Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, Amen.

November 1996

Looks like I'm headed back to the USA in a month's time, and at the worst possible time, just as summer is kicking in over here and winter is locking up Northern America. But I have enjoyed my stay and I'll likely look into getting permanent residency.After all, it would be a shame to waste a knowledge of the local lingo that I've picked up here.

I can announce that I successfully managed to ride a wave on a surfboard a few weeks ago, for about 10 seconds! For most of the time I've been here, I've been content to ride waves on a body board, but it really was imperative that one should learn to surf down here. Surf culture is big.

I took the time to write down a few of the phrases that I've heard while in Australia. Many, unfortunately, are not fit for print.

Aussie Lingo Watch

Phrase Meaning
  1. dinky-di
  2. ocker
  3. meat pie
  4. vegemite sandwich
  5. hard yakka
  6. no worries, mate
  7. shrimp on the barbie
  8. strewth
  9. bloody oath/too right
  10. cobber
  11. that's about as much use as tits on a bull
  12. do a dummy spit
  13. midi or a schooner?
  1. genuine
  2. hard-working
  3. food
  4. snack
  5. hard work
  6. Australian philosophy in summary (an oft-used expression)
  7. popularised by Paul Hogan, an australian delicacy
  8. expression of amazement
  9. you can be sure of that
  10. you don't hear this one much, but it's a substitute for "mate"
  11. it's pretty useless
  12. leave
  13. A midi is half a schooner, and both are beer glass sizes.

That's all I have time for now (need to hit the beach)

Oblio

[Platypus Image]

G'day mate!

April 1996

I'm writing from down under, Sydney, in Australia, mate. I've been here for three months and have been at the beach for probably a third of that time; the rest would be divvied up between work and sleep. I'm staying with my brother and sister over here. The visa I'm on lasts for a year, so I'll be back before this coming december.

The creature above, in case you are wondering, is a platypus. Now I know that it might not look like a platypus, but there you are. If you don't like it you can go away. Actually, I don't like it either, but its the only platypus picture I could find in the little time I had available to write this page. The scary looking spider dude below is a redback, which is a pretty evil spider that lurks around Sydney, big hairy thing, lethal venom, bad attitude and so forth. As yet, I haven't made contact with this insidious indigenous inhabitant, but I am apparently prepared to alliterate.

So what the hell am I doing down here? I'm just about to fire up a small business actually. I'm not really into spilling more beans than that until I have it set up and [Redback Image]running, because I'd like to see it implemented first, rather than dwell on the idea of having it implemented. Right now I'm at the Board of Studies, where I've been helping to get a couple of multimedia CD-Rom's produced. It is fun, but also a lot of work; but good experience. Now wait a minute, isn't any experience good experience? It could be argued, but this is not the place.

See Lloyd Sharp's Fun with Fluids. He's one of the people I work with right now; a graphic designer with a really amazing website. Just don't even think about using Lynx to look at it; its not really all that textual. You want a totally thick bandwidth for this one.

Unfortuntely the Australian summer is drawing to a close. I left Wisconsin in December while it was snowing and bloody cold, and in Australia it was bloody hot. All I could do was ask for a "stubbie" (trans. "bottle of beer") as I sat roasting on Bondi beach. I spent easter at the beach in Byron's Bay, about 500km up the coast from Sydney. I swam around with black-and-yellow-striped tropical fishies, which was extremely cool. Didn't see any sharks in the water, but apparently they are around.

If you want to write, mail me here. Bye!

Bruce