bonzer, mate

[deird_lj]

Sometimes I start wishing for a high-quality Aussie show that the world will get fannish over - and then everyone will start writing fic set in Australia, and I'll help beta everyone to make sure they do the swearing correctly, and soon there'll be huge amounts of fic with the characters wearing shorts to their Christmas barbecues and dodging spiders when they go outside and eating pies at footy games...


Then I realise that they'll all do it wrong. And the internet will suddenly be full of fic with people saying "G'day mate!" every few minutes, and having pet kangaroos, and all the OCs will be called Bruce and Sheila.

That makes me less enthusiastic about the whole idea.



(It would, on occasion, be nice to live in a country that people remember exists.)

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

If it helps, I think about Australia.


Gabrielle

[deird1]

*eyes you speculatively*

In a "that place on the other side of the world that's really hot" way, or a "interesting little country" way?

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

In a "I know people from there and they've told me I should visit there someday" sort of way. I've actually known several people in RL who are from Australia. And not one of them said "g'day."


Gabrielle

[deird1]

Yay!




I actually say "g'day" on a reasonably regular basis. Standard walking-into-a-shop-and-saying-hi-to-salesman thing.

But never EVER "g'day mate".

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I think about it in the "interesting little country" where you would have amazing adventures kind of way. Slayers running through the the wild, climbing rock cliffs, surfing on some of the worlds' largest waves, incredible and unique wildlife (that's also a bit terrifying at times!).

Plus the cities always seemed very interesting to me and that huge landmark in Sydney that looks like... gah, don't know how to describe it exactly. Sydney's a beautiful city.

You know, if you ever wanted to ramble on about life in Australia, I'd be there in a heartbeat to read about it. I'm remembering how interesting it was reading about the rondabout streets entry you posted a while ago--which I know is common enough in Britain and other parts of Europe, but still feels a bit foreign in America.

[deird1]

Sydney's a beautiful city.

Hmm. Am suddenly torn between agreeing that my country is gorgeous, and sneering at Sydney... Complicated...



My "average Aussie house" post will be up once my computer comes back. That'll be interesting, right?

[angearia.livejournal.com]

LOL! Well, I'm sure there's parts of the city that are horrid. I mean, aren't all cities a bit like that?

But some of the pics I've seen seem very beautiful. No doubt you know where all the truly beautiful locales are. I'll look forward to hearing more. :)

[henriettaholden.livejournal.com]

Lol
Or the Koalas bears wearing people clothes and a Croc Hunter on every street corner.

The show Eureka has this terrible Australian character that says Australianism in the wrong context in a terrible accent. I cringe whenever I see him on screen.

[deird1]

Well personally, I always hunt crocodiles in my spare time. Don't you?

[henriettaholden.livejournal.com]

I am wrestling one right now...

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Heh! I think about Australia a lot! I mean, it's the source of good things like Passiona and lemon squash and Chicken Twisties... and other fun stuff I have to mail order because we don't have it here.

And I would, at least, know enough to have some of the characters in my hypothetical Australian show fanfic put beetroot on their hamburgers! I was going to say that they'd put it on everything, but that might slide too much into stereotyping. ;-) Okay, so maybe it's not on everything, but I was really surprised at how much I had to dodge beetroot at restaurants when we were there (I'm allergic to it, so I may have noticed it more than it deserved).

[henriettaholden.livejournal.com]

I got this insane image of restaurateurs throwing whole beets at tourists. It could be a new Olympic sport :P

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

ROFL!

Although come to think of it... that might have been more fun!

[deird1]

We do have good junk food, don't we?


Beetroot really is everywhere.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

You know, that sounds amazing! Clearly you need to create this show/'verse and we'll all write in it under your guidance. :D

Sure, some people would get it wrong, but what of the few that were exceptional? 90% of everything is crap, right? Maybe it'd be worth it.

*dreams*

[naatz.livejournal.com]

Australia is my favourite country. ♥ Maybe because of its underdog vibes?

|Meduza|

[quinara]

You could live in the country where all the evil people come from?

(And I think about Australia! It's where the soaps are from... ;) And Rolf Harris.

Actually - more seriously - the BBC got this Aussie comedy series called Summer Heights High about eighteen months ago that I watched through twice because I really enjoyed it... Did you ever see it?)

[deird1]

I think I must be one of the few Aussies in existence who has not seen SHH. (I don't actually like most of our comedy shows.)


Hurrah for Rolf Harris!

[klme.livejournal.com]

No! You must see SHH! If only for the sheer brilliance of Chris Lilley's versatility as an actor. Oh my he's clever.

[quinara]

It was fun to realise that Aussie high schools are really similar to ours (way more than US ones)... And besides the actual comedy element I couldn't get over how much the posh girl character reminded me of someone from my school.

Can you see what it is yet?

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

I think about Australia. You're stealing my favourite cousin *right now*. He's on a plane from Stockholm for 6 months' stay. After six months' stay last year. Something tells me he's thinking of emigrating. Waaah.

(Nothing wrong with Australia. But I don't fly, so...)

[deird1]

Really? Where's he going to be?


(Clearly you must take a very long cruise...)

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

Okay, so no kangaroos as pets, but you still run over cane toads for fun, right?

[deird1]

I have never ever seen a cane toad. Truefax. :)

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

Haha, you just debunked my one (but dearly-held!) Australian stereotype.

Fooey.

I rather liked that movie they showed us in high school biology class with the guy in the truck squishing the toads and all the dogs getting high from licking them in backyards.

[deird1]

Cane toads are a Queensland thing. I'm from Melbourne.


It'd be kinda like talking to someone in Boston and saying "But you guys have palm trees! I saw them on tv!"... and the Boston person blinking and saying "Yeah - in Florida."

Down here, we just have drop bears.

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. Australia being small for a continent but still a large country, there must be lots of geographic diversity.

And not to mess too hard with your perfectly lovely analogy, but it was more like "But you guys have palm trees! I saw this poorly-made documentary once that said the palms invaded Australia and strangled out all of the rest of the native vegetation in the whole country. Now they're the only kind of tree on the whole island!" Stupid producers.

I hear drop bears can be fierce, but at least the toothpaste behind your ears helps you smell good, assuming you get a nice, minty flavor.

[klme.livejournal.com]

Stupid producers indeed. Mind you, Queenslanders are rather overrun with the things. Far Northern Queenslanders that is. But they're a whole different race of people up there ;)

[klme.livejournal.com]

I squish drop bears with my car for fun :)

[urania-calliope.livejournal.com]

I must confess Australia is probably a place I will never visit. Not because it doesn't look beautiful or sound interesting (it does!) but because of the sheer amount of deadly spiders there. I have an extreme case of arachnophobia and I'm pretty sure I would die of a heart attack.

[klme.livejournal.com]

See everyone from everywhere else goes on about our spiders, and I reckon I probably see a spider of any kind...ooh, once a month? If I go hunting about outside in dark corners, or actively spider searching. Which I don't. Every time I read about someone's fear of our deadly spiders I think "Oh, yeah, apparently we have those..."