Aussie Slang Guide Part 1

Grouse = meaning great or very good "that's grouse!"

Hoon = someone who races their crappy suped up car down inner city high streets

Bogan = simple minded Australian folk, can be found in both country and suburban settings. Usually a bit racist and can be identified by a southern star tattoo somewhere about their person.

Pot = small glass of beer, roughly equivalent to half a pint

Maccas = McDonald's, purveyor of burgers and home of the meat clown, Ronald.

Pommy bastard = English people

Have you ever... ever felt like this?

Australia has many famous sights; barrier reefs, opera houses etc, but for me the best and most unexpected sight of 2008 was when heading towards Lorne in the car we happened to drive right past the lighthouse from the awesome tv show Round the Twist.

Round the Twist is possibly the greatest kids show ever, so an accidental pilgrimage to the shows setting was a treat indeed.

Australian Song of the Day # 5

That guy from the Aussie group Spiderbait has a new album out and silk suits is the first single, i think it rocks:

Vegetarian Delights

I am a self-confessed meat-lover, steak, sausages, burgers, bacon, are all devoured with relish on a regular basis. Although i'm not against vegetarian dishes, previous experiences with Tofu have left me scarred and traumatised and suspicious of all things vegetable based.

The Veggie Bar in Brunswick Street doesn't serve meat of any kind, not even those little bacon bits you get on salads, so when a friend suggested it for lunch my expectations for an awesome meal were not high. However i was completely blown away, this place is superb!

I ordered the Mexican Bean Burrito and sweet baby jesus it was good, gigantic portions, huge dollops of salsa, guacamole and sour cream and an enormous burrito. Not only was it delicious but i was absolutely stuffed (quite an achievement in itself).

Although i am still suspicious of Tofu I highly recommend this place to veggies and normal people alike. Be warned though it is pretty popular, especially on weekends.

Google map after the jump.

Australian Song of the Day # 4

Great song from Aussie band The Grates:

Massive Bankers!

The banks over here are bastards. Obviously most banks around the world are bastards, but in Australia they're gigantic mega bastards.

Australia only has 4 main banks (Westpac, ANZ, Commonwealth and NAB) and they're all in cahoots, which means they can do what they like and there's no competition to stop them.

So that means they all charge $5 a month for 'maintaining' my account, charge me a 'disloyalty fee' if i use another cash machine which isn't one of theirs and keep interest rates deliberately low so i don't make any money on my savings.

Bastards.

Australian Song of the Day # 3

Just though i would share my love of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, how these guys aren't revered as much as the likes of U2 (who haven't released anything decent in about 15 years and yet still seem to be the the biggest band on earth) is beyond me. This song from the latest album 'Dig! Lazurus Dig!' is pure class and the album is equally brilliant too:

Meat Injection

The Steak Bank in Ormond, Melbourne is the best place to eat steak in the world.

I have now been there 3 times and it is fantastic. They have every cut of steak imaginable; rump, porterhouse, sirloin, t-bone, ribeye and from numerous different animals; cow, gnu, buffalo, kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich and camel, etc. They also do a whopping 1.3kg monster steak, which is so big i had to take a photo of it.

Quite simply this place is a vegetarians nightmare.

A Sweet Left Hook

A demonstration of the fine art that is Australian Football

The joys of AFL

Australia has its own sport, Australian Rules Football, as the season has just kicked off again the whole of Australia has gone 'Footy' mad, so i thought i'd join in. Even though i'm not sure on any of the rules and it looks really easy to score.

Here's a trailer for the new AFL season running on telly at the moment.

Some of the best goals from last season.

And some of the biggest hits.

Australian Song of the Day # 2

Love this song by Aussie musician Muscles. Probably the best song about ice cream ever written.



The acoustic version is even better:

Melbourne 'Writing'

There are some superb and downright bizarre examples around the city. Here's some i managed to photograph:

The Mentalist!

There's a US show on TV over here called 'The Mentalist', it's supposed to be a serious crime thriller type program where the main detective guy solves crimes using his mind (thus he's a mentalist). But i can't stop thinking of that Alan Partridge line and laughing like a goon whenever i see the promos.

He's a Mentalist!!!!