Talking earlier about the French singing "La la la la la" until the chorus of their National Anthem yesterday reminded me of a hilarious event from 2000, while the Sydney Olympics were on.
Baby Jane was over from NZ and we were on holiday together with the kids, taking a camper van up the East Coast of Australia, when we stopped off in a camping ground in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.
Around sunset I took the kids for a shower, and we were all in our separate stalls when the kids started to chat about the Olympics - which we were only seeing bits of since we didn't have a TV - and Ella asked me "How does the Australian National Anthem go?"
I'm from Fiji so I didn't really know, but I'd heard it lots of times so replied with singing what I knew of the song: "Australians all, let us rejoice for we are young and free. With something something something something, something something sea!"
"Oh, for heavens sake!" came an old lady voice from another stall. "Now, you listen up, children! It goes like this." and she sang the entire song ...
... and then, in the strictest voice, she says "I want to now to sing it with me! Your mother as well!" and, from her shower stall with the shower still running and the sun slowly setting, she gave us each line in turn and we had to sing it with her. "And now do the whole thing." she said sternly ...
... and we did. And although we never saw the old lady's face, we and the kids now know all the words of the Oz National Anthem.
And let me find it for you so you too can imagine you're in a quickly darkening shower stall, with the water rapidly cooling, singing this song:
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