Weekly Contest - Best Diary Game | January 5th, 2024, A Visit To Australian Parliament, and Dinner with My Wife

My Friday started as usual at about 6.30 in the morning, and I soon finished my routine in the washroom and went back to my workstation. As usual, I could see none of my Indian coworkers online because the time in India was around 1.30 in the morning.

  

  
However, I had a couple of emails from my directors. I responded to them and went to my dining table.

I had a light breakfast of watermelon, cucumber, and orange juice and went back to my workstation. In fact, I did not feel like working after two in the afternoon, so I asked my wife to get ready for an outing.

  
Meanwhile, I fixed the dishwasher and programmed the robocleaner to clean the sitting area. I manually did the dining area.

I then had a few calls and also talked to my local coworkers. Everything was under control, so there was no emergency on any work front.

That means we could go to visit the Australian Parliament and have some quality time with my wife and two coworkers who wanted to join us there.

Noon

I left my workstation at Dot at 2 p.m. and reached the parliament at 2.20. p.m. We parked our car in the free zone for 2 hours and walked to the main entrance. My wife made it before I did, so she was the first target of my camera.

  
There is a waterbody that gives off a fast-flowing river, but can you guess how deep it is? I saw my wife approaching there and meeting our coworkers, who were already there a few minutes before and busy shooting each other.

The depth of this river-like water body is just 2–3 inches, and it's built in a way that makes it flow fast. It has stone strips fixed at the bottom that make water flow and give the impression that water is flowing at a fast speed.

While my wife was talking to our friends, I took their pictures.

I took a picture of the top of the Parliament House. I could see the clouds suddenly turning gray, but that's how the weather in Canberra remains throughout the year unpredictable, and you never know when it starts drizzling.

The lunchtime was over, so we made a move towards the entry of the house and soon were in the queue for formal checking of our gadgets.

  
Once out of the security office, we entered the big hall with nothing worth mentioning, so we moved to level 1 and found ourselves in front of the "Reflections Gallery."

Viewing galleries in the chambers and Great Hall

We could see pictures of all the former Prime Ministers in this gallery, including Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia. We saw the picture of the late Queen in the center.

  
We kept walking from one gallery to another and then reached the food and refreshments area, which is named after the queen, "Queen’s Terrace Cafe," which was soon to be closed at 4 p.m., so we had a cup of coffee in the open area as the main hall was fully occupied.

  
After finishing coffee, we walked to the "Shopping and Souvenirs" area and enjoyed the beauty and design, although none of us bought a single item. They say this shop was closed for a long time and opened recently.

  
I had never visited this shop before on my previous trips, so I didn't even know that it existed or had such a beautiful collection of quality products in its store.

Evening

In the meantime, the session was over, and we moved towards the visitor gallery, where we wanted to see the main hall sitting on the chairs meant for this purpose. I took a couple of pictures here, and since the closing time was approaching fast, we left and came out of the main building.

Main Committee Room

Let me tell you that no photography or filming of security arrangements or chamber proceedings is allowed, so we did not go to this area until the session was in progress. We do not want to break the rules and follow all directions and rules provided by the security staff.

We had a funny incident in the car park. As our time for two hours of parking was exhausted, we thought we should bring our car and park it in the forecourt basement car park near the lifts, which is free for one hour, but we overstayed by one minute, so we had to pay $7.50 for that extra minute, which hurt us a lot.

We stayed there for another half an hour and left for Gungahlin Suburb, where we wanted to eat at Chitkazz, a typical Indian vegetarian restaurant that we had visited four years ago. We could have reached there at 7.15, but one of our friends lives in that area, so he called us for a drink.

We spent about an hour and a half at his residence and had a drink and a few snacks. We then left his house and reached the restaurant at about 9.30 and ordered a plate of Chole Tikki, one plate of Dahi Bada, and two spicy drinks. We stayed there for about an hour because, being a Friday night, the restaurant was crowded and the service was slow.

We came back home at about 10.30, and I went to my laptop to check Steemit. My wife finished a few small jobs pending her attention and, of course, countless messages on WhatsApp, in and out.

That's all for the day, guys. My best wishes for a wonderful weekend.

Canberra 3.15 p.m., January 6th, 2024.

I invite @senehasa, @josepha and @suboohi for their own experiences, and thanks to @saintkelvin17 for inviting me here.