All posts in Oceania

What I missed in Australia

by noel.piper on September 30, 2011 in Oceania with 5 Comments

I suppose there must have been a Kangaroo in a picture book when I was too young to remember now–one of those animals that you don’t know what to say when the adult says, “What does this animal say?”

The first time I remember Australia touching my life was learning the Australian crawl. (I wonder what Australians call the stroke?) I preferred keeping my head out of the water. That was good for learning lifesaving–keeping your eye on the struggling swimmer, you know. In a few years, turned out it was the perfect stroke for saving the lives of my children. A mother has to keep her eyes on those splashing kids all around her.

Then came the folk music era, with “Tie me kangaroo down, boys” and “Laugh, kookaburra, laugh.”

I’m part of a cousins-by-the-dozens family, so I have relatives everywhere, including Australia. Unfortunately for trying to visit, they’re in Perth. So our recent visit to Sydney, Katoomba, and Brisbane kept us too far away from them. So Russ and Antje are at the top of my next-time list. After all, Russ says I haven’t really seen real Australia if I haven’t traveled all the way west to Perth.

  • Visit my Australian family
  • Learn more ab0ut indigenous life past and present, preferably from Aboriginal people themselves
  • Go to Max Brenner somewhere (A shop with chocolate everything) preferably when I’m not watching calories
  • Attend an opera at the Sydney Opera House
  • Make a fool of myself trying to play a didgeridoo
  • Find out what chicken salt is
  • Visit the Queensland Museum and the Museum of Sydney
  • Take the City Sightseeing Bus tour of Sydney
  • Eat a pie floater
  • Keep working on recognizing the difference between Australian and South African accent (Sorry to friends from both places for being dense about what has to be obvious to you.)
  • Visit the barrier reef
  • And what’s up with the hole in the ozone?
Next time . . . (in Australian summer, so I can swim in the ocean)

Australia: more random comments

by noel.piper on September 29, 2011 in Oceania with 2 Comments

As I said earlier, it would be dumb for me to make authoritative statements about Australia when I’ve visited once for less than 2 weeks.

So instead, here are some things that Australians themselves told me about their country and themselves.

  • At a service of thanksgiving for John Stott’s life, an aboriginal woman said, “How kind he was to us. He sought us out.”
  • There’s a growing illegal immigration issue, from the Middle East through Indonesia and to Northern Australia.
  • During World War II, Churchill diverted British troops to Burma, expecting to intercept the Japanese there. Instead Japan came to Australia, and it was US troops that fought alongside Australian troops to save their country. Australia has never forgotten that.
  • The Eleanor Schnell Bridge over the Brisbane River and the Schnell Auditorium at Queensland University are named for a pioneer in the testing for dyslexia.
  • South Australian personality and humor are similar to American, but don’t have the superiority complex–also known as “tall poppy syndrome.”
  • Australian history doesn’t include a fight for independence or superiority.
  • In a Sunburned CountryI should read In a Sunburnt Country, by Bill Bryson
  • Christian Religious Education (CRE) classes are offered in all public schools if there are volunteers to conduct the class. All students attend unless parents opt out, and few bother to do that. CRE is part of the regular school schedule. There’s opposition, but it still goes on, so far.
  • Australia is the only country where you needed a criminal record to get in. (I think the question is still asked on visa applications about a person’s criminal history. Do you suppose they still want to require it?)
  • P.S. from me: Daggy is Aussie slang that my husband wants to adopt. It means outdated, passe.
  • PPS from our red-headed non-Australian nephew: People with his color of hair are called rang-ers (as in orangutan).
A couple of my own observations:
  • Walking through the city centers (or CBD, as Aussies say–Central Business District), looking at the faces passing me, I could have thought I was in Singapore or another Asian city.
  • There surely were a lot of skinny jeans around–and mostly on men.
  • Kiddie Capuccinos are a great coffee shop item–small cup of frothed milk with chocolate powder sprinkled on the top.

If you’re a glutton for details

by noel.piper on September 15, 2011 in Oceania with 2 Comments

I don’t expect many of you to want to see all the photos from Australia that I thought worth keeping. But if you’re the sort who loved home movies (back when there were home movies) . . .

Here is the whole collection of our Australia photos, sorted more or less by day.

Mystery gifts and winners

by noel.piper on September 14, 2011 in Oceania, Recommended with 6 Comments

Thank you so much for your  great suggestions of what to do and see in Australia. I like this way of planning my travel days. I’ll try to post a list of your ideas for the benefit of whoever might be on the way to Australia in the future.

But right now it’s time to tell you there isn’t a mystery gift from Australia. No, not one. There are eight. So that means eight of you are winners of one of these gifts. And thank you to Colin Buchanan who sent his CDs as gifts for you.

  • 1. Sons of Korah: Live  – DVD. Psalms set to music. One Amazon reviewer says it’s for “when your soul is thirsty for His comforting word.”
  • 2. God Rock — CD of Christian music by Colin Buchanan
  • 3. Bourke to Beaconsfield – CD of Australian country music by award winning Colin Buchanan
  • 4-6. Real Hope — CD of Christian music by Colin Buchanan
  • 7. Set of 4 Australia felt-backed coasters– mother-of-pearl-look in a black setting, with gold-colored highlights.
  • 8. Aussie Bush Hat – brim can be snapped up on either or both sides. If you thought you saw me wearing it in some photos, I admit I borrowed it a couple of days. Just road-testing it, you know. Works great.

The winners are (by user name):

  • Mel
  • Cynthia B
  • Debi
  • Amanda
  • Jody Gates
  • Roberta
  • Silvana
  • Albert Chun

In case there  are duplicate user names, you will know if I mean you because of the email you receive later today asking you for your mailing address and asking for your prize preference.

I’m sorry there’s not something for all of you, but stay with me. More good things are coming with my next trip, which is very soon. Where? Think beaches, hammocks, churrasco, feijouada, capoeira . . .

If my teen knows any scripture by heart . . .

by noel.piper on September 12, 2011 in Oceania, Recommended with 4 Comments

Update:
Great news from Colin for us Americans –
“While Amazon slumbers, free shipping of Colin “stuff” to the USA here .” 

Bourke to Beaconsfield

 

 

Colin Buchanan happened into the Australian music world almost by chance (if one believed in chance), when friends encouraged him to enter a contest for songwriters. Since then, he has won 9 Golden Guitar Awards from the Country Music Association of Australia.

I’ve never had the opportunity to observe his appearance before a country music crowd. But 3 times I was there when he walked onto the stage of a Christian gathering, before a crowd filled with 20- and 30-somethings. They went wild.

Super SaviourWhen he strummed a few chords and began singing, 2000 or more vigorous voices joined him. Colin is #1 with Australian Christian children, even the ones who have become grown-ups since the years they started singing along to his songs.

We brought back some of Colin’s books for our grandchildren. Each is packaged with a CD of the corresponding songs. Last I heard, one of the grandsons was poring over his book and insisting that the author’s name is pronounced Colon Butch-anan.

We also brought them some of his DVDs. To watch Colin’s music videos is to watch a man who has no inhibitions about being as childlike and imaginative as the children he’s singRemember the Lording for.

Two of  our grandchildren were with us overnight last week. They watched their DVD 4 or 5 times and left our house singing at lung-top, “10-9-8, God is GREAT!” Thank you, Colin. Does a grandma’s heart good.

One man in Australia told us, “If my teenagers know any Bible verses by heart it’s because they learned them from Colin’s songs.” What a legacy for one man to leave! And, Lord willing, he’s not done yet.

(You’ll notice, at Amazon for example, that Colin’s work is not very available here in the US. Maybe Practise being Godly (Little Lights)a bunch of us need to click on as many items as are marked “Let me know when this is available.”)

 

 

 

 

 

Workers in Australia

by noel.piper on September 6, 2011 in Oceania with 1 Comment

Engage  has been sponsored by the Katoomba Christian Convention for 5-6 years. The intended audience is workers, as the Australians call them. I think we Americans would call them career-aged, or something like that–people after university and before family-life responsibilities.

The response is so great that Engage 2011 ran 2 separate weekends to accommodate more than 2000 people each weekend.

At the Desiring God blog, Johnny’s written a summary of what he had to say about glorifying God at work. Word is that it’s being tweeted and FB’ed all around Australia.

Jet lag strategy

by noel.piper on September 6, 2011 in Oceania with 1 Comment

My strategy for jet lag is to milk it for all it’s worth for as long as possible. So, since today is just my 2nd full day back home from a 15-hour time zone difference, I must still be pretty much good for nothing, right?

That means I better just take it easy and finish organizing photos from the trip. I’ll let you look over my shoulder to see some Sydney scenes and some Brisbane shots and some favorite food and coffee in Brisbane.

As long as I’m woolly anyway, staying amongst my photos lets me feel like I’m still traveling. (Woolly is one of the useful words we picked up in Australia–fuzzy-headed, muddled).

What’s your jet lag strategy?

TSA doesn’t want me to dress like a lady

by noel.piper on September 5, 2011 in General, Oceania, Recommended with 8 Comments

I travel as often as possible, so I watch out for ways to streamline my trip through the airport security checkpoint. For example, although I usually have 2 carry-ons–the maximum number and size allowed, I make sure to have all the “remove these items” items together in just one of the bags. That’s usually my laptop and the quart-sized zipper bag filled with my liquids.

I learned 2 new lessons during our Australia trip.

1. Australia does not allow cuticle nippers in carry-on.  I always have these in my purse because my cuticles are terrible almost all the time, especially reacting to hand soap in so many different bathrooms. After they were confiscated, I had to make do with Johnny’s nail clippers, which security has no problem with.

2. The last leg (pun intended, just keep reading) of our trip was from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. The TSA agent at LAX  looked me up and down before motioning me through the metal detector. Apparently it wasn’t just to admire my comfortable, modest traveling dress. Because as I walked through the detector, he invited me to enter an elevator-sized glass cubicle next to him, and called out for a female to do a female pat-down. When she walked over, he said, “legs.”

She gathered up all my stuff from the conveyor and led me to the pat-down area. Looking me in the eye, she asked, “Are you traveling with anyone?” “Yes, my husband.” “Do you have anything on you I should know about?” “No.”

This seemed a little more pointed than a random security check.

So when she was finished patting me down, legs only, I asked, “Was that just because I’m wearing a dress?”

She nodded.

So much for dressing like a woman and being nightgown comfortable on a 13-hour flight.

Home again and a happy girl

by noel.piper on September 4, 2011 in Oceania with 1 Comment

A picture is worth a thousand words. The first words this afternoon from Talitha were, “Welcome home. I’m so glad you’re back. I love you.” Then came a few gifts, and the words were, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Thank you to the one who suggested Uggs as gifts. Sorry I couldn’t bring a pair back for all of you. Talitha is the grand winner of these–and so practical for our Minnesota winter.

I asked a friend in Australia how to be sure I was getting genuine Uggs and not a cheap knock-off. She said, “Just be sure it’s real sheepskin and not a synthetic.” I said, “But how can I know it’s the real Ugg brand?” Here’s the surprise–at least to me: In Australia Ugg is a generic word for any sheepskin shoe, boot, or slipper. So, though the word is a trademark in the US, it’s any “ugg-ly” warm, comfortable sheepskin footwear in Australia. The friend said it’s as if someone took the word slipper and turned it into a brand name.

I have a few more Australia-related posts in mind, including the announcement of Mystery Prize winners. So go ahead and subscribe, if you haven’t already, so you don’t miss anything.

Pizzaroo and Pizzadile

by noel.piper on September 1, 2011 in Oceania with 6 Comments

As we’ve made our way through the days in Sydney, I’ve asked now and then, “Is there somewhere you can get kangaroo on the menu?” The answer is always yes, but somehow we never find it.

Until yesterday’s lunch, a fine blending of  a uniquely Australian meat with a menu item very familiar to Americans–kangaroo pizza. And what I hadn’t known to ask about, crocodile pizza was also on the menu at the outdoor cafe of Australia Hotel.

So Sally Lloyd-Jones (also visiting Sydney right now) and I were the culinary adventurers. She ordered Pizzadile and I ordered Pizzaroo and we shared. All credit goes to Sally for coining those names. (Actually, Sally, I hate to tell you, I do find the word pizzaroo on Google. But I don’t think it has anything to do with kangaroo, so we’re okay).

I found the crocodile surprisingly tasteless–I mean, not in bad taste, but having hardly any. The kangaroo, on the other hand, was good. I was expecting it to be gamy, but it just tasted like — how do you describe what meat tastes like? Kangaroo tasted like meat.

Here’s our women-on-the-spot  video review.

(We’ve heard that Australia is the only country that eats its national animal–one that’s represented on the national seal. Is that true? Can you think of any others?)

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I’ve been adding some cool and definitely-Austrailian gifts, so there will be several winners when I get home. Now there are six opportunities to enter your name for the Mystery Prizes from Down Under -–just check out what to do at each of these: #1 and #2 and #3 and 4-6. Easy to do.

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