought! Peacock Cafe desserts were delicious! We’re not exactly foodies, but we do all enjoy a go...

LET'S GET WORDLESS!!

It snowed last week. Whilst the locals are well over their long cold winter,  for those of us visiting from Australia, this was exciting. We don't ever wake to snow on the ground in Melbourne! There was not a humongous amount of snow, no huge deluge that would stop us from getting places, but a pretty amount, a light frosting  that made everything in New England look beautiful. A chilly start to the day We are in the States visiting my daughter on exchange at NYU and were driving to my Uncle and Aunt's house in Litchfield, North Western Connecticut. The town is a two and a half drive from New York city. The drive was an experience for me at the wheel ! We wanted to show our son life out of New York city We loved the quaint main streets and village greens of the small towns along the way, with the American Flags fluttering. Each town we drove through we said "wow - that's pretty!" We said that a lot!   The houses got b...

There is none so brave as a Wren, faced with lugging her increasingly weighty,  shopping-stuffed suitcases  through the crowded New York subway, when her DH announces  that he doesn’t much fancy driving in Manhattan… It’s OK, I’ll drive!  So here I am,  white knuckled at the wheel leaving town. 'The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself' Franklin D. Roosevelt Just follow the ambulance my family said, just in case we need it! Now I learnt to drive navigating Swindon's Magic Roundabout ,  I am used to driving in Melbourne and Hong Kong.  I have driven on the go as-fast-as-you-like autobahns in Germany,  and even coped with the p riorité  à  droite   system  in Belgium,   but driving in New York is pretty, pretty crazy! However, 'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike,  you do not wait  until he has struck to crush him' Franklin D. Roosevelt Thank goodness...