Down Under

The land where Vegemite is put on a sandwich, you know that fermented yeast spread that is pretty much a national institution in Australia made famous by that Men at Work song. He was six-foot-four and full of muscles.  I said, “Do you speak-a my language?”  He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich.  The huge amount of media that comes from America makes a lot of people around the world embrace the American English dialect, more so than the British or Australian dialects.  Most of the time I am able to understand what British and Australian people are saying, but my time spent in Scotland was very frustrating, as I had a real hard time trying to figure out what they were saying.  The Scots are notorious for having a way with their words.

85% of Australians live within 50 kilometers of the coastline and I guess this is because most of this vast country is arid with deserts making up most of the land mass.  Barbie is Australian slang for barbecue, but I have to give kudos to Fandango for letting me know that they don’t eat shrimp on the barbie, as they use the word prawn for shrimp, which I find to be spastically spiffy.  Australians say mozzie for a mosquito and garbo is a garbage collector which both make sense to me.  A bogan is a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behavior are considered unrefined or unsophisticated.

I just started watching Secret City on Netflix last night which is an Australian film about a government scandal that a journalist discovered and she wants to expose it, but she has to cope with running into dead ends because of corruption and cover-ups.  Amidst the rising tension between China and America over disputed territory that China just created, Canberra press journalist Harriet Dunkley (played by Anna Torv) forces her way closer to the truth, uncovering a secret city of interlocked conspiracies which will threaten her career, her life and endangers the freedom of every Australian.  For the last few years, China has been building a string of artificial islands in the South China sea, which has brought criticism from other countries.

Written for, for Daily Addictions by rogershipp prompt Cope, for FOWC with Fandango – Kudos, for June Writing Prompts where today June 27 is Spastically spiffy, for Sheryl’s New Daily Post Word Prompt: Embrace, for Scotts Daily Prompt Criticism, for Teresa’s Haunted Wordsmith Three Things Challenge, where the three prompt words are “mozzie, garbo and Bogan”, for Weekly Prompts Your Second Chance to be Creative where the prompt is Frustrating and for Word of the Day Challenge Alternative haven the Prompt is Notorious.