I wasn't amongst the lucky ones to get my name pulled out of a ballot to be able to attend the Centenary ANZAC service at Gallipoli in Turkey. I actually didn't even know it was happening until after the ballot closed, so yeah. I wasn't keen on going to Turkey anyway - seemed like it would be busy as hell and probably horrendously expensive. Turkey, and likely Gallipoli will be on the cards at some point, just not yet. So instead, I joined a few other Britbounders at the ANZAC Dawn Service held at the Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner. It wasn't my first dawn service - I haven't been a regular attendee mind you, but I've probably been on average every second year for the last 7 or so years and given it was the Centenary, this was one that should be observed. We'd organised to meet about 3.15-3.30am; the service didn't start until 5.00am however we all had the school of thought that we didn't want to get up early and find that we couldn't get in, as they said if capacity was reached they'd turn people away. We got in alright, with barely a queue for the 8 or so metal detectors and screening points they had in the only entry point into the square/park. Initially we stood on a spot that was on a slight rise sort of left-back of the Arch where the ceremony was going to be, but it was already 8 deep at this point and not even me with my height was able to see over the crowd to see anything in the ceremony clearing despite the rise. Thanks to Sasha's spotting, after a while we moved right around to the far right corner - we found a spot that was 90 degrees to the main podium, right up against the fence where the was no-one standing. It was then that we noticed there was a big line walking past the outside fence of the park - one that stretched from the main entrance down one side of the square, along another side and then doubled back on itself. The hoardes were arriving - we got in at the right time! The weather was a little bit damp, and it got colder as the sun came up strangely. Our view of the Podium got blocked by Royal Soldiers in their red uniforms and large black fluffy hats, armed with instruments as they were the band. Not that it mattered, since we could see through them and see who was speaking, plus we could see far more than we could have at the original spot. In the end, at our spot it became about 4 or 5 deep right before the ceremony - it would have been much, much more round the other side. About the most interesting thing that happened in the lead-up to the ceremony was an older man trying to get his way through the fencing a bit further along than where we were, and having a bit of a run in with one of the security guards - turns out this man was former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who must have arrived a bit late and had to walk past in front of us and push his way through the band to get to where he was meant to be. Some Aussies behind us then started up with a bunch of anti-Rudd comments, but were stopped by the ceremony beginning.
Other than that, I didn't get up to much else save some domestic chores over the weekend - still, what I did get up to was something!