Here and There: Moomba 2010

Monday was Labour Day here in Australia, no school, no work, lots of fun.

Labour Day (or for you Yanks, Labor Day) is an Australian public holiday originally called Eight Hours Day. It celebrates the achievements of organised labour on behalf of the worker to bring about the 8-hour day in the late 1850s. Previously workers were required to work long hours each week . . . 10 to 12 hours a day six days a week.

And here in Melbourne they take the opportunity to hold a weekend of Moomba, which is essentially a celebration of all things Melbourne. There was a carnival all weekend and fireworks every night. Monday morning there was a parade celebrating the things that make the city great.

The parade was split up into multiple themes to celebrate Melbourne

Melbourne is SPORT: cricket, footy (Australian Rule Football), tennis
Melbourne is the ARTS: exhibition street theaters, Arts precinct (national gallery, Australia Center for the moving Image, Ian Potter Center).
Melbourne is the FOUR SEASONS IN A DAY: in one day it will be sunny, windy, rainy and blazing hot. We had a hailstorm in February (mid-summer) with golfball size hail reported. We saw the hail ripping through restaurant awnings as we watched from our window.
Melbourne is PEOPLE: I love the diversity here. Almost everyone you meet is from somewhere different.
Melbourne is FODD AND WINE: The city is certainly not lacking for somewhere to eat, we've found lots of great places and there's always somewhere new we'd like to try. There is a fantastic range of Asian food here, as well as old favorites.

Here are some pics from the fun weekend, we were able to celebrate Monday with some new friends from church- some fellow Texans!

The Moomba girls in the parade

You can't really beat cute kids dressed up like clowns!

The kids loved the "Euro Slide"- which claimed to be the longest traveling slide in the world.

At one point we got caught in a quick rain storm (4 seasons in a day really is true!) and we ducked into one of the children's tents to make a craft, paper flowers: one to keep and one to decorate the people outside.

The flying swings were a big hit with Caleb and Ellie, they rode them twice during the weekend.

Ellie wanted to ride every single scary, fast and crazy ride they had there. Caleb however was too nervous, we finally convinced him that the swing were not very scary, luckily he agreed.