Lost in Translation
woop woop (whup whup)
n. the middle of nowhere
"They're going out to Woop Woop for a camping weekend."

I think this is my first Lost in Translation for the year, and it's probably because the Australian slang is becoming so familiar to me. (One might say TOO familiar.) I used "woop woop" in conversation today, and my colleague didn't blink an eye even though I felt quite proud of myself.

He then asked what the American equivalent would be, and I can't even think of one! Is there one? All I can think of is a rather rude acronym involving Egypt, but I feel like there IS a common one out there that I'd use in front of my mother. Help me, people!

I'm Not Down with the Sickness
Because I am totally awesome and stuff, I got me a computer virus last night. Fun times ensued. And though the virus is now gone, a possible pre-existing condition has flared, and the computer will no longer boot on command. It's more of a "I'll start when I'm good and ready, thank you very much, and that may not actually be today" sort of situation.

So I pretty much want to die, because I have three years of non-backed-up photos and video on there. (I AM aware that this makes me a stupid person. Please don't leave comments to remind me.)

There is hope, because the one time it did start again, I was able to burn off one year of photos. So at least I know things are still there and in tact. I just won't breathe easily until they are all safe and sound on a drive that ISN'T going into self-destruct.

I was going to get a little Lacie Rugged drive to take to the States, so I can copy over all my cds. Looks like I may get it sooner than later. (Plus it's orange. How cute!)

Herbie!
On a happier note, I am loving this French herb dryer. Le sigh. If I had that, I would definitely use Straight from the Farm's advice on preserving fresh herbs.

By the by, Australians say the "h" in "herbs", and I think I say it now too. But anytime I consciously say the word, I have a hard time remembering which way to say it.

Lost in Translation
sparky (spark-ee)
n. an electrician
"I'm going to get the sparkies in to run the power to the new edit suite."

Post-Its to Myself
Sites I'm going to need to find back:
♥ How About Orange. Nice. My bathroom is accented with orange. My signature flower is orange. I like orange too.
♥ Doughnut Muffins recipe. I'm not really a super doughnut fan, but muffins make my morning. Somehow I can't wait to try these.

Lost in Translation
This afternoon I ran upstairs to the office above us to drop off something for Bob. How difficult can that be to understand, right? But the guy who met me at reception had this look of "there's no one by that name here". The guy owns the place; I know he works there. So I said again that it was for Bob... Bob [last name]. That's when he realized who I meant. He said that my American drawl had him confused.

Hans happened to be with me. When we got outside, I asked how I could have possibly been misheard. He said that the guy thought I was saying "Barb" and then proceeded to demonstrate the proper Australian way of saying "Bob" which I cannot replicate in written form. We had a really good laugh.

Touched by a Child
I've been feeling a bit tenderhearted lately for various reasons, but this is one of those things that has moved me.

Sunday we watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition featuring the Byers family of Oregon which apparently aired opposite the Super Bowl (Cheese Fest '08!) as well. Their little girl Jenessa had fought cancer before, but it had returned. She was such a charming articulate 8-year-old girl, and when they said that the cancer was now in her bones, I was overcome with sadness. I think because whenever I have lost someone to cancer, the bones was always the indicator that the end was near. That show is always tear-jerking, but I sobbed more than once.

They had mentioned that the little girl made videos and posted them to her website to help other kids with cancer. After the program was over, I naturally went to find it only to learn that she had passed away just this past December 28.

That family may never know the impact that they have had on people, not just me, but others too. Seeing the love spilled out and their great faith has inspired this household to shine a little brighter.

What's more, her nickname was "Boey", just like the song I wrote about below that has been stuck in my head. So perfectly orchestrated as a reminder.

Links So I Can Finally Close Firefox without Losing Them All
♠ Dining Down Under: Australian Recipes
♥ Craftzine: Bird Quilt - should I ever find the time and patience to take up quilting
♥ State Bird Patterns of Martha Stewart
♥ Dacia Ray maker of above quilt and crafter of greatness
♠ Mizuhiki Heart Knot at Craftzine - for Valentines?
♥ Zakka Life - maker of hearts and other things
♥ Decor8 - right up there with Design*Sponge in terms of home lust
♠ Visualizing the Bible via webel.net
♥ notmartha - I always stumble across notmartha and then forget and then restumble and forget
♠ Tiny Choices - It's true. Their posts about water bottles are just feeding my own paranoia.
♥ Brownie Points Blog - food blog with beautiful photos and great ideas
♥ Miss Ginsu - more food blogging and other stuff including a homemade bitters recipe. I'm so making that.
♥ Broccoli Beef Recipe - I used the ingredient search on allrecipes.com the other night to find something different to make with the items I had on hand, and it turned out to be really tasty.
♠ Invent Your Own Casserole - the basic steps to making a casserole
♠ What on Earth - a catelog I used to get

These were probably all found via the site one or two above it, so sorry for not giving props if you were the one who led me there.

Pride: In the Name of Love
My main man is on the front page of Triple J Unearthed at the moment. (Triple J is one of the national radio stations, and Unearthed is for mostly undiscovered bands.) So yeah, he works really hard at what he does. And though on rare occasions I feel like music/graphics widow, I really am proud of him and think he deserves the recognition.

Name That Tune
iden.tify.us: People helping people identify music. Google can only help so much when you're searching for music, mostly because you need to know what you're looking for. That's where iden.tify.us comes in. You can upload a snippet, and people will help you figure out what it is.

Lost in Translation
lollypop lady (loll ee pop lay de)
n. a crossing guard
"Wait for the lollypop lady to stop traffic and blow her whistle before you cross the road."

Doin' the Australian Wave
There's a thing here called the Australian wave. It all has to do with trying to shoo flies away from all the open crevices on your body, mostly your head for most, I suppose.

Picture a Sally Struthers commercial. You know those flies that crawl up the kids' noses and make you feel really bad for them? Well, they ain't just in Ethiopia, folks. I don't know if it is all the damp weather this week or what, but they are out here in full-force plague-like proportions. Eww.

And speaking of national waves...

Lost in Translation
Mexican wave
n. an occurrence which often happens at sporting events or large arenas which involves people in one area standing and possibly cheering and then sitting as those to their left do so. The excitement then continues around the arena ad nauseum. Known by North Americans as simply The Wave for obvious politically correct reasons.

"During half-time they started the Mexican wave, and I spilled my popcorn."

Right Brain or Left Brain
Have you all seen the spinning dancer silhouette? Which way does she turn for you? On my first take, she is always going clockwise. Though the other day after much eye-crossing and headache-suffering, I did manage to get her to flip.

I guess I'm a righty, which seems about right.

Lost in Translation
removalist (ree myu vol ist)
n. a company or individual hired to move ones belongings to another location; movers
"The removalists are coming on Saturday for the rest of the furniture and large boxes."

Oh and "curb" is spelled "kerb" here. I thought they were kidding.

I Have Some Stalking to Do
I'm about an hour away from Ethan Hawke. Don't tell me you didn't fall in love with him in Reality Bites. Though, now that I think about it, I'd be hard-pressed to recall anything he's done since.

Little Update
There was a show last night. Much fun was had by all... except that we weren't home until midnight. The fact that I even have to mention that proves that I'm officially an old fart.

On the way home we were talking about methods to keep ourselves awake while driving when overly tired, such as opening the window and turning the radio up, etc.

My trick was to aways turn it to NPR if it wasn't already. Just the talking itself made me pay attention and be more alert. But if that didn't work, I would force myself to repeat everything they said. It was nearly fool-proof.

However the best tip came from Gareth who said that his sister used to roll her window down a crack, put a piece of hair out the window, and roll it shut again with her hair still out. That way if she would start to nod off, she'd feel the pain of her hair pulled and snap out of it. How brilliant is that??

Chills and Goosebumps
I just can't help but cry when I see the videos of Paul Potts on Britain's Got Talent. His first performance singing "Nessun Dorma" was so beautiful, and then the semi-final performance singing "Time to Say Goodbye" was just spectacular. (And after having listened to that Sarah Brightman album endlessly, I could sing right along with him.) He's just the guy you want to win the whole thing on behalf of all the kids who were teased for not being just like everyone else.

Lost in Translation
slice (slyce)
n. a square dessert or snack item; the Australian culinary equivalent of an American bar
"I'll have a coffee and a macadamia nut slice, please."

Gah, I HATE this term with every ounce of my being. It just sounds so gross to me. I cringe from it like others cringe from the word "moist". They're bars, people. They are chocolate/walnut BARS. Toffee nut BARS. Toasted almond BARS.

On that note, people here don't make rice krispie bars. What is up with that? It's the simplest snack in the world to make. Don't tell Mom, but I don't even measure. Just melt the 'mallows with a little butter. Add a dash of vanilla. Throw in enough rice krispies but keep the mixture still gooey. Spread in a buttered pan and... my family's secret ingredient... cover with M&M's. Yummm!

Little Lightning Bugs
I found a little place today called Rare Bird Finds, which led me to a place called Catching Fireflies, where I found this amazing jar of "fireflies" that I must have. (Australia doesn't have them at all, you see.)

But then I found a bunch of other things that I love too, so I'm just going to share them since I'll never order them:
♥ the bouncing bud vase
♥ the dip chiller
♥ the blossom crown
♥ the "love at first sight" frame (which would make a great gift for certain someones I know... eeee!)
♥ And no, I'm absolutely not talking about us.
♥ the wine bottle cork candles

Mountain Madness
We're leaving for the mountains on Friday morning, so my life is revolving around getting everything ready to go. Yes, we're staying at a furnished house, but will they have everything I need to survive? I don't know. To be safe, I'm packing half the house... to Hans's dismay. Listen, if we're going to the trouble of bringing nice porterhouse steaks up there to grill, I'm going to be darn sure we have steak knives with which to cut them!

My goal while we are up there is to get a glimpse of a pademelon... some sort of miniature kangaroo/wallaby people keep telling me about.

Sean over at Notes from a New Country keeps a tally of all the things that can kill you on this continent, but I've found a new one. The Bunya Mountains are covered with, wait for it, Bunya Pine trees. And on the government website, it reads:

Avoid lingering under bunya pines between December and March. That is when the soccer-ball sized cones weighing up to 10kg fall from the tops of towering trees.

Great. Hopefully they will all have fallen by now.

Lost in Translation
stack hat (stak hat)
n. bicycle helmet
"What's that lady doing wearing a stack hat in her car?"

Potential Weirdness, But Not
This morning we were getting off the train, and a guy comes up to me.

"Excuse me, are you Danielle?"
"Yes?"
"From Tennessee?"
"Yes?"
"I'm [insert name]. I sent you a message on myspace a while back."

My instant reaction was panic, as I've had a barrage of wackos sending me lunch invitations on myspace lately. Turns out that he was not one of them, and in fact we had corresponded briefly as he is from Texas and is also on the quest for "real" Mexican food in this town. And, in fact, we may meet up with him and his wife in the future.

But still... it was a bit weird at the time.

Australian Arbonne!
I no longer have to be completely stingy with my soap and lotion and shampoo and cosmetics -- ARBONNE is coming to AUSTRALIA! I'm signing back up the second I can, and maybe I'll try to build a little business out of it. Such an untapped market; maybe it would be easy?

Lost in Translation
hotel
n. a dining establishment which also likely features a section with poker machines but does not have rooms in which to spend the night... unless it is more than two stories, in which case, it is then called a "hotel" but may or may not have the restaurant and/or the pokies.
"It's a proper hotel with food and pokies."

Admission
I'm seriously trying not to get involved with Big Brother, but it's hard, people. It's really hard. It doesn't help that I always seem to be coming home and turning on the television just as it starts.

And Finally...
New expat blog coming soon to a sidebar near you: Outback Dobbs

Lost in Translation
In a little social experiment to do with Aussie slang, today I ordered "chook nuggies" at McDonalds and got exactly what I wanted... chicken mcnuggets. Further proof that you can shorten and add "ies" to absolutely any word in this country.

Flight Fright
There's a phenomenon that I've noticed lately where you tell someone that you're about to take a huge trip, and they in turn feel compelled to tell you their most horrific travelling story. Listen, I don't want to hear about Uncle Henry's 52-hour layover after emergency-landing in Taipai. I don't need to know about your neighbor Bob's turbulence-inducing pukefest. And I certainly don't want to know about Aunt Judy's body cavity search. Okay? I've got some horror stories of my own... I don't need yours.

I'll probably be packing tomorrow. For now it's Hans's birthday celebration part four.

Lost in Translation
diary (dy-ah-ree)
n. calendar, day-planner
"Check the diary to see when the dentist appointment is."

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!
I can't express how relieved I've felt the last couple of days. I don't think it will REALLY hit until I get my bright shiny visa sticker in my passport, but for now the idea is good enough.

We celebrated a little tiny bit on Monday night. Hans caught a cab home instead of the train, so he surprised me by coming in a lot earlier than I expected. We had pizza delivered, and his mom brought over a bottle of wine.

Tuesday night, we spent the evening with his sister's family who were all excited that I'm here to stay (for now). His niece had her 7th grade Christmas program, and it was so cute.

Last night we were treated to dinner at the Sultan's by our friends. They just moved to Brisbane three months ago from DENVER. He grew up here and now works with Hans. She grew up in NASHVILLE and is trying to figure out where to buy the stuff she was used to having over there. (Oh, how I relate!) But they're great fun, and that was nice. She got her spouse visa years ago knowing they'd eventually end up here, so they wanted to celebrate my visa-getting with us.

And then when we got home last night, there was a present by the door. It was a Welcome to Australia present from Dan & Lisa... The Man from Snowy River on DVD. (JESSICAAAAAA!) It has sort of become an inside joke between the four of us, but Lisa has never seen it -- which seems criminal to me. It's a classic! (Little do they know that I'm going to make them take me to the Man from Snowy River Festival some year!)

Though as usual, with so much going on, we're both starting to get sick. Bleh.

You've Got Hail
Yesterday we had a little storm.


The local paper has some great photos. Hans and I had just walked out to get lunch when gigantic drops started to fall. We had marble-sized hail. Pretty spectacular overall.

A Day at the Races
The horse race that everyone seems to care about happened again this week. I was only slightly more interested this year than last, but that's because I seem to be a gambler at heart.

I got in on a little pool. $2 a horse. I drew Dizelle, Pop Rock, and Delta Blues. (I feel a little Marc Cohn coming on.) But yeah, it was a photo finish, with Delta Blues just beating out Pop Rock. And I walked away with $36. Woot!

NoMoNaNo
I determined this week that... I don't want to be a writer anymore. I know that NaNoWriMo is a challenge to do something that lots of people dream about doing, but I don't think I do anymore. At this point in my life, I'd rather be doing DrawMo!... or maybe I'll do NaArMaMo next August. My passion is for a different art at the moment, though words may woo me back someday. For now, I think I'll sit on the NaNo sidelines and cheer on Barry and Tommy.

Lost in Translation
muso (muze-oh)
n. musician
"Allison, Brandy and I are married to musos."

Bad Sleep
At some point in the middle of the night, one of the smoke detectors let us know that its battery was low... and continued to tell us about every half an hour with a loud BEEP! I need a ladder to reach it, so I didn't bother trying to get up to take the battery out, but I think I woke up every single time it went off. And then when I was sleeping, I had a dream about my brother's accident. Gosh if that wasn't one of the suckiest nights ever!

Crikey, it's Khaki
Have y'all heard about International Khaki Day? We only just heard about it yesterday. And while I don't really have much in the way of khaki, I did wear my tan skirt today.

Lost in Translation: Pronounciation Edition
khaki
n. a light-brownish color

American Pronounciation: rhymes with "wacky"
Australian Pronounciation: rhymes with "car key"

I laugh a little bit inside every time I hear it.

In the Words of Taylor Dayne... Prove Your Love
More adventures in the world of visa applications. When applying for a spouse visa, you're required to submit evidence of a continuing and lasting relationship.

Just think about that for a minute.

Those of you who are IN a continuing and lasting relationship, how would YOU go about proving this? And then ask yourself, if you would happen to have this "evidence", is this something that you want a complete stranger, or team of strangers, seeing/reading?

Now Hans and I lived in different countries for nearly 3 of the 4.5 years we've known each other. This cuts down on the photographic evidence, but certainly upped the electronic correspondence factor. Problem being that I left my computer in the States, and he's had a crash or two, and so the past emails are limited. He has printed out 46 of about 250, but I feel like I want to edit them. The problem is that the stuff I don't want people to read is the stuff that proves we love each other. Ugh.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. Printing out instant message logs, requesting phone records from long distance companies (First Communications have the BEST customer service EVER), and photos from the past year.

Lost in Translation: Food Edition
tasty (tayst-ee)
n. cheese
adj. cheese variety
"Put some tasty on top and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes."

I can't quite put my finger on what the American equivalent of tasty cheese might be, but it's white and might be close to a mild cheddar.

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair
The Ekka starts this week. I forget what it means again... I think "ekka" is the typical Aussie shortening of someword, "exhibition" perhaps? But I've been told it's similar to the midwestern state fair concept. People even get a day off work for it. I think we're going next week, but I'm excited -- something to look forward to!

She's Crafty
Goodness, I've got more to say than I thought I did. In the middle of trying to get my crap together so that I don't get deported, I'm also taking up a new hobby. Screenprinting. Well, maybe. I'm going to attempt this great DIY screenprinting method in order to make some merch for Hans's next show in three weeks.

The stinky part is that I don't know where to find any supplies. Where are my Michaels and Hobby Lobbys when I need them.

The good news is that I found some screenprinting paint at an art store for $20/each. I also found one single solitary bottle of Modge Podge at Spotlight. I'll let you know how it goes.

I've also been looking for a button maker, but apparently Tash owns the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. Does Sola Fida do merch? :)

Eight Einsteins
Saturday night we went to a trivia night with Dan & Lisa that was a fundraiser put on by Dan's work to help raise funds for Chris Scott. He is a paralympic bicyclist. The goal was to raise $3500 to help him purchase a new bike. At the end of the night, they reported that we raised over $6500.

We were on a team with some really fun people who weren't very competetive at all. It was great. We called ourselves the Eight Einsteins, but it proved to be a curse. We came fourth to last, but we had fun in the process. We also won the table decorating contest... designed by the artist Hans. We kicked butt in the Name that Tune category... but with categories like Australian geography, Queensland history, and World Cup Soccer, yeah, I wasn't much help.

Wedding Dress Shopping Record
Left the house at 10:00.

By noon, we were having coffee deliberating with Mom on the phone about The Dress.

Had the shoes and dress purchased, ate lunch, and were heading home by 2:30.

That's one less thing to worry about.

Lost in Translation: Pronunciation Edition
produce
n. fruits and vegetables

American pronunciation: pro-deuce
Australian pronunciation: prod-juice

Lost in Translation
fruit toast
n. toasted raisin bread, often served slathered in butter
"If I knew the 'fruit' in 'fruit toast' was going to be raisins, I wouldn't have taken a piece."

House Warming (read "I Need a Heater")
So we're as settled as one can be considering that we haven't really unpacked anything. Clothing selection is getting mighty slim at the moment, but tonight we're moving the wardrobe into my room so that I can unpack my suitcases.

On Sunday afternoon, brother/sister-inlaw took us on a shopping spree. And spree, we did. Hans had saved up some money for the move, and they gave us an extremely generous amount... so we went into every homewares shop and just bought whatever we wanted. It was so fun... and for me to say that shopping of any sort is fun, well, that's just unheard of!

We got:
- glass caniters for the pantry (to keep the ants away)
- a stainless-steel wine bucket
- 4 latte mugs with wooden coasters
- a pale yellow sugar bowl to match the kitchen
- 6 tumblers
- 6 tall glass glasses
- a super-soft cozy blankie for the couch (yeah, that was my pick)
- a white enamel colander
- a wine bottle opener
- an ice cream scoop
- a vegetable peeler
- 2 pairs of scissors
- a wok
- measuring cups
- ice cube trays
- a microwave
- an ironing board / iron
- mixing bowls
- power strips

Well, that's all I can remember anyway. And then we proceeded to spend $200 on groceries. Eeek... but it was the first big shop to get all the staples on hand. Now we can actually cook! Well, we have the ingredients to cook with anyway.

Oh, but you know the best part. Well, not the best part... but a pretty significant part -- I am able to watch television in my own home for the first time in over six months. Not that I need to have it on all the time, but to be able to watch the news once in a while is kind of exciting.

We're off on an entire-family campout weekend tomorrow. (Yeah, I know. I don't DO camping. We're in a cabin at least.) We've bought three bottles of wine, but I'll wait until Saturday to see if I'm going to share any of it!

Lost in Translation
dagwood dog (dag-wood dog)
n. a corndog
"I'm going to grab a dagwood dog and a bottle of water from the stand and will meet you back by the stage."

Familiar Territory
On Saturday, headed west to Toowoomba for the AustralianlGospellMusiclFestival to see some friends from Nashville.

Some highlights include:
·Watching Sons of Korah play.
·Seeing Hans' artwork used as a backdrop for one of the stages.
· Getting matching lambies with Lisa from Bread.
· Catching up with a couple from Sydney who I met in Nashville.
· Getting to spend a little time with some familiar faces.

It was good, and it was sad. For a moment, it felt like I was at a random festival in the States. Same people. Same atmosphere. Same green room food. Same everything. But it was nice.

We just stayed backstage to watch the show instead of trying to battle the estimated 10,000 people out in front of the stage. (See where we were as indicated by the arrow on the overhead photo from the local paper).










A Conversation
Phil: [to me] What are YOU doing here?
Hans: This is my fiancee'.
Phil: NO WAY! Pete, did you know they're getting MARRIED?
Peter: Yeah, I know. Isn't that great?

Lost in Translation
cheerio (cheer-ee-oh)
n. a little sausage similiar to Lil' Smokies, teenie weenies


Hans and I had quite an interesting/frustrating conversation before we realized that Australian cheerios and American Cheerios are not even remotely close to the same product.

Other than that, I'm feeling kind of yucky. I need a chiropractor or a massage therapist. Anybody want to come over and help me out? I can't wait to have a real mattress.

One Size Fits How Many??
For the last couple weeks I have been baffled by a billboard in the train station for New Woman magazine. The big attraction for their December issue is that it comes with a free bikini. You don't tear out a postcard and mark your size and color preference to have them send you one... oh no, it comes WITH the magazine, because... it's ADJUSTABLE. And therefore, one size fits ALL.

I'm not particularly offended by this, because (1) I'm not fooling myself and have never owned a bikini in my life, and (2) my time spent in a one-piece bathing suit is averaging out to be under five minutes per year at the current rate. However, I think that the phrase "one size fits all" is a little misleading. The least they could have done is put "one size fits anyone who has any business wearing a bikini" or something like that.

Their website shows off real women wearing the miraculous bikini. Oh wait, they're a women's volleyball team. Yeah, guess it would fit them. And then they say they want pics of readers to send in their photos in their new bikinis. Heh. I'm so tempted to buy the magazine now. I wonder if they'll publish the less-than-flattering ones.

Colour Me Badd
I'm such a sucker for turquoise these days. What is my deal? I'm such a follower. (Which isn't true... half my stuff I had before it became the IT color again.)

Love to Hate Him
I don't think I mentioned that I actually watched War of the Worlds the other night. I know, I know... leave me alone. It was just on. It was against my will. I contributed no money towards the viewing of the movie, and it would have played in the lounge whether I was there witnessing it or not.

I think the best part about the movie was that Tom's character was such an ass that I didn't have to feel bad about hating severely disliking him.

We had some issues with the film. Many similar to the ones that Barry pointed out ages ago, especially the EMP thing. My biggest beef was that apparently undergarments vaporize along with the humans, because one never saw panties or boxers floating through the air... just slacks and shirts.

I can't remember who wrote it now, but I remember someone having great issue with the disturbing image of a train barreling through an intersection without blowing its horn. Having grown up two blocks away from the Burlington Northern line, I could relate. The train always toots its horn. Always. But I'm here to tell you that this is not always the case. I ride the train every morning here, and nine times out of ten, the driver does not honk (honk?) when going through an intersection. But this is Australia. I'm not quite sure why they do half the things they do.

Lost in Translation
muesli (mew-slee)
n. granola
"I grabbed a muesli bar for breakfast."