It aint that bad in Melbourne, is it?

Well, it's official. You've all left me.

Sent Ben T on his way on Wednesday. I take it he reached you safely. Enjoy!

While I've got you, can I ask, what's so freakin' bad about Melbourne all of a sudden? It can't be the newspaper, because it's pretty bloody kick arse. And I mean, in terms of cool people, you can't really go past me.

Still, it is a little terrifying to think that the majority of my mates still in Melbourne I've only known for 12 months (or less!) and all the people that I've known for years are scattered across the globe. Makes for cheap travel though, I guess.

Anyhow... the pics from Kat's and my trip over to visit you guys are online. You can check out some "highlights" here.

I hate you. I love you.

Benj. x

Is Don, Is...Cured Pork Meats?

When I did Sociolinguistics at uni, we looked a bit at the different varieties of English, and there was the usual Australian stuff you'd expect about billabongs and tucker and paddocks and the like. But one thing I was surprised to learn was that the term "economic rationalism" is actually an Australian thing. As the article says, everywhere else it's called "neoliberalism," "Thatcherism" or other names, all with slightly different connotations. (Incidentally, how punk does "Rogernomics" sound?! Like Kathematics but with more rogering.) So basically, all those TV debates and opinion pieces and plays like "Diving for Pearls" would have needed to be "translated" for an overseas audience. I was struck by this at the time because it seemed such an unlikely little chunk of Aussie difference when everything else is dominated by the US and the UK.

Well now I think I've found another one. I was doing a translation about ham, and I came across the word salumi, which is the general Italian word for salami, prosciutto, all the different meats you find in a delicatessen. The dictionary only gave me "cured pork meats," which is obviously hideous. But I thought, hang on, isn't the generic word for all those things "smallgoods"? So why doesn't my dictionary have it? I typed it into the google bar, which for some reason is set to google.co.uk, and found that there were a suspiciously high number of hits with .com.au addresses - that's right, "smallgoods" is an Australian term!! Type it into wikipedia and you get references to the Melbourne Show, the Essendon Bombers, and The Smallgoods, "an Australian indie pop band originally from the Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy."

So now that another of my antipodean bubbles has been burst, I look to you guys for enlightenment - if they don't have the word "smallgoods", can you find out what the poms do call these things? And if they can't come up with a satisfactory alternative, I charge you guys with taking the Aussie word to the world.

Best Meal and Coffee in London (DONE)

That seemed appropriate, I am over work for this week, just wanna go and get amongst IT, wherever it is and whatever it's doing.

Spring sprung and then was shot down in a sicilian style drive-by so for this week we have reverted back to freezing face wind walk.

Fair few things on the go at the moment. Elissa left on a 10pm flight last night that she found out she would be getting at 10am yesterday, haha. Thommo reckons he is coming next thursday, not tomorrow, not next saturday, not last saturday. Make your mind up geez.

Jon and I had BBQ Shapes last weekend, oh yeah, and gus said "they taste like something I would give my dog". It was st pattys and he is irish so I couldn't K.O. him.

Darcy and Jo (zumi, I dunno) and Matt and supposedly coming over in just over a months time. May 7 is may bank holiday here which is mattys birthday.

I am planning on some trips away in the near future, prob somewhere with those kids when they arrive I assume. I heard whispers that delaney wants to MOVE to london, that is pretty out of control.

So back to the heading. I went to an Argentinian bar and grill last night, oh my god, it was the nicest meal I have had in london. A MASSIVE 10oz steak cooked to perfection with side salad for £12 or so, how can you beat that??? aslo I could smell nice coffee so I thought I would take a gamble and have an espresso. The cup was tiny, good start, it had the right colour on top, now I was excited...and then BAM just like that the BEST COFFEE SINCE ITALY. I almost cried.

Anyway there are some cool bars in the Broadway Market area in hackney, chilled out, went to a belgium beer bar last night.

Soon I am going to have a working bee on my back patio to get it ready for warm weather. I think I am going to rip the keys out of the dying piano and put plants in there.

Well I will hand you back to the mad mad silly nonsensical ravings of savage now.

Cheers

Scott


PS. Flights to Bologna are PRETTY PRETTY cheap, lets talk TIM!!

Yay for me! (Ding!)

So, here I am, but older now. Incredible really.

Birthday went down pretty sw33t with a capital 3. Bowling + drinking + cohorts = good times (didn't hurt that I pwnt scotty! oooooh zing). Thanks to those who sent birthday msgs or in the case of my fine mother a sweet load of foodz!! Unfortunately the tube conspired to prevent the second half of my birthday phone call.. It is now on my list..

Nice clip Timmo, I found this one to be also cool. Can't go past Animal now really can you, especially when he's combusting.

So in other news Debbie is in town these days, and apparently has scored a place to stay through a nasty trip on the stairs that is seeing Ellisa home for dental surgery >_< Poor girl.

This just in, apparently we killed atlantis, which you know, I'm cool with. (FIXED NOW!~ not atlantis, the link - was a noob mistake, I crave forgiveness)

So young Stephanie has returned to her mother country to regain strength before continuing the strained existence of an American living in the country they cast off so callously.. tsk tsk, they really should have thought about that. Atleast she stayed until my b'day - though leaving before Jayson's (thursday) was perhaps a tactical error, last night was purdy durn gewd - ending in a walk through east london home, I have no clear recollection of how this worked. I do, however, remember the guy breaking a bottle and threatening people with it, fool! He didn't realise we walked in the company of one Jan, a man reknown for his ability to destroy atleast as many men as he can count on one hand (this number by no means remains consistent between countings).

Tonight we break out the sheesha (hookah?) at scotty's for a mellow night in preparation of St Pat's day madnosity.

*edit* Benno if you still read this can you explain/fix why this post has no commment link?

Happy Birthday Jonno!!!!

Good to see you're finally getting the recognition you deserve.