I got chatting to an old friend on MSN last night, and by old I mean we've known each other a while not that he is old, although he is really now and part of our discussion was about how old we'd become since we last saw each other. This in turn led him to check out the post I wrote about my 30th birthday which led to me having a quick look at it myself to remind me of what a fun time I had.
And then I saw it. In amongst the list of things I managed to squeeze into a fun 24 hours was this word: sunbake.
It is one of a few that I hadn't really heard before I moved to Australia and yet there I was, innocently using it as though it was a natural part of my vocabulary. Which led me to wonder, what other unusual words have I picked up since living here, what do they mean, and what might I otherwise have said had I remained in England?
| Aussie Word | Meaning/Usage | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Sun-bake** | To lie in sun absorbing its rays. | Sun-bathe |
| Awesome | Very good. | Wicked |
| Doona* | A bed covering. | Duvet |
| Uggies | Comfy warm sheepskin boots. | Slippers |
| Router (pronounced rowter) | A piece of hardware used to direct network traffic. This primarily illustrates a difference in pronounciation which also applies to the use of the word as in "is there another route we can take". Route (pronounced root) is rude in Australia and people laugh at you when you say it. | Route (pronounced root). |
| Thongs*** | A type of sandal. | Flip-flops |
| Capsicum** | A fruit usually used as a vegetable. | Pepper |
| Zuccini** (pronounced zoo-kini as in bikini) | Is it a fruit or a vegetable? | Corgette |
| Eggplant** | Some vegetable/fruit type of food thing. It's not even the same colour as an egg. | Aubergine (the actual colour of the fruit thing). |
| Togs** | Something you swim in or wear on the beach. | Swimsuit, bathers |
| Servo, Fuel station | Somewhere that sells petrol. | Petrol station, garage |
| Fuel | Something you put in your car to make it move. | Petrol |
| Woolies | A supermarket. | Sainsbury's |
| Bottlo, Bottle Shop, Liquor Store | Somewhere you buy alcoholic beverages. | Off-licence, Offie |
| Unit | An apartment. | Flat |
| Town-house | A house attached to another house in some way, perhaps within a complex | I'm not even sure we have such a thing in England but it could be a maisonette, or just a house. |
| The ocean | Vast expanse of water off the coast. | The sea |
| Soccer* | A game involving 11 men and a round ball and the men are only allowed to touch the ball with their feet (apart from the goalie). | Footie, football (which can mean one of many things here: rugger, AFL, union, league, it's all just footie to the Aussies apart from the one game which clearly is by definition "footie". |
| Lollies* | Confectionary. | Sweets. In England a lolly is a sweet on a stick. |
| Ice block* | Frozen confectionary. | Ice lolly |
| Film clip* | Short film accompanying a piece of popular music. | Video (pronounced vidjo) |
| Movie, the movies/the cinema | A film, a public "theatre" which shows films. | Film, the pictures |
| Stubbie | Small bottle of beer. | A what? Why would you want a small one? |
| Light beer | A beer light in taste, and often alcohol. | Come what? But of course, they drive everywhere in Australia. |
| Mid-strength | Lager, normal colour and alcohol content. | Lager |
| Jug** | An electrical boiling device. | Kettle |
| Highway | A multi-lane road where cars are allowed to go quite fast. | Motorway. They have motorways in Australia too but they're more like B roads: not as fast and not as many lanes. |
* Words that I don't really use but either say occasionally so that people actually know what I'm talking about, or at least need to know what they mean.
** Words that I use interchangeably.
*** I went through a phase of saying the Aussie word but have now reverted back to the English word because I like it better.
It's quite amazing because after living here for over three years I am still learning new words and phrases. I'm sure there are many more that have slipped my mind.
Climate Change Tip for the Top: Do you really need your light-bulbs?
Now I know I'm starting to sound like a crazy hippie but hear me out. The other week the fluorescent tube in our bathroom went. It's winter here in Australia which means that the sun shines for half the day and then it's dark. In the absence of a spare fluro tube we turned to the comfort of candles. And it was so nice that we didn't really feel encouraged to go out and buy a new fluro tube. However, we are now being unceremoniously booted out of our house (which we only found out about a couple of weeks ago and which I blogged about in an unpublished post during a very angry "all real estate agents are b@stards and my landlord doesn't love me" moment, and which I don't have time to go into now as it's taken about a week to write this post as it is but suffice to say that we are currently submerged in boxes and packing tape and will be arriving in our new abode this coming weekend) so now we have to replace the tube but it did get me thinking that perhaps we don't always need to use light bulbs. If you do feel the need to use light bulbs then my tip for the top is to use the energy saver ones. They seem a little cold when you first switch them on but they soon warm up (I'm talking colour, not heat folks). They use less electricity than normal light bulbs and last much longer. The only lamps I don't use them in at the moment are ones with specialist fittings that you can't get with energy saver bulbs (such as the small screw-ins) or where you need a particularly small bulb for the lamp shade as fluros are still pretty bulky at the base.
Oh yeah, and I planted some trees to make up for my flights to the UK. Not literally. I gave money to an organisation that will plant them for me. And before everyone gets on at me about how planting new forests isn't as good as maintaining existing forests, it's better than nothing and the organisation I donated to (Greenfleet) re-plants native forests in areas that have previously been cleared for agriculture. Rather than plantations it actually reconstructs entire ecosystems. So, even if it doesn't offset the carbon emissions of my flights it's a good cause, right?
