5 Ways an Oz Halloween Is Different from the USA

1. Pumpkins: Pumpkin season has past here....average price per pumpkin is $25.00.

2. Weather: It is hot...low '90's today.

3. Candy: Such a healthy country! Ponygirl & Surferdude went to a Halloween party tonight. They came home full from the BBQ sausages and soda...but they had a total of 4 pieces of candy.

4. Costumes: Costumes were very hard to find. There were mostly paper masks, capes, devil horns, etc.. Therefore, costumes are mainly street clothes with some of the above additions. One pre-teen exemplifies what I am talking about...He was walking around Manly with a plastic shopping bag covered with yellow sticky notes all over his clothes, shoes and face. He was a sticky note dispenser I guess...

5. Trick-or-treating: Houses are tucked away anywhere they can build them on the Sydney shores. Around here, 1 in 10 houses put out pumpkins. Neighbors don't get together in the "cul de sac" and walk around to each others houses. Trick-or-treating is also done before dark. This probably due to the busy roads. It wouldn't be safe in the dark.

Halloween is seen as a northern hemisphere holiday. The pagan Irish celebration welcomed the arrival of Fall/Harvest. Since Australia is entering Summer, it doesn't make much sense. Perhaps the biggest reason Halloween is a dud holiday...Australia is very secular. The whole tradition of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day has no resonance here. One cool thing is that I took the kid's annual Halloween picture on Manly Beach. How many can say they have had their Halloween picture with the Tasman Sea in the background...hmmm?

Things I like this week:

1. Coffee cafes: "Let's meet for a coffee." This has to be one of the best sentences ever uttered. They are busy all morning long. Imagine sitting outside on a beautiful Aussie day, sipping a nonfat latte with a friend. Heaven!

2. Australian nectarines, kiwi, blueberries, strawberries... If fruit isn't dripping down our chins, our family isn't happy.

Things I don't like this week:

1. The American Election: Ponygirl and Surferdude are not experts on our political system...so why do their classmates and teachers ask their opinions about our upcoming election? If they have a question ask me, not them. Better yet, if you can't vote in our election---Don't ask!!!

2. Parking: difficult, expensive and usually parallel

Happy Trick or Treating!!!!

Aussie Slang

Here's a vocabulary list we have been compiling...there will be a test....(just kidding)

Travel vocabulary:

• Sealed vs. Unsealed road - paved vs. unpaved (Not much difference in rural Australia)
• Overtaking lane - highway passing lanes


• Togs - clothes


• Beanie - hat a.k.a ski or stocking cap


• Jumper - sweater


• Singlet/Chesties - tank tops . . . especially for men


• Billy's - wood-burning camp stoves


• Torch - flashlight
• Car Park - Parking lot
• Petrol - gasoline ie: fill up with petrol at the petrol station

Sporting vocabulary:

• Footy - rugby or Aussie rules football (Used interchangeably causing much confusion)


• Excursion - hike


• Carnival - track or swim meet


• Swimmies - bathing suits


• Trackies - track suit


• Sunnies - sunglasses


• Rashies - swimming rash guards/shirts


• Thongs - flip flops


• "Slip, Slop, Slap" - Sun protection slogan...slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat. Everyone says this...
  
• Boardies - long swim trunks for boys/men
• Aqua class - (prounounced like back) water aerobics class
• Sun cream - sunscreen

School vocabulary:

• Biro - ballpoint pen


• Rubber - eraser (Imagine Ponygirl asking me for one of these for the first time....)


• Morning/Afternoon Tea - morning and/or afternoon snack...tea isn't involved. Usually occurs around 10:00AM and 4:00 PM
• A cut lunch - what we would call a packed or sack lunch ,
• School run - the process of dropping off and picking up children from school
• Creche- (Pronounced /craysh/) the child care area at church, the gym, etc. Don't call it the nursery...that is what they call a the section of the barn that is used for chicks, lambs, calves, etc.
  

Conversational vocabulary:

• "Good on 'ya" - Good job.


• "See ya latah" - said in lieu of "Goodbye"


• "How ya going?" - What's up? How are you?


• "Have a go..." - Give it a try
• "... I reckon." - Used at the end of a sentence. Used like we do "I guess."
• "Make a booking"- make a reservation. You cannot walk into a restaurant at dinner without a booking. It can be completely empty and they won't seat you. I've been told that restaurants order their food from their suppliers based on their bookings.
• "G'day!" - yes they really say it and it always makes me smile :0)
• "No worries" - don't worry about it....or it's said to placate Americans when they seem too uptight for Aussie interaction
• "Hoover it up" - clean it up, vacuum it up, pick it up
• "Table" - in Aussie speak, this means talk about it now, put it on the table. In the USA, it means to put something off until later.
• "Sort It"- figure it out. "We will sort it."
• "Dodgy" - 1. a bit off, not fresh. "That meat looks dodgy." 2. untrustworthy, not truthful "That answer was a bit dodgy." (I love this one and use it often.)

Food/shopping vocabulary:

• Woolies: Woolworth's grocery store
• Capsicum - bell peppers


• Full cream, cream custard, clotted cream, heavy full cream - they are all next to each other in the supermarket . . . .no clue what the difference is


• Shops - as in "Pop up to the shops"...stores


• Stiffening - starch . . . as in the kind you use in shirts


• Biscuits - cookies


• Latte - (rhymes with flat-tay) espresso coffee with milk added...frothy


• Short or Long white - espresso coffee with non-frothed milk. Served in clear juice glasses vs. a mug/cup


• Chips - french fries


• Kebabs - (rhymes with crabs)thinly sliced lamb wrapped in pita breads and pressed flat and grilled. Sort of a gyro sandwich


• Rockmelon - canteloupe
• Veg - (pronounced /vej/) vegetables
• Wheelie bin - garbage cans left outside for collection...ie. "Have you seen my wheelie bin? I think you might have taken mine be mistake...notice the dent I put into with my car..."
• Esky- a cooler

O.K. Ready for some typical sentences I hear everyday? Remember, the vocabulary list above is there to help you.

MORNING...

"Everyone into the car, it's time for the school run."

"Hold on, I need my jumper, biros, some rubbers, my swimmies and my trackies."

"Well hurry, I need to stop by the petrol station."

"Did you not have your latte today, Mom?, Sheesh!"

"No worries, I found all of them!"

LATER THAT MORNING...AT WOOLIES.

"G'day, you need something?"

"Yes, I need some half and half for a recipe. With all these cream choices, I am confused."

"Good on ya madam. I can tell by your accent that you are American. Whose ya votin' for..."

"The half and half problem, please..."

"Well, we don't see anything like that, I reckon."

"I will just use whole milk, then."

"Right you go miss, see ya latah"

LATER THAT DAY....

"Mom, why do all their pizzas have pineapple or capsicum on them. I'd like something else for tea."

"Not now buddy, I am overtaking this car that decided it had to park right there next to the curb."

"Why don't they go down to the carpark?"

"I don't know, Surferdude. AAAK! I barely avoided that pedestrian. Now look, that wheelie bin has blown over into the street."

"No worries, Mom!!!"

GRRRRR!!!!

So now, when you come to visit us you can fit right in by using the local lingo.

Too right!!!!!

Things I like this week:

1. Beautiful warm days at the beach...this is what I signed up for!

2. Having my vacuumer back (see previous blog posting)

3. Delicious Aussie fruit and veg.

Things I don't like this week:

1. Shopping carts that roll sideways at the grocery stores...they ALL do it!

2. Laid back Aussies who cross the street wherever they want . . . they ALL do it! (Why even bother to paint crosswalk lines, I wonder?)

3. Too warm to wear my Uggs...what a shame they don't make flip flops...sorry, thongs.

Tazzy!!!

Sometimes, my knowledge of plate techtonics gets put aside and I imagine God forming each continent like a kindergartener plays with clay. I imagine him, every now and then, sitting back and saying "Now I outdid myself with that one...." That is how I feel about Tasmania. This little corner of the world has so many beautiful places, that I must say...He outdid himself.

Surferdude joined his Australian Scout troop in Tasmania as they set out to backpack the Tasman Coastal Trail. The trip is an eight-day excursion. He is still there and will not be back until Sunday night. Term 4 begins on Monday morning...so it should be interesting trying to get him back into tie and sport coat.

The remaining family, Big DogDaddy, Ponygirl and myself, explored the Hobart area. We shopped in the Salamanca markets, drove up snowy Mt. Wellington, took a three hour powerboat tour around Bruny Island, and explored Port Arthur with its history and Tasmanian devils. One exciting highlight was when we sat on the intersection of the Tasman Sea and the Southern Ocean. Antarctica was a mere two-thousand miles straight ahead. Bruny Island is an amazing place with salmon farms, sheep and an American-owned cherry orchard. Every single orchard was covered with screens to keep out the birds and the Tasmanians were laughing about how the American uses helicopters to hover over the orchards and blow off the excess rain from the fruit. Every single cherry is then sent to the US for sale. He must be doing something right...he had a huge farm! So, if you see any Tasmanian/Bruny Island cherries, you know where they come from.

Port Arthur was, basically, Australia's Alcatraz. If you re-offended or were too contrary in the Australian prison camps, you were sent to Port Arthur prison. Once again, the land was gorgeous. It's remoteness eliminated the need for much security. Like Alcatraz, unless you were a good swimmer, you were stuck. (We all know what happens when you swim willynilly in the Aussie oceans...you are never seen again....not any part of you .....ever.) The prison was self-supportive. All the convicts worked the kitchens, laundries, and hauled timber. Your job was determined by your behavior. They also required that everyone attend church together (guard and prisoner alike). Punishment was severe...either lashes with a cat-o-nine tails or solitary confinement. Some were rehabilitated, most were not.

Near Port Arthur, we stopped at a Tasmanian Devil rescue center. A horrendous, contagious facial cancer has been wiping out the tasmanian devil population. The only help for these animals is to remove healthy devils from the wild and put them in conservations centers. They will be kept out of the wild and, basically, live in these zoos for the rest of their lives. They are fascinating creatures and Ponygirl LOVED seeing them all piled up asleep.

Tasmanians are also friendly and kind people. They are considered, by mainland Australians, to be the "rednecks" of the country. Well, you know how that doesn't bother us at all. Living in North Carolina, we know rednecks. Every time we were in contact with them, especially in large groups, I never had anything but a great time and always felt safe and secure. Where else but a Toby Keith concert, could you leave your purse on the ground and dance for hours without a worry of it being taken??? If Tasmanians are "rednecks", then I know why we loved it!!!!

I hope you all get a chance to visit the Australian "Emerald Isle".


Things I like this week:

1. Bruny Island Fudge
2. Two-week school holidays... long enough but not too long.
3. Outdoor markets

Things I don't like this week:

1. Airline rules for no reason (You can only have 10 kilos per carry-on. I had 13. I put 3 kilos worth of stuff in Ponygirl's bag...how have I reduced the amount of weight being carried on the plane? Didn't I just redistribute it?)

2. My vacuumer being on vacation. I need Surferdude to come home. It's getting dusty.

3. My arthritic right foot and the two-days of ice-ing needed after trips. Boo!