We rose early Friday morning to attend the 7am Anzac Day Dawn  Service arranged by the Australia-Uruguay Camera/Chamber, and actually, although we were prompt starting in the cold wind, ‘Dawn’ was prolly technically about 15 minutes earlier.  When John Prentice began with the introduction to the observance, we could look out through the distinctive naval theme sculpture behind him at the Plaza Vigilio, Punta Gorda,  and on the horizon count 14 ships waiting to enter the port,  which equalled the number of attending souls, 14.  Our honorary consul Diego Paysee laid the wreath, and John Shaw, next to John P (in black) later performed the Last Post and the Reveille/Rouse.

The piper, Gonzalo, played stirringly, and in my conversation with him afterwards, he had very complementary words about the Victorian Police Band pipers of years gone by, and one of my own favourites, The Bad Piper whom he described as a highly accomplished technically brilliant piper – and so say all of us!!!! I’m a total fan, by the way.

At the solemn stage of the observance, yours truly is pictured reading the poem ‘On Flanders Fields’ that I always seem to get roped in to read; I know, it doesn’t look as if I am speaking, but that is just when Graciela took the shot. I got through it all without faltering – phew.

The three young Aussie lads appearing in these two pics, were visiting Montevideo from Newcastle.    I didn’t get their names, but Marianna, the Kiwi holding their flag might have.  Their parents would have been proud of them.   They were due to leave the country a few hours after this, but they found time to come along.  Travel well boys.  It was cold this morning, as I am sure it was in many of the places that Aussies and Kiwis gathered for observances and marches.