Chinese New Year: The Year of the Dog
Happy Chinese New Year everyone! The festivities in the Fortitude Valley Chinatown were pretty good. There was a small stage setup in the middle of the area and red lanterns were hung from every roof and ledge.
They even had an ice sculpture of a dog in honour of the year of the dog carved live in the summer sun for all to see.
Also included in the stage show lineup was a
martial arts demonstration,
Chinese opera, and a
dragon dance. You can check out my Flickr Album for lots more
Chinese New Year photos.
Chinese Lions do a dance
Ozzie! Ozzie! Ozzie! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Happy Australia Day everyone! It was a lovely (but hot) day out for the annual event. I went to the city to see the sights, and the River Queen was giving free 40 minute rides up and down the Brisbane river, but the line was crazy long when I got there for the first ride of the day so I decided against it.
There were also rides, well... one ride, a ferris wheel, yay!
After spending some time down by the river and gathering up some free sunscreen from the Suncorp tent, I made my way down the river (by boat) to the Story Bridge Hotel for the 25th Annual Australia Day Cockroach races.
The races run all day long and anyone can enter. The races are sponsored by several different companies including Coca Cola and several beer companies, there's a lot of drinking at these events.
The cockroaches are marched into the ring with a bagpipe band and are announced each by name. The roaches are often given funny names, similar to in horse racing, with names like "Lord of the Drains", "Suck My Cockroach" or "Sir Roach a Lot".
Each roach is marked with a number on their shells so they can tell who the winner is. The roaches start off in the centre ring and whichever 3 roaches make it past the outer ring first are the winners. Winners are awarded with all sorts of prizes as well, including a fair sized trophy as well as gift type prizes like money, fancy cd players or gift packs with food.
After leaving the races I made my way back downtown in time to see the parade. There were the usual marching bands and things, feel free to have a look at my Flickr Album for
more parade pics. It was all great fun, and before the parade started they gave out lots free stuff to the waiting crowds.
During the parade there was this one company that sells meats like sausages and things and for their float they had a working barbeque and were giving out free sausages with fried onions as they made their way down the parade route!
The day ended with a fireworks show down by the river, and now that I think of it, I think I've seen more fireworks shows in one year here than I have any other year of my life.
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