potw - australian archive

We went to the archives to retrieve this photo. This was taken at the Ron Mueck Exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane. Ron used to create special effects in Hollywood and since then have moved on to sculpting incredibly lifelike figures. This was one of our favorites.

In the photo section we just added our photos from Australia. You can view the photos here.

australia

Australia from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

Annie and I spent 5 weeks in Australia moving from New South Wales, to Victoria, and finishing in Queensland. I put together this time lapse video highlighting some of the things we saw on our travels. While in Queensland, we stayed with some friends of Annie's from her Japan days and I was introduced to some Australian musicians I hadn't heard of. One is of aboriginal descent and I thought the music went well with the imagery. The track is called Marrurrumbul by Gurrumul Yunupingu. Thanks for the suggestion, Kylie.

Australia was tough to leave and we made some wonderful new friends and incredible memories. Hopefully, this video gives you a flavor of our experience down under.

new australian vocabulary

I have been working on perfecting my Australian accent over the last month. I am getting better and even had a bartender in a pub tell me I had an Australian accent. This has been an activity I have been working on from my early days of enjoying many late night Crocodile Hunter marathons. Cricky!

Here is a list of our favorite words and phrases we have picked up on our Australian travels. Remember when using them to embrace your inner Paul Hogan. 

• Boot - in Australia this is what they call the trunk of the car.
• Good on ya - meaning well done, good for you.
• How ya going? - one of my favorites, the translation is how are you doing?
• Good as gold - this would translate to “that is classic.”
• No worries - this has gained increasing popularity in the US over the years but is claimed by Australia. The translation is don’t worry about it.
• Brekky - breakfast in Australia. 
• Take the piss out of someone - this is to make fun of your mate. 
• Budgie smugglers - a speedo swimsuit.
• Bogan - redneck without guns.
• Bush - dry wilderness.
• Woop Woop - out in the bush. “It is out in the woop woop.”
• Esky - ice cooler.
• Bugger/Stuffed up - this means you missed up.
• Hey - they use this instead of “what”, when something isn’t heard. 
• Bikkie - cookie or biscuit.
• Smoko - morning tea.
• Arbo - afternoon.
• Winger(winja) - complainer. 
• Rangar - this one is a little mean but I am told pretty common. It refers to a red head like a orangoutang.
• Pisser - to get drunk.
• Tracky Dacs - sweat pants.
• Thongs/pluggers/jandels - flip flops.
• Ta - thanks. 
• Jumper - sweater.
• Singlet - tank top.
• Crook - feeling sick. 
• Heaps - this is the most common and we have started using it quite a bit. You substitute heaps for a lot. For instance, Annie and I are spending heaps of money on this trip.

We have many others but we are trying to keep things PG rated. We hope you enjoy and incorporate a few into your daily conversations. 

sfo-lax-nan-akl-syd

After two months of planning we are finally heading off. We have given up our apartment in Cow Hollow and are putting our stuff in a friend's basement. After we move our things we are driving down to Los Angeles to see my family for a few days. We are lending the car to my 18-year old niece who just got her license a week ago. I am not sure if she is more excited about us going on a world trip or the fact that she has a car to drive while we are away. I'm betting on the latter.

We leave for Fiji on Tuesday and decided to treat ourselves by staying at a white sandy beach resort on Treasure Island. It has been grueling getting ready so our goal while we are there is to do absolutely nothing except for lift a cocktail once in awhile. We will be in Fiji for four days and then head to Auckland, New Zealand. We will be in NZ for three weeks traveling from North to South Island.  Based on feedback we have gotten from people who have visited NZ we decided to rent a campervan. This is no ordinary Great American RV. It is a one of a kind hippie campervan. Go all out or go home is what I say. We will be able to sleep and cook in our camper.  From Christchurch, NZ we will fly to Sydney, Australia. I am really excited to see some friends of mine who I met in Japan. And that's what we have planned so far.

Our hope is to be away for six months but it's up in the air. Jon says if we come back sooner than six months it's a bit weak. We'll see what happens. Maybe we will like a particular area and stay there for a few months. Stay tuned to find out.