March 13 - Getting the Hang of It

GETTING THE HANG OF IT
Okay, so here's the way nice days -- and this one was cloudless with perfect early fall temps -- go in this idyllic little beach town:  Have some coffee or tea.  Go for a walk on the beach.  Come home and eat a healthy breakfast.  Have a surf.  Shower and shave.  Eat a light lunch.  Read and take a nap.  Maybe go on a late afternoon beach walk.  Have a glass of wine or a beer.  Eat dinner.  Have another glass of wine.  Watch TV until you start nodding off.  Read yourself to sleep.  Rinse and repeat.  I think I've about got it.
The above pretty well describes this day.  About the only thing out of the ordinary is that when Keith and I went to Black Rock to bodysurf, we noticed a definite rip current on either side of where we were surfing.  Very soon after we'd gotten into the water, Keith said, "I think we'd better give it a miss" and explained why.  I had only seen the rip on one side, but when I saw the second one, I enthusiastically seconded the motion; so we sauntered about 1 km N to Main Beach, where the waves were nice and there were no discernible rips.  It was, however, fairly crowded with a couple of board surfers and 3 other bodysurfers in a fairly narrow area (between the rocks that were on either side of the area).  Good waves and great fun!  Hard to beat this lifestyle.
Since there's really not much to tell about today, I thought it might be interesting to share some contrasts between Australia and the US.  Someone is reputed to have said that Australia and America are "2 countries separated by a vast ocean and a common language."  Aussies have their flat vowels, and we from the Southern US our drawl.  But it's not just the accents that are different.  Here are some terms for both languages:
Aussie to American
  • footpath - sidewalk
  • car park - parking lot
  • cara park - RV (caravan) park/lot
  • RSL (Retired Service League) - VFW
  • takeaway - to go
  • boot - trunk (of car)
  • windscreen - windshield
  • mate - buddy/friend
  • chemist - drug store
  • prawn - shrimp
  • mince - hamburger meat
  • chips - French fries
  • give way (road sign) - yield
  • overtaking lane - passing lane
Some other notable differences Americans notice in Australia -
  • Since it's on the south side of the Equator, seasons are reversed; so it's hot in Australia from December - Feb. and cold June - Aug.  Fall is spring and spring is fall.
  • It's across the International Date Line, so it's ~16-17 hours ahead in most of their time zones than in the Central Time Zone in the US.
  • They use the metric system, so things are measured in metres, kilograms, and liters, not feet/yards/miles, ounces/pounds, and pints/quarts/gallons.  (Since as a runner, I know that 10 km is 6.2 miles, I'm okay with metres; but I had a heck of a time trying to figure out how much sliced turkey I needed for sandwiches in kg.)
  • They use Celsius, not Fahrenheit to measure temperature.  Today in Nambucca Heads it's a pleasant 74F or 16C.
  • Cricket is a very big sport here.  If you think baseball games are long and sometimes slow ....
  • They play 3 different types of rugby (union, league, and Aussie rules), which is the equivalent of our football.
  • Entities like teams are always spoken of in the plural, so it's not Penn State is the Rose Bowl champion; it's Penn State are the Rose Bowl champions.
  • Lots of words have "ie" on the end, e.g., bikie for a motorcycle biker, kindie for kindergarten, etc.
  • There are few stop signs and traffic lights outside of big cities like Sydney.  Instead they use roundabouts and have give way (so yield rather than stop) signs).
  • In some Australian towns, and Nambucca Heads is one, for diagonal parking, they back in rather than pulling in.  This means when you pull out of your parking space, you're driving forward into traffic rather than trying to back into oncoming traffic (often without being able to see what's coming).
  • Outside of the big cities 4 lane highways are relatively new concepts.  Many major highways are 2 lanes with a 3rd overtaking (passing) lane about 1 km long roughly every 5-8 km.
  • Most major cities are a long way from each other.  Australia is about the size of the continental US, but the nation's population is about that of the state of Texas.  Vast parts of the middle of the country is desert, and 85% of the population lives along the "Boomerang Coast" (named for the shape) from Brisbane in the NE to Adelaide in the SW.
Pop test tomorrow.


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