quicko: doneski, it's chockers

I don't think it's ever really spelled out, but it's pronounced "done-ski" or "done-skiis" and means finished, aka done. Chockers means really full -- chock full I think must be where it comes from, but I just made that up. It makes sense, though, hey?

quicko: palm sunday

So it is Palm Sunday in Australia as well as everywhere else, but, much as Advent was by and large neglected, so has been Lent, and Palm Sunday in particular. There was hardly a passing mention of it, and even that came after the main part of the service. No palm branches, no little kids marching, we didn't even sing Hosanna!!

quicko: bikie gang violence

It was in light of the recent bikie gang violence that I realized you could be fluent in English and not understand Australian newspaper headlines.

The confusion, naturally, arose from the word "bikie," which, as those of you with dictionaries handy can testisfy, is not a word. Furthermore, even once you get past the Australian slang which has condensed "bicyclicst" to "bikie," you still must discern that we're not talking about vicious handlebar stuntsmen but hard core motorcyclists who are engaging in vicious acts of, well, murder. Not at all the juvenile pranks suggested by a wayward gang of more or less benevolent 10-speeders.

It's really been quite serious lately, with shootings at the airport, brothers dying, lawyers dying, all sorts of horrific mayhem. All under that splashy "bikie!" heading.

quicko: what we say

It's easy to pick up on what strange things Australians say, but it's much harder to figure out which expressions you just don't hear here. I've got a small sampling, please feel free to add others you know of ...

--Most patriotic sorts -- giving your John Hancock, pleading the Fifth, etc.
--Word.
--Sorry, Charlie.
--Get out of town!

quicko: to fall pregnant

I thought these things were fairly universal, but evidently they're done differently in Australia: you don't get, become or even end up pregnant; you fall it, much as you'd fall ill with rheumatic fever, whooping cough or possibly even over a garden rake.

quicko: 6 pm at the RSL

RSL is the Australian VFW, and every night at exactly 6 pm, everyone stands up in the dark, faces the torch of rememberance and listens to a quick spiel lest they, or anyone else who's never heard the stories, forget.

quicko: april fools!

This is so strange, and it's actually not an April Fools' joke, I promise, unless a whole bunch of people have gotten me really good: they only celebrate until noon! (!?!?)