Some random thoughts
I've saved a bunch of news stories over the past few months and thought it was about time that I actually put them up here rather than just keep saving them to put up here (that, and I got a heap of work done yesterday and am allowing myself to take 15 min for morning tea this morning).
This blog post is an interesting addition to my blog post about kids. Sua Sponte's friends all seem to have either given up their careers or "outsourced" their child rearing. Personally, I think it's a matter of degree. I think my cousin in Melbourne has it about right - she works 3 days a week and the kids go to child care on those days. So she stays in touch with her children's childhood, but also maintains her career and her mind in the meantime. I'm yet to see if it can work in the legal world, but with the public service award rights (four weeks paid maternity leave, one year unpaid maternity leave, and then a year at part-time) it shouldn't be too bad.
I loved this story about Aussie slang. I never realised how much slang I use in my every day speech until I found myself in Europe having to explain every second sentence to the locals. Some slang is obviously slang, like Seppo (an American) - you would never think that that's a common phrase in other countries, coming as it does from the Aussie love of rhyme coupled with our love of shortening things and adding an "o" or a "y" to the end. Other phrases have been around since my grandparents were kids (usually from advertising) and have become such every day sayings that you think they're normal and used everywhere. Ever tried to explain to someone the exact meaning and usage of the word "dodgy"? And that we wear thongs on our feet over here?
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest also caught my fancy. I reckon I should enter some of my Grade 11 and 12 English essays into that. I did one where we had to describe a scene and I described a recent murder scene in vivid colour, including "the stench of the decaying body was so strong it echoed in my mouth as the taste of bile". I was a bit dark in high school.
And then there's the businessman, Crazy John. You could perhaps think that him wanting to build a building shaped like a mobile phone is a little odd, but I think him paying AU$75,000 for a painting by his daughter's kindergarten class makes him certifiable. Well named in any event.
Oh - and I want a man pillow. They look great
Listening to: Shifter - Waking Up Late
This blog post is an interesting addition to my blog post about kids. Sua Sponte's friends all seem to have either given up their careers or "outsourced" their child rearing. Personally, I think it's a matter of degree. I think my cousin in Melbourne has it about right - she works 3 days a week and the kids go to child care on those days. So she stays in touch with her children's childhood, but also maintains her career and her mind in the meantime. I'm yet to see if it can work in the legal world, but with the public service award rights (four weeks paid maternity leave, one year unpaid maternity leave, and then a year at part-time) it shouldn't be too bad.
I loved this story about Aussie slang. I never realised how much slang I use in my every day speech until I found myself in Europe having to explain every second sentence to the locals. Some slang is obviously slang, like Seppo (an American) - you would never think that that's a common phrase in other countries, coming as it does from the Aussie love of rhyme coupled with our love of shortening things and adding an "o" or a "y" to the end. Other phrases have been around since my grandparents were kids (usually from advertising) and have become such every day sayings that you think they're normal and used everywhere. Ever tried to explain to someone the exact meaning and usage of the word "dodgy"? And that we wear thongs on our feet over here?
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest also caught my fancy. I reckon I should enter some of my Grade 11 and 12 English essays into that. I did one where we had to describe a scene and I described a recent murder scene in vivid colour, including "the stench of the decaying body was so strong it echoed in my mouth as the taste of bile". I was a bit dark in high school.
And then there's the businessman, Crazy John. You could perhaps think that him wanting to build a building shaped like a mobile phone is a little odd, but I think him paying AU$75,000 for a painting by his daughter's kindergarten class makes him certifiable. Well named in any event.
Oh - and I want a man pillow. They look great
Listening to: Shifter - Waking Up Late
posted by OLS |
Tuesday, August 24, 2004 | 9:55 am
1 Comments:
I use mozzie, it's my shout, agro, cop shop, dumper and no-hoper. So maybe half of those referred to in the article. I only use root when refering to guys as wombats.
"Two red lights and a dodgy PA" - I think it's inevitable that we use dodgy. ;o)
Not really sure about whether we Queenslanders use more slang - certainly the uni students at college did, but I think that was more a North Qlder thing than a Qlder thing overall.
Hmm... I'll have to ponder that one some more.
- OLS
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