Woohoo! Howdy Hagar:) And mega congrats to you and your lady:)

Cheers guys, we've been together 13 years, and finally decided to stop "living-in-sin". It was a great day and fantastic honeymoon.

Ack! Two anniversaries to remember!

That's why you should always marry them the day you meet them. You only have to remember one date that way.

Barney: Remembering dates is easy!

Andy: Yeah?

Barney:Sure...take 1776 for instance. First you remember the 1, and that's easy 'cause it's the first number in the alphabet. Then you got 7, well, 7 is a lucky number. Then another 7. That's easy 'cause you just remembered 7. Finally...6. 1 from 7 is 6. 1776!

Andy: Wouldn't it be easier to just remember 1776?

Barney (huffily): Well if you wanna do everything the easy way you'll never learn anything.

1776 - The year captain cook (after a few others) discovered Australia.

"Lubricious!" [/Jim Bakkus]
 

;) ...Lurkin', lurkin', quirkin' the gherkin, stuffin' the muffin...

Hominahominahomina.

And the year a conversation in Whitehall (or was it Windsor?) went something like this:

"King George?... Your Majesty? There's something in from the American colonies that you should see: this document that begins 'When in the Course of Human Events...' They've gone to some trouble -- engrossed it on parchment -- lots of signatures on the bottom. Any idea who this John Hancock may be? He rather leaps to the eye."

Well, if not for that war, I would probably be an American and not an Australian.

Now that's a bit of a worry really isn't it?

Which in turn would likely mean we'd've played "Redcoats and Red Indians."

At a century's remove, the bloody departure of the Colonies probably had a lot to do with the much more polite independence of Australia from colony to parliamentary republic.

I think there were a number of factors, but I'm sure that was certainly one of them.

BTW, it was a bit more than 100 years before Australia became the country it is today, and even after we became an independant nation, we kept and still have pretty strong ties to 'the old country'. Much more so than you lot in the US I think.

We've only been self governing for a bit over 100 years actually.

Yeah, I only had an approximate idea and didn't go looking. Figured it was about that long.

Our country's ties with England are not those of Commonwealth, but those of affection, excepting the period 1775-1814 when things were bitter. Cultural connection, over any extensive period of time, trumps political division.

Yet another reason why Americans and Australians frankly get along so famously.

And thus can flirt without resorting to semaphore flags and heliograph to reach across a gulf.

Ahh, Ali, mate, try 1770. :lol: You just failed the citizenship test, unless you can tell me Don Bradman's batting average and/or highest test score without looking them up. :D

UG has the historical relationship about right. The East coast of Australia was mapped and known in London, but little was done, until the USA achieved independence. Needing somewhere else to send their social rejects, they chose ... paradise. Well, Sydney.

Most of the Australian states were self-governing democracies tied to Britain well before national federation.

Oh shit...how embarrassment! Will you just go away? lol I'm going to blame baby brain on this one.

The Dons batting average was 98 or something wasn't it? (I'm hoping I'm right. If I can't be a citizen here what will I do?)

(actually it's funny that you've corrected me, because I felt I was wrong, but then my brain said, no you're right. It just goes to show, I should never trust my brain.)

The first fleet did arrive in 1788 though right? ;)

:D 1788 is right, so I'll stand down the immigration raid.

98 is close: 99.94 is closer. That's why the Post office box of the ABC is always 9994 in your capital city.

(For non-cricketers, the second best batting average in history is barely 60. Averaging 99 means you're about 50% better than the second best guy in history. Only a few dozen have averages over 50.)