Aussie Words of the Day

Because Lenny is an asshole, I have decided to update my blog with just Australian terms. Also, because I'm at every day 9-5 and have nothing exciting to share...yet. Here we go:


Technicolour Yawn. "Dude, I got so wasted last night that I had to technicolour yawn all over this guys back porch." A technicolour yawn is to throw up.

Chunder.  Same deal as above, except I have a story to go with chunder. In the 1800's when people would be sailing to Australia, the boats would be of two tiers, and due to the seasickness people would experience they usually would throw up over the boats railing. Now, because it was a two tier boat, the people on the top deck who would get sick would yell out "Watch under!" and spew everywhere onto the lower deck. But because of the ocean people would simply hear " 'ch under" instead of "watch under", and thus chunder came about.

Unco. "You are so unco, it's not even funny." Unco is to be uncoordinated.

Punch on. Australians for some reason say "I got into a punch on Tuesday night when I was wasted" instead of "I got into a fight Tuesday night when I was wasted".

Similarly, a biff is a brawl.

Straya. Straya is an attempt to express the pronunciation of the word "Australia". I'm not even kidding, but this is how Aussie's pronounce their country's name. Straya, fuck yeah.

Sook. A timid, cowardly person, especially a young person; a crybaby. "Quit being such a fucking sook, you wanker". Pretty sure I was called that, hahahaha.

Cracked the shits. To get really pissed off, or angry. "There have been so many times when I've been close to cracking the shits, but I just kept trudging through. Don't crack it, and you'll be right."

For some reason a Bluey is a nickname for a redhead, or a ranga.


Come a guster. To make a bad mistake, or have an accident. Yeah... I don't get it either.

Doona, a duvet.

Suss. "Yeah dude, I'll have to suss that out. It sounds awesome." My buddy Will Maxwell from Melbourne always says "suss", and it means to figure something out or work something out.

Onya. As in, "Good on ya"

You're right. Whenever you bump into or get in someone's way on the train/tram/where ever, and you apologize for it, they usually respond with "You're right" which essentially is "No worries" or "It's okay".


Finally, the other night I heard the expression, "To hang shit on your nose" or something to that affect, but I have no clue what it means. I even asked people and they told me I made that shit up, but I was watching TV (Good News Week, to be exact) and a British comedian said that he had just learned that expression that day, and how much he loves the Australian language.

I'm a fucking walking paradox, no I'm not.

May 12th to May 16th can't come soon enough.

Whitsundays. You're jealous.

Aussie Word of the Day: Dongle. A dongle is a wireless internet USB stick.

I've never been so...

It's Friday night, at 11PM and I'm sitting in my apartment living room half watching The Wire and half watching the news about Japan. I wish I was out right now instead, though. Blah. Maybe tomorrow night.

So, Melissa left her Australian adventures two days ago and although there were a lot of times when I wanted to rip her fucking face off, I genuinely had a good time and I'm glad she got home to Toronto safely today.

I started training at work this past Monday. It's been pretty good so far, really dry and boring at times to the point of nearly falling asleep, but I've met some pretty cool people and it seems (hopefully) like a fun laid back place to work. My recruiter, Dan, was an English backpacker but was sponsored to stay over, so we'll see what happens with me. I'm sure he was amazing at the job, and I doubt I'll be anywhere near caring too much about the job and making sales - though it does seem relatively easy...or easier than I thought it'd be.

In terms of the Japan 8.9 magnitude earthquake, 7.4 magnitude aftershock and the resulting tsunami... I hope my roommates,  David, family is alright. He still hasn't been able to get in touch with them about 7 hours after the quake and tsunami hit. Seriously hope they're alright. I hope all of Japan is alright, and I hope that everyone in the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, Hawaii, the west coast of the US, etc. will be alright. Be safe!

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, there is no Tsunami threat to Australia, and New Zealand after having had tsunami warnings has been downgraded to a marine threat. The below image shows proof of the no Tsunami threat.

I don't really understand how NZ could have warnings, but AU wouldn't... Either way, I'm glad that both have been cleared, for now, since neither can really afford to go through another giant catastrophe after having being rocked by an earthquake three weeks ago in Christchurch, NZ, battered by record cyclone Yasi in Far North Queensland, floods in Brisbane and surrounding areas, and just recently landslides in FNQ, again.

I'm alright, and I hope everyone else is alright! Seriously.

Wow, my father an astronaut! I've never been so... what's the opposite of shame?

Proud?

Not that far from shame.

Less shame?

Yeahhhh.

Aussie Word of the Day: "Gobby". I definitely thought this was short for the  candy "Gobstoppers", but it definitely isn't. I'll leave you to find out what it actually means, if you're so curious to find out.

It's That Time Again: Pictures.

As promised, here are more pictures of Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, and the Gold Coast.

Click here for a link to my Flickr account.

We Got That P.M.A.

We got that attitude.

I had a one on one interview on Friday morning at a call centre in Milton, a suburb of Brisbane, right across from Suncorp Stadium (which is where the Brisbane Roar (soccer) and Brisbane Broncos (rugby) call home). I wouldn't normally look to find a call centre job, but this particular one comes with a $750 weekly pay, plus commission. It went well and I was invited back in for a group interview on Monday morning.

On Saturday, I went to watch the Brisbane Roar play the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League semi finals. It was a draw 2-2, but the Roar advanced 4-2 on aggregate. Now, since I love soccer, and I don't know anyone in Brisbane (yet) aside from my roommate who absolutely hates soccer (and Seinfeld - seriously?) I decided to go alone, which was kind of awkward at first. It got much better as I got further and further immersed into the game well into the second half when the Roar fell behind 2-0 and had to force a comeback with two outstanding goals in something like 6 minutes. Because of this, I may also decide to head to the A-League Final at Suncorp Stadium on March 13th, probably alone again.
Sidenote, I definitely feel as though had I continued playing soccer, I could have played in the A-League. It's much worse than the MLS.

On Monday morning, I went back for that group interview. On Monday afternoon, I got myself a job. Training starts next Monday, the 7th of March.

Now I just need to land a date and I'll be set...

I'll be heading down to the Gold Coast on Thursday morning to pick up Melissa who is back from Phuket, Thailand so that should be fun.

Aussie Word of the Day: Catch. Australians say "catch" at the end of a sentence instead of saying "bye". Catch as in "Catch ya later", but since Aussies are lazy and shorten everything - which is rad - it's become "Catch".