quicko: school snobbery

It was recently suggested to me that Australians moving interstate for university is often a sign of either 1. a highly specialized major or 2. not being smart enough to get into school in their home state.  #2 comes especially into play, I've been told, if the student has ended up in Canberra.  (With the notable exception of one very good school there ... but I forget which one ...)

quicko: melbourne

I went to Melbourne for the weekend and figured I ought to have something to show for it ... I don't really though!  It was a great weekend, but rainy and chilly and windy and just plain cold.  It was 9 degrees Celsius and I was convinced that must be about 38 Fahrenheit until I looked it up and discovered that it's more like 48.  I'm afraid I'm going really soft down here, so I'm just going to call it a windchill factor.  A few tidbits I picked up over the weekend, though:

--Pulled pork/briscuit/broiled/braided (for meat) are all not Australian terms.  I'd be hard pressed to tell you what any of them actually mean, but they generally fall into the edible category.

--The meat does not have to be a patty (one solid piece) to be considered a "burger" in Australia.  Hence, I had some sort of BBQ sandwich that was certainly not a burger, but everyone else was convinced it was.

--It's the law to wear bike helmets when riding a bike (and a motorcycle) in Australia.  Melbourne had an awkward blonde moment when it installed all these rent-a-bike places throughout the city in hopes commuters would use them instead of taxis, but then realized that no one was using them because they didn't happen to have a helmet with them.  Thus, they had to stock all the nearby convenience stores with cheap helmets and now the under-used bike racks all have signs telling you where the nearest 7/11 is so you can buy your helmet.

--There's a free shuttle bus that takes you all around the city of Melbourne.  It runs every half hour and is about an hour and a half ride.  It's a pleasant sort of ride, particularly on a blustery day, as long as you've got company to inform you of all the sights you're passing and give you little tidbits for your blog.

--"Scoff down" your food is the Australian (and British, it appears from a quick search) equivalent of "scarf down" your food.

--There's an Australian cake called chocolate ripple cake.  Evidently it's amazing.

quicko: at the airport

So I spent awhile at the airport today, and suddenly had a plethora of observations.  Aren't you lucky?

--There is a Victoria Secret in the domestic terminal at Sydney ... however, the deal that is supposed to be 5 for $25 was 5 for $50.  I was so disgusted I took my free sample of perfume and stormed right out.

--There was a free wine tasting in the airport.  I don't think I've ever seen that before.

--Do you experience this, or is it just me because I'm highly unobservant?  I call it the phenomenon of never seeing the same person.  I don't know how it works, but between check-in, the departure lounge, the flight itself and the baggage claim, I see an entirely different group of people in each place.  There's clearly only a set number of us going through this whole ordeal together, yet I evidently either glimpse every, single one of them, or else have no short term memory whatsoever.  The very occasional exception usually occurs if there's a suspect man in a straggly beard that just shows up absolutely everywhere.

--It's so easy to go through security!  There I was asking if I could take my water, stepping out of my flip flops, worrying about my belt, about to strip for all I was worth (don't forget the earrings!) and they were just like, ah, whatever, go through the thing like you are and if there's any trouble take something off and try again.

--1st class isn't as snazzy on most American airlines as it is on, say, Qantas.  Not that I'd know, but more luxurious travelers than I have recently informed me of this.

--I've also been informed that Australian passports have more pages for stamps.  Presumably for the obvious reason that Australians travel more.

--There weren't any people movers (moving sidewalks) in the domestic terminal.  I felt a bit gypped.

quicko: nouns or verbs?

I thought this was a very repetitive, annoying mistake my students kept making:  come to find out, they keep making it because they keep hearing Australians (and Brits) saying it:  "to suicide" as a verb, instead of "to commit suicide."  Though they'd recognize the latter, the former is creeping quite freely into the grammar here -- drives me crazy!

quicko: min min

I had never heard of Min Min (the Min Min?) before today, but it was brought to my attention that they are a folklore of sorts in Australia, evidently dating back to an Aboriginal myth of some kind.  (Precise details are a bit scarce ...)  Basically, they're lights that appear and then disappear, especially in the eastern part of Australia.  They're not like the Northern Lights, but, according to Wikipedia, are probably Fata Morgana.

quicko: tide sticks

I've got these handy little things called Tide Sticks, which I carry everywhere to avert any number of regularly scheduled catastrophes involving [whatever I'm eating] and [whatever I'm wearing].  They are truly magical little sticks and I don't see how anyone leaves home without one.  N

photos: labour day at balmoral beach