Grab a cup of tea… and take a moment to read this wonderful piece from a good friend of mine.
… and if you’re a mother, have a tissue at hand.
Adapting Back Home – Andrea Martins
xx
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I’ve been a little busy of late. Zumba in the evenings, new job during the day – then I realised that it must be about time I wrote a new blog post.
As I walked towards my daughters’ school, I thought “Hmmm… what topic shall I post to the unsuspecting newbie arrivals”
Just then, it hit me – well, actually it nearly hit me – Bloody magpie season!
OK... maybe they don't look quite like this!
Yep, I’m at it again, going completely loopy…. you may think?
But actually there is another phenomenon that you Brits need to know about – before you leave the shores of Blighty.
Christmas in July.
No, I’m not making it up, it is an actual bona fide tradition that the Aussies do. And to be quite honest, after I had finished mocking it for being utterly ridiculous, I realised it makes total sense.
Imagine Christmas day, everyone has been out for a swim in the pool, or just got back from a quick dip at the beach, while you have been out the 15lb turkey has been roasting away in a sweltering oven. It is difficult to muster up any enthusiasm to prepare the roast potatoes, parsnips and other delicacies, such as pigs in blankets, when the sweat is dripping off the end of your nose blending nicely with the rosemary and herb basting on the turkey – so you decide to put the air conditioner on.
After a few hours, the house has cooled to a much more comfortable level and you happily dig into your sumptuous Christmas dinner, followed by a steaming hot figgie pudding and brandy custard.
But why put yourself through it??
The cooler temperature in July is crying out for comfort food and who wouldn’t want a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings when you don’t have to be hyperventilating to make it?
So once again, I have to say ‘good on ya, Aussies’ for starting another wacky but fun tradition.
….Now if only we could get hold of a ‘Marks & Spencer’s butternut squash and leek roast’, we’d be sorted.
Have a great week and Happy Christmas. x
What?….
No, I’m not going mad again – this is quite a common Australian phrase at the moment.
It stands for End Of Financial Year Sale.
Weird?….
Not really, the Australian financial year runs from July 1st to June 30th – so great savings can be made on hundreds of goods at the shopping centres.
Ok, so maybe it is just a ploy to get everyone out there spending money – but who can resist a bargain?
When we arrived in Oz – it was coming up the EOFY so we were thrilled to find that all the furniture, electrical goods (and even the car we wanted!) was on sale… what a stroke of luck, seeing as we had stupidly given away most of our worldly goods before we left – to vulture-like friends.
Anyway, just thought I’d share that quickie with you – I’m now off to Channel 7 to talk about the absurdities on TV…(not related to this blog topic – more on that one next week!)
But I could be gone a while….
Have a good week, celebrate in style and buy some electrical goods…
The reason I wrote my book (and consequently this blog) came glaringly apparent again this week – when I was faced with two phrases that made me question my own sanity…
Phrase one..
The first one wasn’t too much of a mind-boggler… here was the context:
“Due to a king tide, the sailing trip had been delayed”
Nothing too weird about that – you can understand that the ‘king’ bit means ‘large’.
But then came another news report…
“The man suffered major facial injuries after being king hit outside a nightclub”
What the…? Is it just me or is that a really strange expression?
Weird but wonderful
Now you might think I’m going slightly mad, ‘why on earth is she posting a blog on custard apples?’
Well…
When I first arrived in Oz, I hurridly wanted to go out and taste new Aussie foods… as I love trying new and odd stuff, even if it is only once… (Witchetty grubs…. never again….shiver)
So obviously the sound of a ‘custard apple’ was very appealing…. ‘oooh, an apple – that tastes of custard?’ Very Willy Wonker.
Tags: apple, Australian fruit, custard, Custard apple, unusual fruit
hmmm... spicy
Can’t blog….. eating!
Tags: Good Friday, Hot cross buns
I receive many emails from people in the UK, most of them are quite straightforward questions, others are about utterly bizarre stuff, but nevertheless, we normally have fun figuring out the answers together. But sometimes I can sense an underlying depth of desperation in the midst of an email, it could be about a relocation question, or it could be on a more personal level.
It’s only when I recognise this, that the feelings I had when I first arrived come up to surface.You may well be living in the most beautiful country in the world (according to me) but when you are experiencing it without your best chums around, it can become a bit flat.
Finding friends is as easy here as it is anywhere, in fact it’s probably much, much easier here than in most countries. Aussies are walkabout folks, so to find one that was born and brought up in one area, isn’t as common as it is in the UK. One of the first questions they ask each other on a first meeting is ‘So, where ya from?’…. so really they could be as alien to an area as you.
So if you were worried you may feel ‘all alone’ let that be reassurance. It’s great to know that there are hundreds of other people, doing exactly what you are doing and feeling how you feel.
Just be aware of making Panic Friends…..
Hit it!
Tags: making connections, new friends, panic