Australia Day weekend in the Nation's Capital

Well I had quite a pleasant long weekend.  How about you? :)

Saturday morning I headed down to the lake for the F/A-18 flyby.  Took a photo of cannons while I waited..

Cannons by the lake
Right on time (I think), the F/A-18s flew up from the south east.  They were very fast and very loud.  I didn't trust myself with burst mode, but did get this nice shot of them just as they were separating.

F/A-18 Hornets
Then they fired the cannons.  I could feel the shockwave from them from where I was standing some distance back.

Cannons firing
On the way back to the car snapped this pic of a duck..

Duck swimming through reflection of Carillon
Then I headed off to Cancon, where Stu was competing.  I got there in time to see him finish his first battle.

Stu's first battle at Cancon
Damien requested this photo of an army in the "ancient" section.  I don't know who ended up winning, but the line held remarkably well, and they'd killed three of the four elephants at one point when I looked over..

Ancient army at Cancon
At lunch, Damien and Stu and I headed off to "New Asia" in Dickson.  Damien is a regular there and now is on first name terms with the staff :)   We had some delicious (if slightly *warm*) food there before heading back to Cancon for the afternoon session.

The beginning of Stu's second battle

Start of Stu's second battle
A close up of one of Stu's guns

Artillery closeup
And some more of his guns

Closeup of Stu's dudes
After the games, we came home, and Natalie and Andrew came over for pizza and movies.  I slightly overcooked the pizzas, whoops.  We watched Dr Strangelove, and Shakespeare in Love.  I think they had a nice time.. :)

Sunday morning Stu headed off to Cancon while I painted and built model aeroplanes, washed the sheets, did several days worth of washing up, etc. 

For dinner we went to Mamak Corner in Garran with some of the other war gamers.  More good food there.  I had some fried ice cream for dessert - haven't had that in ages.

Fried Icecream
Stu played both these dudes on his first day

Wargamers Phil and Roger
Today was more of the same for me, and indeed more of the same for Stu.

Stu won this trophy - the Captain-General's trophy for chivalrous behaviour (or something like that) :)

Captain-General trophy
Have to go back to work tomorrow.  Doh!!