A day of Remembrance

As mentioned earlier, today we travelled to Canberra's War Memorial to witness our country's tribute to fallen soldiers from World War 1 on this Remembrance Day 2015.

The morning was cold and a little threatening with grey clouds above but regardless, a group of 10 of us walked into the centre of the city to catch a bus to The Memorial in time to obtain a good posse for the ceremony.

We arrived in plenty of time for the service but alas it started to drizzle just after we got there, and, as we were not ticket holders, had to stand just outside the barriers as we had no allocated seating.

Approximately 5 minutes before the start, the barriers were opened and we could grab a seat if we wanted but Murray and I decided to stay where we were as we had an excellent view of where the dignitaries were to be seated from where we were standing.

We watched as 'important' people were ushered in... The Prime Minister, his wife, the leader of the opposition, Sir Peter Cosgrove, Govenor General and his wife, Tony Abbott and then in a sleek black car arrived HRH Prince Charles and his beloved wife HRH Camilla. 

By then the skies had well and truly opened and umbrellas were the order of the day so, as we stood and watched whilst slowly getting wetter and wetter, the service began.

1100 hrs. brought the obligatory minutes silence. Funny how the discussion of war, the musical notes of 'The Last Post' and the uttering of 'The Ode' always bring me to tears as I think of my father and his father, my uncles who also fought and those innocents who died not knowing why they were in a war far from home as it turned out.

Such an emotional remembrance, despite the lousy weather had people stand in silence for that minute with no distractions to bother us apart from a plane that flew overhead.

All too soon, the service was completed and we dispersed in the rain, pondering how to return to the familiar streets of the university.

We trudged in rain soaked streets away from the War Memorial until we found a bus that would take us back to the heart of the city.

From there it was lunch at the Pancake Parlour which was surprisingly tasty and comforting for our cold bodies.

We stepped out of our lunch eating house to the bus stop and within minutes our number 7 bus was waiting to return us to our temporary home back at the university.