Meet the Aussies

Frequently I am asked if I have any Aussie friends. I feel like that is kind of a bold question, as I could just as well not have any friends!
Mostly because of my catering gig, I have been fortunate to have many Australian acquaintances, as well as others representing Israel, France, Germany, Ireland and Mauritius (a tiny island off the coast of Madagascar).
It is most helpful though, to know some locals on a personal basis. They are handy for general knowledge of the area, history of the country, stuff to do, appropriate cultural translations and in general, just finding out what shit means.
I am am thankful for their patience, willingness to help and honesty. When I say honesty, I mean not fucking with us when we ask dumb questions about Australia and Aussies.

LIZ is great with girlie stuff, other advice and Melbourne culture and happenings. We live near each other & frequently create mischief. Great company & partner in crime. At one of our catch-ups...as you can see, we will enjoy sticky date pudding and wine

GUS is a general know-it-all. The kind of person you want to have on your trivia team. I have nicknamed him Gusipedia. He's funny, too. He always keeps us laughing. The happy family. Our BFs: Aussie Gus, Coloradan Melissa and new-ish pup Charlie

Speaking English, kind of

The ultimate in lazy is referring my dear readers to a fellow blogger's site. And I'm going for it.
I don't always read this guy's blog but I happened upon it today and thought it was interesting. Aussie speak/slang is it's own language. Don't even get me started with the rhyming slang. Not everyone uses it. You probably wouldn't be able to decipher it if you heard it. You would just hear it and think the person was loony. My favorite (and only known) example of this is "time to hit the frog and toad." Decoded, this means "time to hit the road." Yeah. Exactly.
Click to check out some Aussie words that this guy feels are dying out.

And here is a picture for the day:

Nothing says Love, like graffiti. Happy belated Valentine's Day

Scenes from the Weekend: Saturday

While on an A.M. walk through my hood, I spied this vandalism:



And this note:
Since it said "Reward," I'm keeping an eye out for Mr Biggins.

It's happened. We spend so much time together that we read the paper or play on our iphones to take up time when we go out to eat.
After lunch we stroll down the exciting Chapel Street and see a pig. He's creating awareness for cruelty to animals. That's why he has a band-aid on his pork belly.

Then I helped cater a wedding on the boat and got to see a pretty sunset.

Australia Day

Officially, Australia Day was January, 26th so I apologize for the delay in this post. It is a public holiday, similar to the American 4th of July. Australia Day, in early Australian history, used to commemorate the landing of Captain Arthur Phillip at the present-day Jackson Port in Sydney. By doing so, Capt. Phillip claimed the new land for the British Empire. "Though it has often been criticised, it remains the most inclusive celebration of a national day in Australia, expressing the national diversity which has become such an important part of the Australian national character. Australia Day today celebrates diversity and tolerance in Australian society. Whereas once it celebrated the staunchly British nature of Australian society (or was disparaged for this approach), it now embraces multicultural Australia, including all ethnic backgrounds, racial differences and political viewpoints." http://www.australiaday.com.au
It is a big holiday, with picnics, drinking and an airplane acrobatics.
We celebrated the day by visiting The Shrine of Remembrance. The Shrine is a memorial built to honor fallen Victorian soldiers from WWI. It was completed in 1934. That is also where we saw the plane flying through the city.

I think this pic might prove that Aussies love Australia more than Americans love the US. I have never seen burgers shaped like MI or CO or the USA.

We enjoyed some of these bad boys. We added cheese, but I put a tomato sauce (ketchup) spot where Melbourne is located.

Our Pretty Money

My Mom ordered some Aussie currency before her recent trip here. When she showed people, they all commented on how pretty it was. Gusipedia recently told me (and I verified via the internet) that the money is actually plastic or specifically polymer.

Here, Jim is peaking through the clear plastic window of the $10

According to The Australian Gov website: "These notes provide much greater security against counterfeiting. They also last four times as long as conventional paper (fibrous) notes. At the same time, the polymer notes are cleaner than paper notes and easily recyclable." That explains the always pristine condition the money is in. If it got soiled, you could simply clean it with Windex. Under normal circumstances, they can't be torn either.

What about $1, you might ask? Well, that is a gold coin. Similar to the Sacagawea gold dollar.
We also have a $2 coin. Even more brilliant is that we don't have ANY pennies!! The smallest denomination of coin is 5cents. All prices are rounded, up or down, to the nearest 5cents. For as great as that is, I my loathing of the small coins continues. Now it's just worth more, 5cents instead of 1.
Big to little: fifty cent, twenty cent, ten cent, one dollar, 2 dollar and 5 cent coins

When Mum and Auntie were here, they started off really confused because the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin. "It's smaller, but worth more?" How could this be??
Our 50 cent piece is the biggest and quite an odd shape. I would show them the tiny 5cent coin...and it would be baffling. Just not quite coming together for them. Then, one time my Aunt asked, "So this is a nickel?" I was a little dumbfounded. To be quite honest, I never looked at it that way. We don't say nickel or dime. She then got smart, saying, "They five and ten cent you to death here." So cleaver, that one ;)