Friday, April 10, 2009

time rich blog poor

'how busy can you be that you don't have time EVEN to send an email?' i used to think when friends would move overseas and suddenly become totally incapable of maintaining contact. well, blow me, i've turned into one of them. never underestimate the role that your daytime job plays in keeping you in touch with your mates - it is infinitely easier to incorporate emailing buddies into your working life than it is into your non-working existence. which is why i have a very long list of people to email.
anyway.
i've been keeping myself entertained with the different ways that the aussies use to describe things. Grass verges, for example, are referred to as nature strips. garbos are binmen, ambos are ambulance drivers etc.
my favourite is 'bashing'.
when i was little, my granddad used to call me Basher because i used to 'smack'* people a lot.
in Australian English if someone is 'bashed' it means they've been mugged.
i know that that isn't funny but it tickles me when i hear a news snippet saying 'a man was bashed in a shopping centre yesterday'. it's like saying 'an old lady was pinched as she made her way home last night' or 'a young man is in hospital having sustained at severe Chinese burn in a nightclub brawl'.
anyway....

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