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A few fun things about Oz -
A swag is a type of sleeping bag/tent. It is made of canvas and has an inbuilt mattress and zips up the side. The really sophisticated type have an inbuilt tent peak. I spent one night in a swag, and I am not in a hurry to repeat the experience - at least not in a country when the nocturnal wildlife consist of spiders, possums, foxes, mosquitos... need I go on?? Unfortunately i chose a moment to peak through the very small gap I had left in the opening to witness a rather large (hand size) huntsman spider scuttle down from the tree next to me - I then lay there too terrified too move until I hyperventilated and had to come up for air! I did stay outside for the night though.... The only good thing about it was I got to lay under the stars - and they sky is so incredibly clear that you can see the Milky Way, and it was pretty cool waking up in the fresh air.
TmTams - these seem to be a national institution all on their own! They are a chocolate biscuit, actually just a complete ripoff from our Penguin bars, but they are a bit more choclatey! On that note - the chocolate over here is no where near as nice as ours, even the cadburys range. They have had to change the recipe slightly to prevent the chocolate melting! makes sense I suppose!
Smoko - This is an Ozism for tea break, obvioulsy comes from everyone traditionally having a fag break at the same time. The Australians love to shorten words as much as possible in some bizzare way speeding up their language! E.G - smoko, this arfo, and they shorten their place names in the same way, Fremantle becomes Freo, etc.. Other language things - the words nice (pronounced noice) and 'cute' are overused! Flip flops are thongs, sungalasses are sunnies, and I love the way the phrase 'no worries' is used!
BBQs - yes they really do love cooking outside on BBQ's and the amazing thing is that the local councils provide fantastic BBQ facilities in public parks for the local residents to use, and to their credit they are never vandalised and are looked after and respected. Wonder how long they would last in the UK??
The weather... I am here at the beginning of the Australian autumn and it is still bloody hot most days, I have been sunbathing on the beach and it is has been 27C. I can imagine that in the summer when it reaches 40C it must be hard to cope. But, my problem is how they moan about the cold - when it is 27C!! The shops are full of boots, wooly jumpers and coats! For goodness sake, I feel like a very hardy Northern European as I stroll around in my vest tops and shorts, whilst people around me have 5 layers on! I think they could toughen up a little bit...
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