anzac biscuits

Next week I'm going to be heading bush for the whole week with 19 other colleagues for some 'cross cultural training'. This is sure to lead to much bitching / gossip, and hopefully some good times too.

Aust war memorial

There's gonna be heaps of driving, so to keep us from having rumbly tummies, I think I'm going to cook up a whole batch of Anzac biscuits. They keep for ages, and given that today is Anzac day, the timing is appropriate. I was annoyed at myself this morning - I slept through my alarm and didn't make it to our local dawn service, so instead I watched the ones at Gallipolli and Villers Bretonneux on the ABC.

Anzac services always make me cry. I'm not particularly patriotic or religious, but the thought of all of those men, many the age of my little brother, fighting a war so very far from home makes me very upset. About 60,000 Australians died in WWI - massive for a country of only 1 million at the time. I did read once that it was the greatest number of deaths per capita of any country involved in WWI. The effect that it had on the psyche of the country seems to live on in the emphasis placed on observing Anzac day. I don't buy into that whole 'birth of a nation on the shores of Gallipolli' stuff, but there's no denying the imprint that it has left on our culture.

Lest we Forget.