Connie's Blog - March 18 Part 1

The Long Weekend in Canberra was dedicated to celebrating Canberra’s 100^th birthday. This was a great opportunity to do some exciting things with my hubby and the boys. We went to the Enlighten Festival and the Canberra Day Fireworks.

The Enlighten Festival is one of the highlights of the year for me. It is a festival held at night, where art is projected onto some of Canberra’s iconic buildings.

This year the National Gallery was lit up with images of Toulouse Lautrec artwork, Old Parliament House was done in amazing bright colours that made it look like a completely different building and Questacon was covered in science themed artwork. It was amazing; we gazed in wonder at the changing art and enjoyed the anticipation of what the building would look like when it changed every few minutes.

We also saw a show at night where 2 hot air balloons went up, tethered so they couldn’t float away, and there was a trapeze hanging from each basket, with artists doing all sorts of elegant and beautiful dances in the air, suspended under these magnificent balloons. It was a sight to behold and the kids stared at them in wonder.

My brother David, with Willoughby, My hubby, Mike with our little Hammy watching the lights and balloons: good thing we had two strong men to hoist the boys up so they could get a good view.

The trapeze artist hanging from the hot air balloon

The next night we went to the birthday party down by the lake, and saw a most amazing fireworks display. The sky was literally alight with a mass of fireworks, I have never seen so many fireworks going off at once. It was absolutely spectacular.

Fireworks are a favourite of mine. Just after I was diagnosed there were some fireworks on and we went to see them and I was sad and contemplative, wondering if it would be the last time I would get to see fireworks with the kids. It wasn’t. I have had the pleasure of seeing quite a few fireworks shows with them since then, and I hope to see quite a few more.