deird_lj

First it was the election.

Now it's the Grand Final.

Seriously, can't our country just make up its mind?

Note for uninformed people: The Grand Final ended in a draw - something which has only happened twice before. Now they have to play again next Saturday...

In other news, I spent Saturday watching the GF, bowling, going to a restaurant, and then going to a 21st - at which I fell asleep. Long day.

Yesterday I kept doing... well, the exact same surprising thing I was doing last weekend. It's going pretty well.

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This is the one time of... well, ever... when I get passionate about the footy.

The Grand Final is tomorrow! Carn the Pies!

Tensions are running high in the office: loud jokes are being made about the parade today (with "It's Collingwood marching, so keep an eye out for pickpockets" being a running theme), and lots of Collingwood fans are stubbornly wearing black and white.

For those ignorant foreigners in our audience, the footy is played here:

And tends to involve a lot of this:

Also, Collingwood (my team) are the most depised one of the lot...

CARN THE PIES!!!

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It's an Aussie election, and once again, I voted in the electorate of "Bruce".

It just occurred to me - if this was fiction, you'd all be rolling your eyes at the overly-Aussie name that was clearly made up...

- Voted in an election that still has no result. Apparently, our country has no firm opinions, and can't decide who we want in charge.

- Went to a birthday dinner for my sister. Three excitable nephews, LOTS of pasta, and a nice time. Also, the boyfriend met the rest of my family. :)

- Abandoned the new novel I'm halfway through, and picked up an Agatha Christie novel I've read several times. Had just got to the first murder (strangled girl guide) when I remembered that I'm actually trying to learn Latin and haven't looked at it for a while. Abandoned murder mystery before the second murder (drowned grandfather) and turned to Latin accusative forms - and then realised the second murder is where the whole thing gets interesting, and returned to Agatha Christie.
I seem to be indecisive...

- When I got home last night, Smudge (the kitten) came running to the door, realised it was me, and walked off disappointed. He's definitely a one-woman-cat.

- Played Knightmare Chess with the boyfriend today, who beat me very quickly - despite the fact that I'd ended up with 4 queens.

- Am halfway through House season 6. I think this might end up being my favourite season of the show. It's brilliant.

- Next weekend, by hook or by crook, I am getting new plants for my garden and planting them where the Evil Roses Of Doom have been sitting. It's spring, and I need my pretty flowers!

You all knew I'd end up doing this one, right?

Describe your country's history - not as it really was, but as the average person in your country remembers it. What are the major events that everybody knows about? What's taught in schools? What do your politicians and media talk about when they want to boast about how great your country is? Or are there embarrassing episodes in your nation's past that everybody knows about but nobody likes to mention?

We're not looking for a balanced, measured or accurate view here. Broad generalisations and sweeping stereotypes are welcome.

(See also: the British version, the American version, and the Swedish version.)

( Aussie history, as I learned it at school )

There are some things that you just take for granted - but actually, they're rather odd.

Our taxis, for instance, all look kind of like this:

Legally, they have to be painted like that. All over Melbourne.

But, as it happens, they used to be painted in whatever colours the cab companies wanted to paint them. And all the cab company names pre-date the yellow paint jobs.

Thus, we have all these taxis that are bright yellow, but called "Black Cabs", and "Silver Top Taxis", and other similarly inappropriate names. And no-one bats an eye.

It just occured to me today...

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.)

*sighs*

Okay. The next person on the internet who says "Ah, but she's not really Prime Minister because she wasn't directly elected by the people..." will have their bucket firmly taken away.

Brief lesson on Australian politics:
- We have parties.
- We vote for our favourite ones.
- We end up voting in the party most of us want.
- The party decides who their Prime Minister will be.

We never "directly elect" our Prime Minister. She's been given the job in precisely the same way as all the other Prime Ministers were. (A slightly more dramatic and unexpected version, sure. But still roughly the same.)

LEARN YOUR POLITICS, PEOPLE. I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO TAKE YOUR BUCKETS.

(Feel free, by the way, to say "She's not really Prime Minister because she SUCKS." or "She's not really Prime Minister because she's awesome and is actually QUEEN OF THE MULTIVERSE."
Those are opinions. Weird ones - but not bucket-taking offences.)

You know, I was going to get up and post some interesting musings about my taste in music and how it gets harder to define the older I get because I start liking more and more different things...

WHO CARES. LOOK AT THE GOVERNMENT.

I am currently flipping frantically between different news websites, just watching...

I really do live in the wrong town.

All around me, people are discussing the footy, the soccer, the latest... err... other game that people play...

See - I'm so un-sporty that I don't even know what other sport they'd be discussing at this time of year. And yet, I live in Melbourne. Melbourne where "Who do you barrack for?" is a standard question the first time you meet someone.

Somewhere in the world, there must be a town where people don't care about sport - but get into extremely passionate discussions of novels over the morning coffee. And someday, I'm going to go live there.

It still weirds me out whenever I see you people saying "Remember to vote!" or "Are you voting this time?"

Here? Compulsory voting. We all do it. Every time.

(And voting on a weekday? How weird is that...)

Washing cars is much more exciting, now that there's a drought.

It used to be me, with two buckets and a hose, standing in the driveway for ages, and getting increasingly anxious to just finish, so I could go back inside.

Now, though, we're not allowed to do that anymore. All car washings have to happen in an official way, down at the petrol station.

Which means me, holding a SuperPowerful Hose of DOOM, and a huge brush with massive amounts of white foam pumping out at an amazingly fast rate, and water spraying everywhere at top speed, and me getting soaked to the skin and NOT CARING, because I hold the Hose of DOOM and can spray water really really fast while cackling evilly.

...okay. Not cackling evilly. Well, not much.

It's really fun!

My colleagues and I discovered something fascinating today.

(Some Background:
In Australia, we have no snow at Christmas. It's HOT. And yet we still have snowy Christmas cards, sing Jingle Bells, and dress up as Santa Claus in big warm suits.
It's that kind of cognitive dissonance going on here.)

Our Discovery:
Our office is half born-and-bred Aussies, and half overseas imports. And this morning, we discovered the following:

- People from overseas, when they lose teeth (as kids) all agreed that you put the tooth under your pillow, and wake up the next morning to discover money under there instead.

- People from Australia agreed that this under-the-pillow thing is exactly what happens - in storybooks. In real life, though, we all agreed that you put the tooth in a glass of water in the kitchen, and wake up the next morning to find money there instead.

*finds this fascinating*

Just got home to find a lizard on my front doorstep.

A real, 8 inch long lizard.

It seems to be living in a teeny hole underneath my driveway.

*waiting carefully for it to emerge so that I can take photos*

1) Yesterday, I was driving home (on a major, three-lane road) and the entire road suddenly slowed to a halt. We all sat there and watched while an echidna slowly waddled its way across the road... and drove off only once we'd all made sure it was safely on the grassy bit.

2) Just saw someone on the internet talking about driving in Melbourne, and mentioning hook-turns (which I'd expect) and roundabouts (which surprised me). Does the rest of the world not use roundabouts, or something? I'm sure I've seen them in movies...

3) Okay, I give up. How on earth do housenumbers work in America?
Here, we (very sensibly) start with "1" at the end of the street, and count up until we get to the other end. So how does an ordinary street in California end up with "1530" as the number on the letterbox?

I have lived in Australia for 27 years now, and today, for the first time, I got heat-stroke. (Or possibly heat-exhaustion. We're not quite sure.)

This all happened because I was outside walking around without water for a grand total of three hours. It wasn't even all that hot - only 32 degrees (90F) - but my body just decided to shut down.

So I almost fainted, then drank lots of water, then vomited all the water back up onto the floor of the train, got escorted home by a very concerned colleague, and spent several hours lying on my mum's couch hoping I'd feel better soon.

THIS WEEK'S PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: DRINK WATER, FOLKS. THERE'S NOTHING 'UN-COOL' ABOUT HEALTHY HYDRATION LEVELS.

(For the record - yes, I am feeling much better. Thanks for asking.)

Four day weekend!

Today was Melbourne Cup Day - known hereabouts as "The Race That Stops A Nation".

And it really, really does.

I got in my car at 3:04 this afternoon, and the radio was playing talking instead of music, so I changed the channel. And... then checked that, yes, I really had changed the channel.

All six channels in my car were playing EXACTLY the same thing. Because the RACE was on.

Why on earth a horse race should be so exciting that the entire country stops doing everything just to watch/listen, I'm not quite sure. But apparently it's awesome.

I, on the other hand, spent Cup Day resolutely ignoring the horse races, and having fun relaxing and being non-sporty and Proud Of It. Just like I always do on Cup Day.

...and we've hit 30 degrees.

(That's 86 degrees, for you Fahrenheity folks.)

I am suddenly wearing summer clothes, carrying round a parasol (yes, a parasol), letting the breeze flow through my house's open windows, staying in the shade, and wanting ice-cream.

If this was the height of summer, I'd be fine. But it's only mid-spring. I'm not going to survive February.

ETA: now 32 degrees...

I am facing a dilemma of EPIC PROPORTIONS.

...well, not really.

But my jacket, which I have had for over a decade and wear every single day, is on the verge of collapse from old age, and I need to buy a new one.

My current jacket looks kind of like this.
(Note the handy pockets, and the shoulder-bit for extra rain protection.)

Now I have to make my Next Jacket decision - and figure out whether I want to buy something exactly like that one... or whether I want to get the ultra-cool double-layer jacket with the inner warm fleecy jacket and the outer light rain-protection jacket (but without the big big pockets or the shoulder thingy).

*angsts*

...when there's a news report in which they mention someone doing a breathalyser test, and the Big Important Newscaster says in her Big Important Announcer Voice that this particular person was "breatho'd".

Had dinner this evening at a restaurant with a brick wall - and across the bricks, people had written comments in texta about how much they loved the restaurant, and what their favourite dishes were, and so forth. It was quite fun.

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deird_lj

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Entries tagged with living down under

Australia 2010: Year of the Draw

true Melburnian

one brief observation

This Weekend

Aussie History

the paradox of Melbourne's taxis

bonzer, mate

education, right here

Canberra is suddenly fascinating me.

(I barrack for whichever team has the nicest uniforms.)

optional elections...

clean car

A post which is NOT about glowy cracktastic Twangel.

If this keeps up I'll have to make an "Aussie animals" tag.

Random Aussieness

collapses

day off - for such a dumb reason...

Hot and Sunny

Indecision

You know you're in Australia...