"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

All Things Oz 5



As seen through the window of holtieshouse

Australia is known for many things that define us as unique throughout
the world, some of these are;


Our laconic drawl typified by a greeting such as,
“G’day mate, ‘ow yer goin?’” we have a tendency to abbreviate words by dropping
off the first, (and sometimes a few more) letters, a good example of this is available
at this site, locate a post by Wombat Wol, there are a couple, they will give a good
sample of our lingo.


The great Australian salute.
This is the almost constant waving of a hand in front of the face to keep the vast
horde of flies from settling there, these fly’s are know as bush fly’s and as such are
found in the greatest numbers out of the cities.


The Australian mosquito.
Known as mozzies these critters are reputed to be able to carry off small children
and animals when they descend en-masse on their unsuspecting victim, they are
carriers of a debilitating disease called “Ross River Fever” makes one wonder
why Noah didn’t swat ‘em when there were only two of ‘em.


Australian place names.
While some of our towns and places show a very unimaginative trend, High Street,
Railway Hotel, Smithfield etc. others are so good they bare repeating, Kin Kin,
Woy Woy, Wagga Wagga etc. many were named in honour of our early aristocracy
and English heritage, Melbourne, Adelaide, Queensland, Princes Highway, Macquarie
Street etc. yet others are named after our early pioneers and explorers, Hume
Highway, Mt. Koscuisko, Parkes etc. and best of all some are derived from the
Aboriginal heritage, Toowoomba, Manjimup (the up at the end of many towns in
WA denotes “near water”) Oodnadaatta, (see poem)


The great Australian adjective.
This is a “bloody” beauty; we have a tendency to overuse this at times as shown
in the following poem, (not one of mine)


Oodna-bloody-datta

The bloody town’s a bloody cuss,
No bloody trams, no bloody bus.
And no-one cares for bloody us
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

Just bloody heat and bloody flies,
The bloody sweat runs in your eyes.
And if it rains, what a surprise
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

No bloody fun, no bloody games,
No bloody sport, no bloody dames.
Won’t even give their bloody names
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

No bloody clouds or bloody rain.
No bloody curbs no bloody drains.
The bloody council’s got no brains
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

The bloody goods are bloody dear’
A bloody buck for a bloody beer.
But is it good, no bloody fear
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

The bloody dances make you smile,
The bloody band is bloody vile,
They only cramp your bloody style
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

The best place is in bloody bed
With bloody ice upon your head,
You might as well be bloody dead
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

This was written about 1980 by my favourite author “anonymous.”

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9 comments:

Ivy the Goober said...

I've never heard that poem, but I like it! And I, too, am a big fan of Anonymous's work.

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter, Where did you dig up that b poem? I have not seen or heard of it before.
I have not decided if this series is to encourage or discourage
tourism - ave you? But it is interesting so thanks.

Peter said...

Hi ?????, glad you liked it Anonymous has a vast quantity of quality work out there.

Hi Merle, Over more years than I like to think about I've been collecting these little gems.
When the series finishes (probably soon) I'll have to pose the question to the "tourist" section of the readership.

Davoh said...

bewdy. bloody little bottler, mate. Oroo

Peter said...

Hey unga-chunga, don't be put off by Oodna-bloody-datta, it's a tiny settlement in SA, probably less than 200 population, so not quite what you should judge Australia on, (nor am I, probably, there are lots of beautiful places and fairly normal people) so go on be a devil and jump on that plane!!!
By the way you show up in severalblogs and comment sections that I know, including Hoss'

jules said...

I'm gonna have to teach that one to the preschoolers. After all, it they can learn On Top of Spaghetti and I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor, why not Oodna Bloody datta????
rzgyy==sound like it should be in your poem somewhere.

kenju said...

I like your series, Peter, and I have always wanted to visit Australia (and NZ) so you can't put me off it!

Thanks again for the birthday wishes. I had a great one this year.

Big Dave T said...

Somewhere I read that "bloody" was once considered blasphemous, being considered an epithet on the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I think it went that bloody was a contraction of "by my Lady", referring to Mary. Don't know whether the story is true or not.

Peter said...

Hi all, thanks for dropping in and the comments.
Dave, I don't know if it's true or not either, but it's a bloody good comment.