Happy Invasion Day

William has booted me into life again. But I do indeed use Facebook most days - especially now that we have the orange man to talk about. 

But the lack of posting is not all my fault. There are those dogs - and many other things also intrude on my ability to blog. 

My main preoccupation over the last two weeks has been doing Cate’s US tax return. This is a truly horrendous process and takes much more time than it should but Uncle Sam wants to know many, many things - and wants a piece of everything. 

Then I have had to worry about our trip to Mongolia to see our relatives and attend a hair cutting ceremony for my nephew and then planning for our trip to Patagonia where Cate will walk 250 kilometers in 5 days. I shall think about her while I lol about in the nearest hotel. 

But back to Estonia. My $9.99 purchase of an Estonian language app was pointless. Everyone - and I mean everyone - speaks very good English. 

However we did have trouble at the supermarket where we went to get supplies. Most things were obvious except for butter and we ended up with cream cheese. However this did prove to be quite good on toast. It could become a habit. If you happen to be in Estonia and need butter - it is ‘voi'. 

We were much more successful than we were when we were in St Petersburg where we bought salt instead of sugar, Yoghurt instead of milk - and dust instead of cereal. We never did find out what it was - it may have been wheat bran. 

Tallinn is quite wonderful - as is Riga. Vilnius is not really worth visiting but it was only a flight of an hour so we went to have a look. There are some fabulous Art Nouveau buildings in Riga - look up the images on Google. 

So 26 January is Australia Day. 

This celebrates the landing in Sydney Cove of the First Fleet on 1788. This contained the first white settlers in Australia. There were 13 ships including the ‘Scarborough’ which contained Frederick Meredith my GGGGG grandfather.  

He was not a convict and was a steward to an army captain. One of his wives - and my GGGGG grandmother - was Sarah Mason - and she was a convict - arrived on the second fleet.

So white Australians celebrate Australia Day. 

The indigenous people not so much. They generally call it ‘Invasion Day’ and it represents the day when - after 40,000+ years undisturbed occupation of the wide brown land - they commenced the process of being marginalized and exterminated.

Think American Indians. 

So of course I always celebrate Australia Day - but with a tinge of regret about what happened to the aborigines. Cate and I have aboriginal friends - and the hurt runs deep with them. 

But back to the Home of the Brave.

Now I had thought that sure he was a conman, a serial liar, a cheat, a misogynist, a narcissist, a racist and a gold plated buffoon but since he was inaugurated I really am beginning to think that he is in fact insane. 

This is not the behavior of someone with all his known failings. There simply must be a kangaroo loose in the top paddock for the truly bizarre behavior that is now a daily occurrence.

And it is not just him - they are all doing it. They are all as mad as cut snakes. The things that are happening are simply mind boggling. 

But it is a lot of weird stuff and I wake up eager to see what the crazies have done - and will inevitably do throughout the day. 

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Phillip Prideaux