Cocktail Wednesday (on Thursday)

Another week has rolled around and it's Cocktail Wednesday again.   Well it was yesterday, but as Thea has picked this weeks gem and she lives on the other side of the world and is therefore a day behind, we have been waiting for her to give us her verdict before Shay and I posted our "results".

Below we have a photo of most of the ingredients, I forgot about the other two ingredients when I was taking the photo, although I didn't forget to add them in when it was time to make this cocktail.

An eclectic mix in this one

The recipe called for Calisaya Liqueur but as both Shay and I discovered, it is not available in Australia or anywhere else in the world except Eugene, Oregon.  After quite a bit of research, and many emails back and forth between Shay and myself, we thought that Angostura bitters would be a reasonable substitute.

The ingredients: rum, Calisaya liqueur (Angostura Bitters substituted), maple syrup, coffee, and frothed milk. I'm not going to give you the recipe. You're welcome.

The piéce de resistance, see the photo below.

Yes, that is bacon

Another shot of the bacon

The Bacon Maple Syrup Cocktail.

I  couldn't decide whether it was going to be really bad, or it might just be an interesting mix that couldn't be as bad as it sounds.  Well I'm here to tell you that I think Thea may have been trying to poison us.  In the defence of the cocktail, it possibly could have been much better if we had the Calisaya, but I'm not ever going to try it even if I miraculously find that stuff, (not that I'm ever going to look for it either.)

Thank god for the bacon. The bacon was great. It almost masked the taste of the two sips I tried. Why did I take a second sip?

On a more positive note, BP has finished university for the year and is back home for the summer break. She has found part time work locally, so I'll have the pleasure of her company for the next three months!

BP and Bailey selfies.

Translation Tuesday Occupations

Oops, had this pretty much ready to go for Tuesday, but because we had a public holiday here on Monday, I forgot it was Tuesday and totally forgot to post it, so sorry it's late. At least it's still Tuesday in most of the world.

This week, as an aid to anyone who is thinking of moving to Oz, you might need to know what your profession is called here, or maybe you might be thinking of starting a new career, here are a few Aussie professions for you.

Journo = Journalist
Garbo = Garbage Collector
Gyno = Gynaecologist
Ambo = Ambulance Officer
Pollie = Politician
Fiery = Fireman
Cop = Policeman
Milko = Milkman
Muso = Musician
Truckie = Truckdriver
Postie = Postman
Brickie = Bricklayer

Once you are working in your ideal occupation you may occasionally feel like chucking a sickie. That's when you take a sick day off work even if you are perfectly healthy. If you chuck a sickie and somebody dobs (informs) on you, you could get the sack (fired).

If you are on Workers Compensation because you really have been injured at work, as opposed to taking a sickie, it's Compo.

If you don't work at all you could be called a bludger, that would be someone who is idle or lazy.

If you work really hard and don't earn very much, but soldier on stoically, you would be called a battler, or to be more precise an Aussie battler.

I'm sure I've missed a few so if you know of any more feel free to add to them in the comments.

A warning, not all Aussies use these terms, I probably wouldn't say half of them, so it's probably best not to practice them on every Aussie you meet.

Translation Tuesday- At the beach

Even though it's autumn (fall) here in Queensland it's still warm enough to swim in the ocean, as it is most of the year.

At the beach I like to wear thongs, I can hear that collective intake of breath as you imagine my ample backside in a thong, or even trying to fit into multiple thongs, no it's not because I'm that big that I need to wear more than one thong,  not a thong but a pair of thongs................
on my feet.
These are known as flip flops in the rest of the world.  This particular word can cause a lot of problems and misunderstandings for Aussies overseas, or for overseas visitors here.

Thongs. Image from here

You should wear your sunnies at the beach to protect your eyes from the sun, you can also hide behind them while checking out the "scenery".

You are sure to find at least one or two Aussie males at the beach wearing budgie smugglers or Speedos (regardless of whether they are Speedo brand), both names are used for the item of clothing in the next two photos.

A famous Aussie politician wearing budgie smugglers. Image from here

 image from here

or togs, this term pretty much covers any kind of clothing that you would use to swim in,

or boardies (boardshorts). 

Image from here

There are a few other names that Aussies have thought up for swimwear, we do have a long summer here - swimmers, bathers, cossie/cozzie (short for costume) and others which I won't go in to here, because they are not for delicate ears/eyes.

Back to the budgie smugglers as I think they need an explanation.  I'm not sure who on earth would have thought about this and came up with the name. Budgie is short for Budgerigar, a native Australian bird that is very common as a household pet. North Americans will probably know it as a parakeet.

Imager from wikipedia

Someone decided that swim wear like in the photos above, supposedly looks like  a budgerigar has been stuffed down their swimming costume and that's how they became known as budgie smugglers. Another Australian word that I'm sure you will be able to drop casually into any conversation!!!!!!

Translation Tuesday

As it's Anzac Day tomorrow I thought digger was a good word to highlight this week.

image from here

I probably should explain ANZAC as well.

Anzac Day is the 25th April and is the anniversary of Australian and New Zealand soldiers landing at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915 during World War 1. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.  It's the day we remember all Australian and NZ soldiers who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of Anzac, with it's qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice continues to have meaning and relevance to the Australian national identity. On Anzac day, ceremonies are held around the country at dawn to acknowledge the service of our veterans.

image from here

During the First World War the term digger became popular to describe the Australian soldier, because in France and Belgium they were continually digging trenches. Aussie soldiers are still referred to as diggers.

BP's father was in both the New Zealand Army and the Australian Army, not at the same time! Many years ago, when he was in the Australian Army he was in Hawaii for a military exercise.  While he was there, his commanding officer, who shall remain nameless, was walking around the U.S. base. As U.S. soldiers saluted him when he walked past, the Aussie commanding officer would return the salute and say "G'day Digger". Apparently a completely natural thing to say in the Aussie Army. Unfortunately most of the U.S. servicemen had not heard the term "digger" and assumed he was saying something completely different. Suffice to say it nearly created an international incident!

Tomorrow is the 97th anniversary of ANZAC day

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Aussie slang Translation Tuesday

I was having an email conversation with Thea over the weekend which involved explaining a couple of Aussie slang words and expressions.  I thought it might be nice to have a regular post on translating a quintessential word, phrase etc each week to try and help Aussify the world and maybe help with some confusion as to what we are really saying.  With Mrs P's blessing I'm starting Translation Tuesday.
It's always interesting to hear the different pronunciations of English words around the globe, but in Australia especially we have our own take on the English language.  Some words and phrases have developed from Cockney rhyming slang,  others have developed because one of the things about Aussies is that we love to abbreviate.  I'm sure it has something to do with the heat of summer here and the extra effort it takes to talk when it's so darn hot.  Although, a one syllable word or name is often lengthened  eg. John = Johhno. We're a strange bunch!

Image from here

Or if you prefer, this one below

Love this map Image from here

The inaugural Aussie Tuesday Translation word is

Oz

What better word to abbreviate than Australia. Australia has 4 syllables, that takes a lot of effort to say that, lol. A lot of Aussies blend syllables too, so it comes out sounding like Ozstraya. Most of the time we call it Aus,  from there it's been shortened to the written version, Oz.  So now you know why Aussies refer to their homeland as Oz and remember that when you pronounce the word "Aussie" you say it with a z not an s.

My 100th post

I have something special to share with you today, as this is my 100th post.

I can't believe that I have actually already written 99 posts. I usually have the attention span of a gnat, and lose interest after 6 months.

Now for my 100th post, I thought long and hard about what I should write. Firstly I thought I could talk about the changes we have had over the last few years in the weather, where we are supposed to have sunshine most of the year, but now it rains an awful lot,  that is why I called my blog Sunshine? Paradise?. But really, who is interested in the weather, other than weather geeks? What a boring post, that could have been.

Happy Virus

I found this lovely sentiment in Thailand a few years ago.




As we are beginning the flu season here in Aus.






 I wish for you a ..........................

as opposed to a sad one.