Today marks the day that a fleet of British ships arrived to Sydney Cove in New South Wales, and it’s 226 years since the Flag of Great Britain was raised to proclaim British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.
The name Australia Day… has evolved over time, and so have the meaning of it’s celebrations.
Wikipedia says
“In contemporary Australia, celebrations reflect the diverse society and landscape of the nation, and are marked by community and family events, reflections on Australian history, official community awards, and citizenship ceremonies welcoming new immigrants into the Australian community.”
Tourism Australia describe it succintly as
“a day for Australians to celebrate everything that’s great about being Australian.”
So what is being Australian all about?

Last November I popped down to London from the North, to attend WTM 2013 at the ExCeL. With lots of work to do before and during the trade show, and evening events filling up the rest of the time, I was in no mood for a shared dorm… in a hostel. I teamed up with a few friends and bloggers to share a City Marque apartment in central London and managed to capture a few London landscape photos with my new fish-eye lens.

In November I was invited to visit the luxury hotel ‘Constance Le Prince Maurice‘ in Mauritius, to make a video for them. As the days were getting shorter in the UK and Christmas loomed, it wasn’t a hard decision for me. I was only there for 4 days and change, but when you see the pictures below and my video, you’ll know why it was worth the journey.…

I met lots of friendly faces on my visit to Bologna for Blogville last summer. It’s one of the highlights of travel. To learn about other cultures, hear what people have to say, and to connect over shared interests – often the travel itself. (And food – let’s not forget the food.) During an action-packed week in Emilia Romagna, I managed to snap a few photo’s of the folks I met and spent time with, including Italian people and fellow bloggers.…

For anyone in need of a large dose of pure inspiration, here it is. Road to Free Rider is a great video made by Oli Lyon and Nathan Murphy, a couple of young climbers. But almost as interesting as the extreme sport is Oli’s intro to the film. It will certainly resonate with a lot of people who make daily sacrifices to be able to do something different or something that they love.…