summary

[deird_lj]

NICE: playing with Caleb, and having him decide that opening a toy car's doors would make the car into an aeroplane.

NICE: feeding chooks with Caleb, reading books with Caleb, and pretty much anything else I did with Caleb this morning.

NOT NICE: cleaning up the many dishes left by Caleb, after he went home.

NICE: seeing boyfriend.

NOT NICE: having boyfriend go home to study.

NICE: eating sticky-date pudding, and patting two purring cats.

NOT NICE: picking up far too many chairs at my church, carrying them to another room for a few hours, then carrying them all back again.

NICE: coming home to two still-purring cats.



Overall? A good day.

Comments

[louise39.livejournal.com]

Hooray for all the nice stuff!

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

You make me want to be an auntie, too!

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I am so glad it was mostly nice.


Gabrielle

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Sounds lovely! My desire for a niece or nephew is extreme right now.


But what exactly is a chook?

[deird1]

Not a word you've encountered? Whoa.

Strictly an Aussie term, but I thought most other people were aware of it - even if they didn't use it.


A "chook" is a term we use for a chicken. So - my mum has two chooks in the backyard, clucking around and laying the occasional egg.

Note - this only applies to the live animal. I've heard an American jokily talk about Aussies putting "chook on the barbie", but what that would actually mean is that a chicken is wandering around on top of the barbecue, flapping her wings, squawking, and generally getting in the way...

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Huh. I can safely say that I have never heard that term in my whole life - but that could be said about a lot of things, so I don't know if it's me being an American or me being ignorant in general. :P

Only thing I've heard of being put on the barbie is shrimp!

[deird1]

...shrimp which we in Australia call prawns. ;)

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Haha, seriously? I'm not trying to be Patronizing American, but that is totally adorable.

I think Anya's the only American to use prawns, and it was in service of a pun, so that barely counts. :)

[klme.livejournal.com]

...and we don't actually cook prawns on the barbie very much. It's pretty rare actually. If you ever find youself in an Aussie BBQ situation you'd need the term "snag", which means a sausage - generally the standard BBQ fare. We eat them wrapped in a piece of bread with tomato sauce (yeah we don't say ketchup here...). Then you'd have some salads and things on the side if it was a decent BBQ. Often if you're cooking for people en masse you'd just do a sausage sizzle - which is just your sausages and bread and sauce. If it's dinner with friends in Summer (which is when we BBQ) you get the salads out.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think we do shrimp barbecued much either - really, who does? :D

That's so interesting though, I don't think I've ever had BBQ sausage, although I've had plenty just done in the microwave or stove. I guess burgers and hot dogs and such are more American BBQ things.

And if you call ketchup tomato sauce, what do you call, like...sauce made from tomatoes? Spaghetti sauce, that kind of thing?

[deird1]

Pasta sauce.


When you come to Melbourne and drink tea, we will have to include a BBQ...

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, that works. :D

Sounds like a plan! There are many many reasons to see Australia. :)

(JSYK, if I ever somehow end up in Australia, I am so visiting you, cause I have your address and also no shame. I mean, how big can Australia be, right?)

[deird1]

Quite big. But then, plane tickets from one bit to another are very cheap. If you ever end up in Australia and don't visit me, I will HUNT YOU DOWN.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the plane ticket from here to there is mind-blowingly expensive, though. :(

I don't know if you'd know this, but I'm curious - do you think from where I live planes would go across the Atlantic/Europe/Africa/Asia or across the United States/Pacific? I imagine the second one's shorter, but then there's complicated stuff like jet streams or whatever...

[deird1]

I think they go across the Pacific. Not entirely certain, though.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Just looked it up out of curiosity, and apparently it's 13,000 miles, 30 hours, and $1300 (round-trip). My goodness. o.O

[deird1]

Yep. :)
You see why I haven't left the country in 12 years?

We're far too far away from stuff...

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Silly Australia, just do some continental drift over towards some place!

You could always visit, um...New Zealand? Or Japan? Maybe California?

[deird1]

California? That's almost as far away as you are!

There are a lot of Australian tourism things geared towards Aussies going to New Zealand, or Indonesia, or China. Unfortunately, I'm much more interested in visiting Europe...

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Lol, my bad, my sense of distance and geography is terrible.

And, ah, bummer. My desire to go to Europe is extremeee, I've never been and want to so bad!