Australia Basic Info on Oz

Single Aussie Men, Where to go to Find a Good Bloke

I came across this fantastic and hilarious article via a link from the Daily Boomerang, a very good daily blog about this crazy life and travelling Down Under. Under the pressures of my day job, I have recently been travelling in and around the Singleton NSW area. The Daily Boomerang called me out as having a possible alternative motive! The nerve! (he he he)

From the Daily Boomerang:

Are you a woman and living in Australia and looking for somewhere to go to meet a good bloke?:

“The young women of …

Date: September 25th, 2007 | 3 comments

Aussie Slang, How to understand Aussie #7

OK so I haven’t written one of these in a while, and man are there some great Aussie-isms out there! I love the Aussie Translation Guide series. I hear-by promise to keep these coming. When you are traveling Down Under, you will undoubtedly hear slang that is very uniquely Australian. I provide this series to give you a fighting chance at understanding what is being said. Some slang phrases are pretty obvious, but others, you definitely need a translator. I picked a couple of particularly colorful ones today.

Australian …

Date: September 13th, 2007 | 2 comments

Aussie Wine Review, De Bortoli Pinot Noir Yarra Valley Gulf Station

I’ve recently had the pleasure of trying a really fantastic, moderately priced ($17-19) Australian Pinot Noir out of the Yarra Valley. I’m not always the biggest fan of Pinot due to a few unfortunate glasses I’ve tried, but this one shocked me the other direction. It was absolutely delicious. You would do yourself a good deed by trying the De Bertoli Pinot Noir Yarra Vally Gulf Station.

Funny enough, I had made a note to myself to pick up a bottle or two for the house when a friend of …

Date: June 20th, 2007 | No Comments

Driving In Australia, Survival Tips #2

Hello folks! It’s that time again! How to Survive while Driving in Australia! I’m putting together a multi-part guide to conditions and issues you need to be aware of while driving in Oz…. If anyone can explain the Melbournian J-turn in the comments section, it would be greatly appreciated. The take home message from today’s blog- READ the SIGNS!!!!!! Road Signs, Oh boy where to start.

Street Name Signs, Just because you are at an intersection, do not assume there will be street name signs to tell you what both roads are called. Occasionally there will be a street name for one of the roads, but not the other. Occasionally there will be no name signs at all. This can be a tad bit frustrating when trying to navigate and you are not sure what road you just ended up on by accident at that last round-a-bout.

No Turn Signs Just because you see a HUGE No Right Turn sign does not actually mean you can’t turn right there. You have to look underneath the Big Sign to the little sign that is printed in 12 font, while you are driving 40 km/h which qualifies what they mean. It might mean that trucks over 3 tonnes can’t turn there, or you can’t turn from 8:30 am to 10:15 am Monday through Friday, or only busses are allowed to turn there.

Clearway Signs This concept drives me CRAZY! OK- imagine if you will- a MAJOR road in your town. A Main thoroughfare. Now imagine people being allowed to park in the outside lane…randomly. You are driving along… and wham… parked car. No Warning. This concept makes people learn to swerve while driving. (Yesterday I about blew my lid when I saw a BUS swerving around a parked car! What is this world coming to?!) Again- the Australian RTA can’t figure out why there are so many wrecks…maybe because there are PARKED CARS on the Highway!!!?????? Anyway- back to the Clearway Signs. SOMETIMES it is OK to park on MAIN ARTERIAL ROADS, and sometimes it is not. These friendly little signs, and I do mean physically little, have a picture of a tow truck on them and the times (printed in 12 font) stating at which hours it is prohibited to park in an otherwise perfectly functioning lane of a road. Do yourself a favour and almost NEVER drive in the outside lane. It will either end with no warning, or there will be a random parked car. I’d LOVE to hear back from any of you who have experienced this bizarre phenomenon.

Date: March 29th, 2007 | 2 comments

Aussie Translation Guide #5

One of the fun things of Travel is learning the local lingo. Australia has no shortage of their very own Aussieisms. They are fun and inventive, though occasionally hard to translate. I endeavor to help ease your transition into this upside down language. This is the fifth in a series to come. This one is devoted to blokes and beer. YES! What fun! Feel free to add a few of your own in the comments section.

Australian = North American Translation

Kimberley Cold = Room temperature beer

Tinny = Beer in a can

Stubby = Beer in a bottle. The bottles are shorter than the standard long neck… therefore…the birth of the Stubby!

Stubby Holder = The foam thing you put a beer into to keep it from getting Kimberly Cold I’ve been told lately that real men don’t need stubby holders. They drink their beer before it gets warm. From that on to the next category please Maestro….

Ripper = One of my favorites I have to admit. A VERY Good Thing. As in “That Horse ran a Ripper of a race.” No matter how hard I try it still makes me think of good old fashioned toilet humor. I’m not so sure that it didn’t start that way… a couple of guys out in the bush….”MAN George! That was a real ripper!”

Corker = On a related note…Another term for A VERY good thing. You figure out how they are related.

Date: March 11th, 2007 | 3 comments