What's the weather like in Australia?

Find out here (if in a sensitive environment, use earphones)

http://media.putfile.com/Chopper-Reid-Does-the-Weather

 

Hmm, the ABC has gone downhill since I've been away. (And The Great Australian Adjective (bl***y) didn't occur often enough). It should sound more like this:

I was down the Riverina, knockin' 'round the towns a bit,
And occasionally resting with a schooner in me mitt,
And on one of these occasions, when the bar was pretty full
And the local blokes were arguin' assorted kind of bull,
I heard a conversation, most peculiar in its way.
It's only in Australia you would hear a joker say:

"Howya bloody been, ya drongo, haven't seen ya fer a week,
And yer mate was lookin' for ya when ya come in from the creek.
'E was lookin' up at Ryan's, and around at bloody Joe's,
And even at the Royal, where 'e bloody NEVER goes".

And the other bloke says "Seen 'im? Owed 'im half a bloody quid.
Forgot to give it back to him, but now I bloody did -
Could've used the thing me bloody self. Been off the bloody booze,
Up at Tumba-bloody-rumba shootin' kanga-bloody-roos."

Now the bar was pretty quiet, and everybody heard
The peculiar integration of this adjectival word,
But no-one there was laughing, and me - I wasn't game,
So I just sits back and lets them think I spoke the bloody same.

Then someone else was interested to know just what he got,
How many kanga-bloody-roos he went and bloody shot,
And the shooting bloke says "Things are crook -
the drought's too bloody tough.
I got forty-bloody-seven, and that's good e-bloody-nough."

And, as this polite rejoinder seemed to satisfy the mob,
Everyone stopped listening and got on with the job,
Which was drinkin' beer, and arguin', and talkin' of the heat,
Of boggin' in the bitumen in the middle of the street,
But as for me, I'm here to say the interesting piece of news
Was Tumba-bloody-rumba shootin' kanga-bloody-roos.

 

Very good, Tones, although I must admit I probably miss some of it. The cultural and language gap probably. I like the kanga-bl**dy-roos...

 

Brief guide:

Riverina - general name for the area of Victoria and NSW divided by the Murray River. Principal town Albury (NSW side)-Wodonga (Vict. side)

schooner - beer glass

bull - general conversation

joker - guy, man, (mec to you)

drongo - mildly derogatory term for a guy

Tumbarumba - middle-sized NSW country town

quid - pound (Australian currency)

boggin' - getting stuck - it gets REALLY hot up there (40s in the shade not uncommon).

Howzat?

The other favourite Australian word is "bastard". This can be used as a compliment as in "G'day, y'old bastard, 'owyagoin', orrite?" (note the Australian equivalent of ça va?). However, if they talk about "THAT bastard" (generally used for any politician), then that is not a compliment.

 

Thank you for the crash course, Tones, maybe we should have a language class section on this forum (you could be in charge of poetry). I'm almost ready for a trip to down under, although I'm no longer much of a beer drinker, but they do have serious wines there too.

 

I'm not a drinker, but I have it on good authority that they have really top wines down there. Even some of the French manufacturers have gone there. Moët has a vineyard not far from Melbourne producing, er, sparkling wine - you can guess what they don't call it!