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to my aussie buddies, aussie aussie aussie -
have a great australia day
i hope the aussies can managed to beat the poms in the cricket today!
I have been playing my favourite aussie classics such as - men at work - do you come from the land downunder and mental as anything the nips are getting bigger, inxs we are the vegetables.... while i bake my damper
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
seriously yes, australia day is BBQ's, beer (not good for mc'ers) and playing backyard cricket
it is pavlova for desert , there is still dispute if that is aussie or new zealander tradition, albeit history has shown that any decent thing from new zealand gets 'claimed' as aussie..... sporting people, bands, etc
(pavlova is a cooked meringe the size of a dinner plate topped with cream and your favourite fruit)
i have friends in brisbane that have been tendering to their back yard for the past month to turn it into a cricket pitch for their aussie day gathering. They have a dead strip of grass about 8 metres long dead middle of the yard
there are celebrations in every city and town (and pub) it is the biggest day for nationalisation ceremonies
I will get the links for the songs..
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
Background: Count Down where this clip is from was the iconic music show of my childhood, it was the place for new aussie talent to get themselves known (and get a film clip for their song) and of course it was where we learnt about the number one artists from USA and UK. It was on every sunday late afternoon just before dinner.
this song - land down under was the catch cry/theme song when australia won the america's cup (sailing) in 1983 (?or very close to 1983), with our winged keel, at the time it was the probably the first major event hat the aussies had managed to outclass and outperform the yanks in sport so it was a HUGE milestone,
The lyrics and the film clip were purposely made to be comical almost tacky australian (toy koala in a tree while guy plays the flute) and reference to vegemite in the lyrics..
Inxs did have more commercial songs that did make it in the charts in the US this is one of the early tunes when they were more of a pub band than a commercial sell records band....
Lyn has different taste in music to me so her iconic aussie tunes may be a bit different........
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
Hey, Gabes, this is super - I feel like I am right there with you celebrating! Love the tunes - am familiar with Men at Work. I really like the INXS vegetables one - I love classic rock, and as a paleo person, I think I will adopt it as my personal theme song! Hah! I wonder why the Men at Work didn't mention drop bears in their tacky references!!!
Pavlova sounds wonderful! I guess you could probably eat it without the cream. It sounds like a perfect confection for doing a "pie in the face" to someone. LOL! Or is that only an American "custom"? Do you have fireworks today too?
Love,
Polly
P.S. Do you play cricket? And, what is a "damper"?
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
Pretty well every aussie kid can play back yard cricket.....
the stumps were normally the metal garbage bins, (rich kids had real stumps)
the metal bins meant that if you hit the stumps with the bat or the ball hit them you could clearly hear the sound and it was hard for the batter to no accept being out.
the rules:
- if you hit the ball you have to run the pitch
- over the fence (ie into neighbours yard) is 6 runs, your out and you go fetch (this means your brothers hoiking you over the fence)
- cant get out first ball
- balls caught on the full are out
- swinging at the ball, missing and if your feet are out of the crease, the wicky (wicket keeper) hits the stumps with the ball you are out.
everyone has to bowl, and do the outside fielding positions, otherwise you dont get to bat next turn.
as part of my camping kit i had a kids cricket set parents and older siblings stand behind the young ones and help them bat, the grip you use on the bat is key to not getting out!
if you happen to break a window, back yard cricket was banned until the parents forgot about it..................
Damper
made with Self Raising flour, water, an egg, pinch of salt into a thick dough, little bit of kneeding then into a pot and slowcooked on the camp fire. It is not bread, it is a dense, texture thicker than a muffin. made as a lump you just break off bits to eat with butter or as is with a soup or casserole.
people who lived in the bush ie shearers and those that worked the land, this was their staple
my mc staple is sweet potato, chicken damper (made with my stock) i cook it in a bit round tin, when it is cool, slice it like a cake into 8 slices, freeze them individually. I can eat it cold at meetings, it is much nicer warmed. my quick and easy breaky or dinner is a slice of this warmed with two poached eggs.
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
Martha - that is awesome
Vegemite is Rich in Vit B so the advertising jingle (words below) claimed it put rose in every check -
We're hap-py lit-tle Veg-e-mites
As bright as bright can be.
We all en-joy our Ve-ge-mite
For break-fast, lunch, and tea.
Our mum-mies say we're grow-ing stron-ger
Eve-ry sin-gle week,
Be-cause we love our Ve-ge-mite -
We all a-dore our Ve-ge-mite -
It puts a rose in eve-ry cheek.
I am not one for poetry, this is one poem that i do like -
My Country - Dorothea MacKellar
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
In our house we chucked a few snags on the barbie for tea.
Served with just bread, 'dead horse', fried onions and a family speciality, potatoes sliced finely and cooked in lots of oil on the barbie. A dietitians nightmare.
We didn't go to the fireworks tonight, but could hear them. And late yesterday arvo we could watch the airforce formation pilots do their thing. They were probably doing that for the Aussie day eve concert (which we also didn't go to - too many kids).
Too hot to do much - it didn't quite hit 37 here, but really windy, which is never pleasant. So we just used the weekday off work to go to the hardware store and disagree over plant pots. Oh, and keep an eye on the cricket on TV. In the air conditioning.
Might have gone down the beach, except at the moment we need to keep the K's down on the car as it gets sold as soon as the new one arrives (next week, fingers crossed).
Happy Australia Day to all of our friends down under. Top of my bucket list for a trip just want to be able to spend a month or more and this close to retirement not sure how I could afford it.
Love INXS
Love, Maggie
Maggie Scarpone
___________________
Resident Birder - I live to bird and enjoy life!
Loved hearing about your day! Sounds a lot like our 4th of July, except we have hamburgers/hotdogs on the barbie, and baseball on the TV. Did you ever agree on a plant pot? LOL!
Love,
Polly
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
A little history about me. I joined the Australia/New Zealand club (don't ask why) when I was in my undergrad. However, the first time I ate a vegemite sandwich was also the last. Perhaps it was made incorrectly but it looked like used motor oil spread atop a piece of bread :) I just couldn't acquire a taste for it.
Happy Aussie Day!
Rich
"It's not what I believe. It's what I can prove." - A Few Good Men
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