This was a winning week for the retiree in the house! Although Hugh didn’t have the best of golf games on Monday, the $5 raffle ticket he bought paid off. He got a call on Tue morning that he’d won a meat tray! In my mind, I pictured a deli meat platter maybe 30-40 cm in diameter. Nope, was I ever wrong – check out the prize:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much steak and sausage in one spot. Hugh had to really work to find space in the freezer for it all. We’re going to have a party to celebrate our first year in Australia, so I think we will be able to make good use of all this meat then.
So Hugh started his week with one prize and ended it with two more! There was another Music Bingo on Friday night at Yepp Brewery and Hugh won TWICE. So he got 2 really nice Yepp Brewery glasses:
Not exactly easy to see in the photo but they’re a great size and shape with a nice weight in your hand. We had our Widd-ilton drinks in them last night (grapefruit juice, lime juice, gin – named after us, of course :)). Leigh introduced us to a couple new people that night and one of them, Dave, had us howling all night (and he was also VERY good at identifying songs). The theme for this week’s bingo was Bogan Music. I think I’ve previously explained what bogan means – sort of like redneck, but not quite. Here is the Wikipedia explanation. That meant that all night long, Leigh and Dave were sharing all their bogan terminology with us. I wish I’d recorded the night because I’ve since forgotten pretty much every word and phrase they taught us. The only one I remember is double vs single pluggers. Any guesses?? I’ll give you a clue – bogans wear single pluggers but rich people wear double pluggers. Anything? Fine, here is what a double plugger looks like:
The straps of the thongs are anchored into the shoe with 2 plugs instead of one :). I swear learning Australian is harder than learning French or Spanish. There was a funny Aussie show on Netflix called Upper Middle Bogan that we watched awhile back – not sure if it would be on the Cdn, US, or UK versions of Netflix, but if you need a light laugh, it’s worth watching.
On Thursday night, Rob, Barb, Hugh, and I went into Rockhampton to the Pilbeam Theatre to see the production of Grease the Musical. This was a great theatre – not a bad seat in the house, easy to get to, easy to find free parking nearby. The only downside was that there were only 4 female toilets for the entire place, which reduced Barb’s and my time to go to the bar and get wine 🙁 . But the reason we went to the show was because one of our students was in the starring role of Sandra D!
The whole production was terrific, but our student was just incredible! And it was so fun listening to the songs – I had that album as a kid 🙂
They had set up some photo opportunities in the lobby:
I’ve previously mentioned how delicious the local pineapples are here. We have fresh pineapple at breakfast probably 4 times a week. Well, the girls at work told me that you can just take the top off a pineapple, stick it in the dirt, and 18 months later you’ll have a pineapple. I’m not sure if this is one of those “see if the Canadian will fall for it” things, but we have stuck a pineapple top in the dirt in between our lemon and lime trees:
I did actually google it and apparently this will work (or perhaps it’s better to let the pineapple top sit in water to grow roots for a couple weeks first). I’ll report back in 18 months 🙂
It was a busy week at work (we have accreditation coming up), so not much else to report on this week. But Hugh came across this list of Fun Aussie Facts, so thought I would share it with you – I have verified a number of them, so I’m thinking it’s an accurate list:
# The Australian Alps get more snow than the Swiss Alps. (I don’t plan on visiting – quite enjoying not seeing snow!)
# 90% of Australians live on the coast.
# Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.
# The Great Barrier Reef is the largest ecosystem in the world. It is made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs and can be seen from space.
# Australia has over 60 separate wine regions. (well, now there’s a good goal – to visit them all!)
# Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world.
# The Indian Pacific train has the longest straight section of train track in the world.
# 80% of Australian animals are unique to Australia.
# 5 km of Ayers Rock (Uluru) is underground.
# Australia has the world’s longest golf course measuring more than 1,350 kms long.
# Australia is home to 21 of the world’s 25 most venomous snakes. (fortunately still haven’t encountered one yet – recognizing that by typing this, I’ve probably jinxed us)
# Perth is the only city in the world which can have aircraft land in its CBD. (CBD is what they say here for downtown – central business district)
# Australia is bigger than we realise, it’s almost the same size as mainland USA. (note the spelling of realise – they do not use -ize here, it’s -ise and boy, is that a hard habit to change!)
# The largest cattle station in the world is located in Australia, Anna Creek station in South Australia and it’s bigger than Israel. (station is the word they use for ranch here)
# The first Police Force in Australia was made up of the most well-behaved convicts. (now reserved for politicians)
# It would take around 29 years to visit one new Aussie beach every day – there are 10,685 of them! (another good goal!)
# The world’s largest rock is not actually Ayers Rock (Uluru), but Mount Augustus in Western Australia and actually twice the size of Ayers Rock.
# Australia is the 6th largest country in the world.
# There are 1 million camels that roam wild in Australia’s deserts, the largest number of purebred camels in the world, they are exported to the Middle East. (interesting, more camels than emus…)
# You can fly from Perth to Melbourne faster than you can fly from one end of Western Australia to the other.
# There are over 60 different types of kangaroos and a baby kangaroo when born is only about two centimeters long.
# Australia has 19 World Heritage Listed sites.
# 91% of the country is covered by native vegetation.
# 33% of Australians were born in another country.
# Over 300 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia including 45 Indigenous languages. In fact, 21% of Australians don’t speak English at home!
# WA is home to what is believed to be the oldest evidence of life on Earth – the Stromatolites. (WA = Western Australia, where Perth is)
# Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano. (finally, one thing that won’t kill you here!)
# In Australia, sheep out number people 2.5 to 1 (in 2020). (rumour has it that a lot of lamb that is labeled as New Zealand is actually from Australia)
# Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1902. (have I mentioned that voting is mandatory here?)
# Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation, with over 80 percent of Australian adults engaging in gambling of some kind. (no kidding – you see pokies (slot machines) EVERYWHERE here, a little sad)
# Australia is home to the longest fence in the world, the Dingo Fence. Originally built to keep dingos away from fertile land, the fence is now 5,614 km long. (don’t tell Donald)
# The Australian dollar is considered to be the most advanced currency in the world – it’s waterproof, made of polymer and notoriously hard to counterfeit. (the Canadian dollar is now the same)
# Australia has around 600 varieties of eucalypt trees.
# Stonemasons in Australia instituted the 8-hour working day back in 1856.
# In Aboriginal culture women are not allowed to play the didgeridoo.
# Australia’s most deadly marine animal is the Box Jellyfish and is responsible for more deaths per year than snakes, sharks and saltwater crocodiles.
# The only two mammals in the world that lay eggs are found in Australia – the echidna and platypus. (apparently there are echidnas on Great Keppel Island, will have to go see one day)
# Both kangaroos and emus lack the ability to walk backwards. This was the reason they were chosen for Australia’s coat of arms – to symbolise a country always moving forward. (I always wondered why they were on the coat of arms, I thought it was because they were both cheeky and don’t look like they could kill you but they would if needed :))
# The termite mounds that can be found in Australia are the tallest animal-made structures on earth.
# Australia is home to more than 1,500 species of spiders.
# The Great Victoria Desert is bigger than the whole of the United Kingdom.
Have a great week, everyone!