quicko: ginger beer and other matters

It seems I've never mentioned ginger beer, which, in over 3 years blogging, is clearly a terrible oversight.  Ginger beer is much loved in Australia, and it is pretty delicious.  I think possibly I would have assumed it was fictional (butterbeer is, isn't it?) had I read about it in, say, Lord of the Rings, much as I did with Turkish delight in The Chronicles of Narnia, but it turns out it's not.  It's a carbonated (non-alcoholic) beverage along the lines of root beer, only ginger flavored.  I don't know how to really describe tastes in words (see pathetic attempts at A.1. sauce), but yeah.  You should try it.

There's also the thickshake.  I could have sworn I mentioned it before, but possibly all I said was that milkshakes here aren't the same.  If you want an American milkshake in Australia you've got to call it a thickshake ("milkshakes" are more or less chocolate milk) ... and say a quick prayer to go with it.

And then, back on that ginger note, have I also really gone 3 years without mentioning that "ginger" is Australian (and British) for redhead?  I thought I surely must have, but blogger's search option begs to differ.  Possibly it's playing a joke on me, but I didn't think it had that big a sense of humor.  Anyway, "ginger" means red hair -- something else that stumped me throughout years of British literature.  I think I thought it was blonde ... or sunkissed ... or just read right over and never paid any attention, then wondered why I had trouble keeping track of that auburn-haired character who I could have sworn died two chapters back ...