What are your plans for AD? I will just watch the march on TV, reflect, get emotional and hopefully queue up for a free lunch somewhere. I'll give the Dawn Service a miss simply because for me it's too emotional.

If you live in Canberra the Vietnamese bakery @ Wanniassa shops will give any service/ex service person free coffee & a cake at any time simply as a mark of respect which I think is a generous gesture...

vollunteering basil, helping when and where I can and yakking to the diggers, well those that are left anyway

That gesture of coffee and cake certainly does sound generous, especially when you consider the source of the generosity. I find ANZAC emotional as well. I don't have any direct connections to returned or serving servicemen, but I'm a member of Sing Australia, and in Cairns we are singing for the elderly who can't get out to the RSL and the services. Sing Australia is invited to sing for many community groups around Cairns. I find it a great social outlet, like Grey Nomads. It gives me a chance to sing among friends. The only qualification is you have to enjoy singing, but you don't have to be good at it. To everyone involved in ANZAC Day I wish you all well, and enjoy the day as it's meant to be enjoyed while we will always remember them.

hell sing to the diggers, poor buggers, havent they suffered enough LOL!!

Ah, but Dave, you haven't heard the Sing Australia Cairns group belt out a tune. We're bloody good! That's why they keep inviting us back. It's not in the hope we've improved since last year, because they don't score our performance. Well, I don't think so. Jeez, now you've got me thinking. Perhaps I'd better warn the others. It's really all good fun. Then there's the coffee and cake afterwards. Cheers.

I try to avoid the public side of the day, too many tin hats ,flak jackets and the smell of jet fuels and napalm for me. I just don't have that much fight in me anymore to be ducking under tables to avoid the incoming or to arm wrestling with a schooner or two while listening to often exaggerated tales from the front, time and alcohol have a habit of doing that as we age. Will remember lost mates and the good times we had but will do it at home with family.

I can undersand why it's hard for all. Most prefer to remember the fun times which seems to help them deal with the worst times. No one ever recovers completely from those hellish experiences. My RSL mates always remember, and the rest of the country never forgets what they have done. Take care.