A Down-Under Fourth of July

When you're in the diplomatic business, your national day isn't a day off - it's just a different kind of work day. And so it was today for the Fourth of July, down here in cool & breezy Canberra.

First, that is the biggest adjustment to living in the Southern Hemisphere. Not so much a warm Christmas - you can have a hot Christmas without leaving the USA. Nope, what is weird is having a cold and blustery Fourth of July. My memories of the Fourth all involve being hot and sweaty, drenched in the humidity of an American midwestern or eastern summer. Except for those years when the Fourth brought nature's own fireworks, raucous thunderstorms and gully-washing rain squalls that had everybody heading for the hills.

So we did the Fourth here, the embassy community and a few hundred official guests, various Australians and foreign diplomats all packing into the big tent set up in the Ambassador's back yard, to mark our national day - Independence Day. At least there wasn't cold rain like last year, but it was still pretty cool, temperature-wise, as we greeted everybody. A few nice words, a neat performance of the Australian and American national anthems by a fife-and-drum group from the Australian National University and the Australian army. American beer and finger foods, snatched conversations, lots of military guys - US, Australian, and other - in their dress uniforms adding a little brass, spit and polish to the affair.

And thankfully some hot coffee to warm my chilled mitts. Not something I usually associate with the Fourth.