03.27.08
Posted in Book Reviews, History, Uncategorized at 10:04 pm by Administrator
Not long ago, after seeing my posts on Bataan, Lori recommended a book to me called Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. The other week I finished reading this book. I give it a two thumbs up! Ghost Soldiers is a fascinating true story of an American rescue mission to free the POWs held in the Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines during WWII. Sides does a great job tying together the various stories of the men involved. While much of the horrific accounts of brutality is heart-wrenching to read, the story of these men and those who helped them also reflect the amazing strength of the spirit. From them I have been inspired and have a renewed sense that all is not lost even in times of war.
One POW by the name of Bert Banks spoke regarding his contemplations of why some good people die while others are allowed to live. I would venture to say that all of us have contemplated that type of thing. Banks made a comment that struck me as truth. That comment was that, “this is all happening to teach us something about the nature of free will.” Time and time again we read of unbelievable acts of cruelty inflicted upon innocent people, and we wonder why it happens. How can people be so evil? Some go so far as to lose faith in God, while others blame God for these atrocities. While I believe there is a reason God allows these evils, I have often wondered why or what is the reason? My conclusions have been that the reason we suffer is ultimately because of sin. While we can suffer as a result of our own sin, many times we also suffer for the sins of others. One might ask, “Why doesn’t God protect the innocent?” My thoughts have been that perhaps some people have to die because when sin is committed there has to be a consequence. It would be unfair to allow sin to go without consequence otherwise we would not have free will to chose what to do (it would all be chosen for us), yet when we choose what to do, we have to reap what we sow. If sin was not allowed to ripen, then we would not reap what we sow and that would be against the nature of God. We are allowed to sin because we were given free will. And with that free will we must endure the consequences of the actions we choose–i.e. a murder will pay for his actions either in this life or the next, but because we have been given free will, he is allowed to kill, commit sin. But what Bank’s comment impressed upon me was that with free will, we have a great responsibility to choose what’s right and good. I don’t think we were given free will just so that we can live recklessly and selfishly.
I read accounts such as Nanking in 1938 and Rwanda in 1994 where it seems that all hell broke loose. And it did with devastating results. When reading about Rwanda, I read one author commented that it was as if God’s presence was completely gone from the region. And it made me wonder if God “does” leave some places and is that why such hell could break loose. Generally when I think of God, I think He is everywhere, but there is one passage in the Bible (1 Kings 19:11-12) that said,
“And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
That passage seems to indicate that God is not always everywhere. This is not to say that He can’t be if He so chooses, but apparently there are places He chooses not to be in. In the Bible before Jesus ascended to heaven, He said that He would leave a helper. I believe that helper is the Holy Spirit, and the presence of the Holy Spirit is what holds back or restrains total evil. Yet, in Revelation, it is said that there will come a time when the Holy Spirit will leave for a time, and I think once again when the Holy Spirit leaves, we will experience total evil such as in Nanking, Rwanda and many other violent epochs in history. So why do I mention all this? Well, there was one part of Sides’ book that I read which made me think of how the Holy Spirit works and that it seems that it is through people who are willing to stand up for what is right and not just follow blind orders like an automaton that the Holy Spirit works. These are the people who prevent total violent chaos. Sides’ account of Masanobu Tsuji’s involvement during the Bataan march in the Philippines magnified this importance to me and that what happened in the Philippines was a glimpse of the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in the midst of all that violence. It also highlighted to me the importance of the choices we make with our free will. The story, according to Sides is that,
“Colonel Tsuji fanned the flames of race hatred and endlessly harped on the theme of the purity and superiority of the Yamato race. Wherever he went, atrocities seemed to follow. He was said to be personally responsible for the death of more than 5,000 Chinese. Tsuji advocated eating the flesh of the enemy to build fighting spirit–on one occasion, he is reported to have dined on the liver of a downed Allied pilot.”
Sides wrote that when Colonel Tsjui arrived in Luzon, trouble ensued. During the Bataan death march other commanders in charge of prisoners started getting mysterious field calls ordering that the prisoners and anyone offering to surrender be immediately killed. A few of the Japanese commanders thought this order was an outrage and did not believe that it was a legitimate order, thus did not follow through with killing the prisoners. However, there were other commanders who did not question those orders even if they seemed wrong, and thus took the lives of hundreds of POWs. It was later found that those field calls were bogus (and likely orchestrated by Tsjui), but nonetheless resulted in mass killings. Those under the care of the commanders who did not follow orders blindly and did not act as automatons, but used their heads and their consciences (free will) were spared. I think the Holy Spirit works through these types of people to restrain total evil and senseless killings. And it is another example of how we can use our free will to stand up for what it right. I hope never to encounter such wretched conditions, but if so, I pray that I will stand firm for what is right.
Anyway, for anyone interested in WWII in the Pacific, I highly recommend Ghost Soldiers. I could hardly put the book down once I started it, and have since retold some of the stories in the book to various people just because I was so impressed by them.
Marlakins
Permalink
03.25.08
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 9:31 am by Administrator
I wanted to move our discussion on church issues and Bible interpretations here, so that it didn’t get tangled up with the health issues on Spin Off From Steele’s Chronicles. I’ll cut and paste below “part” of how our conversation was progressing, but I can see how other past discussions we’ve had are somewhat carried into this one. I’ll start with Patti’s post below.
Patti said:
“The friend that is visiting us from Oregon this week is a very close friend to my husband. His wife dumped him and his kids a few years ago and the Lord has really allowed us to minister to all of them. He’s a way major liberal and he and Ron really get into some good talks. Funny how much he has changed since his wife left and we’ve been able to talk about feminism and what it does to a family. He’s also an atheist and over the years we have seen the Lord soften him. We are praying he will go to church with us on Tuesday. If he does, that would be a total miracle. Should be interesting. If you think of it, maybe you could pray he would go.”
Andrea said:
“I’ll pray for your guy if you’ll pray for my brother-in-law to start coming to church regularly. He’s not an atheist, but so lonely, and finds something wrong with every church he tries. Well of course there IS something wrong with every church!!–We’re all imperfect.
Anyway, he DID come for Easter– progress– we’re having a Chili-Chowder Contest next week after church, maybe I can drag him to that– progress. He needs a community of Christ desperately, so let’s pray for both of them, shall we?”
Marla said:
“Oh, well, since the topic of praying for people to come to church came up. . . I’m gonna come out of the l closet here and say that our family no longer attends a regular church. We used to, but haven’t now in probably over 5 years. It all started with just that issue of all churches have their problems. We pretty much just got tired of it and decided that it was not a good thing for our family. However, we are very open to “house churches,” which we feel are actually more in the line of what the biblical churches were in the New Testament. Church from our understanding is for believers, not necessarily a place to take potential converts.”
Patti said:
“Andrea, what your BIL said about churches reminds me of something our pastor used to say. He used to say when one finds the perfect church and attends it, it will no longer be perfect because your in it! Your, of course, referring to the one looking for the perfect church. There are things wrong with every church because we’re a bunch of sinners trying to congregate together. I will pray for your BIL.
There is a fairly large home church movement in this country. Although I do not believe that Paul was going to home churches. However, the “church” is physically the body of Christ and spiritually the body of believers that calls themselves born again. So I would say if preaching and teaching are taking place in a home church setting, it’s still a “church.” What I have found most often though, is people get together and shoot the breeze more then spend time with bible teaching. So I think if a group is diligent with bible teaching/preaching that a home church setting works. We went to a home church for awhile in Oregon. It was an off shoot of another church further away. They were very careful to keep services structured in the sense of bible teaching. Afterwards was usually food and fellowship time but we always made sure there was a solid time of singing, praying and teaching. So it works. Do you guys have a group you meet with now, Marla? I know people who home church with just their family and the dad does all the teaching. It’s not really assembling with other belivers, but they are still being taught.”
Andrea said:
“Interesting that you don’t go to church, Marla. We didn’t either for many years,we “home-churched”, and it was for many of the same reasons–there was too much stuff going on in all the churches we went to that didn’t seem Christian to us.
“Looking back, I think our choice was a mistake. For us. That doesn’t mean it is a mistake for you. We became isolated in our faith, and dare I say a little arrogant? I think for us, having to live in Christian community would have been a good experience, not despite the imperfections in the churches, but because of them. As I get more deeply involved in my church and surrounding churches, I see that, for me, the very process of dealing with imperfections helps me understand what Christ was all about.
“Everyone is called differently. It’s ultimately up to God where you end up–at home, in a “home church”, in a megachurch, in a little church like ours. God gets what He wants, that’s for sure.
“The imperfections in churches can, however, cause people to actualy lose their faith. That’s not good.”
Okay, so that’s where we left off. I think I got in enough of the conversation to continue with some sort of understanding of where we are coming from. Must dash for now, so will try to hop on later with more comment.
Marlakins
P.S. You may notice I started a new category called Church Issues and Bible Interpretations. I’ll try to keep it separate like I have Spin Off From Steele’s Chronicles. That way it’ll be easy to find and go back to for any further thoughts and discussion regarding those issues.
Permalink
03.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:04 pm by Administrator
Okay, so it’s been almost two months now since I got back from the Philippines, and I still haven’t finished sharing my pictures, ha! So I’m gonna continue a bit before I forget some stuff. Actually, this might be a good time to share this part of my trip because I just finished reading Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. And what a good book it is! The story, and the many other stories within the book were fascinating in themselves, but part of the fun for me was knowing what some of Side’s descriptions were like in actuality. For instance, in one part of the book, the scouts hole up in a nipa hut where they were able to scope out the grounds of the POW prison camp of Cabanatuan. While the nipa hut we stayed in at Villa Escudero is likely not exactly like the one described in the book, it’s a basic nipa hut that is elevated from the ground. Here’s a picture of the nipa hut that was right next to ours.
But before I get ahead of myself, let me back up and start at the beginning. Here is Andrew and me at the front desk where we checked into our hut.
Once we finished checking in, we headed out to the nipa huts on a carabao tram. A carabao is a Filipino water buffalo. This is the common farm animal used for plowing the fields. At the back of the tram were a couple (a man and a woman) who sang Filipino folk songs while the carabao slowly plodded along. This is what the carabao trams looked like.
This was the first time I’d ever had a carabao ride, much less seen a carabao in person. And now after reading Side’s accounts in Ghost Soldiers of how they used carabao to transport the POWs, I can appreciate his descriptions a bit more, particularly when he commented on how slow the animals travel, yet obviously they are quite powerful. I was happy to see that the carabo at Villa Escudero looked in good shape, and not sickly or sad.
Included as part of our package to stay at Villa Escudero were full meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, at the time we checked in and got our bags in our nipa hut, it was time for lunch. So off we went, but not without first running into some of the Villa Escudero residents. Naturally, it was only polite that we had to stop and chit chat.
Lunch was served buffet style at the base of Villa Escudero’s man-made waterfall. Just above this waterfall is a small power plant constructed by Mr. Escudero during the early 1900s. Quite innovative for his time. Here’s a pic of my sister, Andrew, and me at the base of the waterfall.
The lunch was served buffet-style and served on woven plates and banana leaves. This is what part of the buffet looked like. There were lots of people in line, so I didn’t want to spend too much time taking pictures lest the hungry mob demolish all the food before I got some, ha! And since a common style of eating there is “kamayan,” that is, “by hand,” there are also sinks easily accessible to wash one’s hands.
Here’s a pic of what I pigged out on along with a coconut, which isn’t shown in the pic.
I also took a quick shot of my dad’s plate because he had a little more on there that I didn’t take–fried fish (which is a common staple in the Pines) and squash soup.
Here we are at our lunch table. The picture was taken by my uncle, so he’s not in the shot. All the tables are set right in the path of the waterfall, so our feet are immersed in water as we eat.
I don’t know why my butt looks so big in the above pic, but I think it must be from all the food we ate, ha ha!
Afterwards, we hiked up, and I tried to grab another carabao ride to get back to our hut. For some reason, no matter how excited and animated I got, we didn’t seem to get anywhere. . .
Yeah, I know, I know, the reactions I get from foods!
Okay, well, that’s about all for now. I’ll have to continue with a part 2 for Villa Escudero later.
Toodles,
Marlakins 
Permalink
03.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized, cooking at 9:36 pm by Administrator
Looks like I’ve got a few moments to make my part two of some Filipino food. It appears that I don’t have as many more food pics as I thought, but here’s a few meat dishes.
The dish front and center is pork feet cooked adobo style. Chicken is commonly used for adobo, too. Basically, you take chicken or pork and cook it in vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaf, and pepper corns. The dish back and center look like just meatballs with carrot slices. The other dishes off on the sides were beef dishes. Some cooked with potatoes, some with bell peppers, some with tomatoes.
This egg is technically *not* a Filipino food, but I took a picture of it because I’ve only had it when visiting the Philippines. I had it this trip and also the previous trip years ago. It’s a wedge of a century egg. Century eggs are duck eggs that are preserved in charcoal and lime. Actually pretty yummy. This link has more information on century eggs, if interested, http://www.chinesefood-recipes.com/chinese_egg_recipes/chinese_egg_recipes.php Here’s a short exerpt from the link:
“Lime-preserved eggs are the so-called 100-year-old eggs, which are best when about 100 days old. The lime has a petrifying effect, making the egg look like it has been buried for at least a century. The black outer shell is removed to expose an amber-colored white and dark golden yolk. The egg has a pungent cheese-like flavor. Chicken eggs are 
most often used, though duck and goose eggs can be substituted. I personally prefer the tastier duck egg version. Hundred-year eggs can be found in Chinese markets and will keep at room temperature (under 70ºF) for up to two weeks or can be refrigerated up to a month; usually eaten uncooked, for breakfast or as an appetizer. Soy sauce or minced ginger makes a good accompaniment. Also called century egg, thousand-year egg and Ming Dynasty egg.”
Fortunately, there’s lots of food in the Philippines. Actually, the variety of foods to eat there rival the variety of foods we have available here. Not surprisingly, since eating and siesta is very much a part of the Filipino culture. 
However, I did notice that the more specialty foods like French, American, and Italian were more costly such as this dish I had at Mezzaluna. This was their duck confit with portabello mushrooms in a flaky crust. Quite yummy. . . And while I didn’t splurge on desserts, I did splurge on my weakness. . . bread, oye, oye. . . There was tasty bread everywhere. Why didn’t I take any pictures of the bread? I don’t know, I was probably too busy eating it! But I did take some pictures of some of the desserts my family was eating. These are actually Filipino desserts and drinks. This is halo halo. Translated into English it literally means “mix, mix.”
This halo halo has fruit, beans, jello, shaved ice and ice cream. When it is served, it comes with a small amount of half and half milk which is poured over the dessert as it is eaten.
Another similar type of Filipino dessert is maise con jelo, which translated into English is “corn with ice.” It is also a bit sweet and it too comes with a small serving of syrup which is poured over the dessert as it is eaten.
There are quite a lot of Filipino desserts, which unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of. Sigh. When I was a kid I loved bibinka and puto. Leche flan is also a favorite. I think it may have come from the Spanish, tho, when they occupied the Philippines. That’s my guess because flan is also popular in Mexican restaurants, too. Umm, and that reminds me of creme brulee, which is French, so I’m not really sure how leche flan came to be. But creme brulee is also a very similar type of dessert.
Aside from desserts, there are also drinks. These below are pandan. It’s basically a cold tea made from pandan leaves. The red portion on the bottom is jello.
And that’s about all the food pictures I took. Shame because there are so many other yummy Filipino dishes that have been left out. Sadly, I don’t feel that I’ve done justice to the Filipino fare, sigh. But oh well, maybe next time. And I do hope there is a next time because I would really like to go back again.
Marlakins
Permalink
03.13.08
Posted in Uncategorized, humor at 9:41 pm by Administrator
March 1st was my youngest son’s, birthday. He turned 14. He has been wanting his own computer, and since he’s been pretty good lately, Brian and I decided he was ready for his own. Now all three boys have their own computers, and they have been sharing files. While sorting through files, Matthew, my middle son, discovered some old home videos they had made several years ago. At the time the boys seemed interested in photography and video, so we got Matthew a small video camera and let them film whatever they wanted. The reason for that is I wanted to see what types of things interested them without my coaxing. One of the things they did was make goofy interviews using the stuffed animals around the house. We found the videos funny because they were just so goofy. And the things they said. . . I was amused by the voices they chose to use as well as which stuffed animals they picked out, not to mention the topics they chose to speak about and how they mimicked the interview process. When I got home today after picking my parents up at the airport, I found that Matthew had uploaded a couple of the videos onto YouTube. So I watched them, and they still make me laugh. One thing that came to mind is that years ago when Aaron was younger and his voice still hadn’t gone through the “change,” people used to mistake him for a girl when he answered the phone. Watching these videos reminds me of what his voice sounded like back then, ha! He is the voice for “Macaroni” and “Shadow.” Matthew is the voice for “Draco,” the interviewer. These were spontaneous clips with no prior scripting. That’ll become very apparent once the video is viewed, ha! The video quality is quite grainy partly because it’s easier to upload like that when it takes less pixel space. Just click onto the pictures to get to the YouTube link.
Below is a link to the second Draco talk show video. Matthew again is Draco. Aaron is Macaroni, and Brian is the “rabbit.” Again, just click onto the picture to get to the link.
Well, that’s a taste of the wacky things that go on in our household. These videos are full of memories for me, not only of the kids and their antics, but also the stuffed animals were acquired during my AA sickness. I managed to collect a family of bears, and the little dragon Matthew uses is actually his dragon that Brian got him when I was first hospitalized for AA. Matthew was about 8 years old then, and he’s kept that dragon to this day. He’s now 17 years old. Oh, and by the way, Aaron no longer sounds like a little girl! Ha! I’m the only female voice around here, now, and the shortest one in the house, ha!
Marlakins
Permalink
03.10.08
Posted in Uncategorized, cooking at 11:31 pm by Administrator
Anyone who follows my blog probably realizes that I like to take pictures. When I take a trip, the habit increases exponentially. So not surprisingly, I took pictures of some of the food we ate. Strangely, I didn’t take more of them because there were a lot of different dishes that would have lent themselves to a bit of commentary. I’m guessing I was to anxious to dig in that I forgot to take pictures. But I did manage to take some pictures, although they aren’t the best quality. Actually, they’re even pretty blurry, yikes! But perhaps they’re clear enough to get the gist of what there was to eat. Strangely, a lot of these were noodle dishes, but that’s not what we ate most of the time, ha! I guess I just haven’t had much noodles in a while that that day I went crazy ordering noodle dishes.
So following will be pictures of the kinds of foods that are commonly eaten in the Philippines. This by no means covers anything close to what they serve, and honestly, I do miss their food. This is sotanghog gisado.
As I mentioned, this isn’t the clearest of pictures, so I’ll describe it a bit. It’s basically stir fried veggies and shrimp over glass noodles. These particular noodles are called “sotanghong.” I believe they are made out of mung beans. Another way it’s cooked that I really like is in a chicken based soup. First you boil up some chicken with the bones, then in a separate skillet minced garlic is fired in oil. When the garlic starts to brown, the chicken pieces are added in, then the chicken broth and noodles. Add salt and pepper to taste, and enough paprika to give it a nice yellow color. Top with sliced scallions. But back to the picture, those two round green balls off to the top right corner of the picture are calamanci. I thin that’s how it’s spelled. I don’t know what it’s called here in the U.S., but it’s like a cross between an orange and lemon. When you’re ready to eat the noodle dish, you squeeze that juice out of those little green balls, kinda like how you squeeze lemon over broiled fish. The above dish has a veggie mix of sliced carrots, cabbage, mushroom, and snow peas.
Oh, and one other thing. One the very bottom of the picture the place mat can be seen. If it’s not too blurry perhaps the word “Maynila” can be read. That is actually what the Filipinos called Manila. But since we aren’t the ones who make the maps, ha!, Maynila ended up on the maps as “Manila.”
Now I did say that I went crazy with the noodle dishes, so here’s another one. This one is called Pancit Palabok.
This is also made with glass noodles, but not always. Different kinds of noodles can be used, thick or thin, but they are generally the clear types. I think the shrimps and egg slices are pretty clear to see. Another one of those calamanci balls is off on the edge of the plate. The sauce over the noodles is like a gravy. That’s the palabok. I found a recipe online as an example of the ingredients:
Ingredients:
* 1/2 kilo of white and round miki (NOODLES)
Garnishing:
* squid adobo (pusit)
* flaked fish meat (tinapa)
* pork sitsaron, coarsely pounded
* powdered pork sitsaron
* fried minced garlic
* cooked shrimps, shelled
* hard boiled eggs, sliced
* chopped springs onions
Palabok:
* 1/2 kilo fresh small crabs (possibly w/soft shell)
* 1 large onion, chopped finely
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 3 tbsp. cornstarch
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 3 tbsp. atchuete seeds or 2 tbsp. atchuete oil
* 2 tbsp. patis
* 1 tsp. vetsin
The rest of the instructions can be found here: http://www.recipesdatabase.com/recipedetail.aspx?id=801 Yum, I love these noodles. . .
Here’s another noodle dish called Pancit Canton. These are generally egg noodles. The noodles themselves appear yellow rather than white or clear.
Pancit Canton is cooked similarly to the sotanghong gisado. Only this dish has strips of chicken and a couple meat balls on top. There are a lot of other Filipino dishes such as meats and soups. One of my favorite soups is kare kare. I know the ingredients may sound bit strange, but I think it’s just lovely! Heheh. This soup is made with peanut butter. The main meat is usually oxtail with tripe. The common veggies that is cooked in this soup is eggplant, green beans, and bok choy or napa cabbage. 
Here is a small bowl of it.
Those yellow strips look like mango strips. I don’t usually see that in there, but then again there was quite a bit of food that was kinda new to me. I’ve had quite a bit of Filipino food in my life, but going back to the Philippines, I found there was a lot more that I had never had. For instance, we went to a Filipino restaurant called, Abe. That means friends. This restaurant served food which is primarily from the Pampanga region. That’s actually the province my mom is from. One Filipino dish that I really like is dela (I think that’s how it’s spelled!) What that is is tongue. The Mexican’s have their tongue dish called lengua, which I also really like. Anyway, this one restaurant served the dela in a pot pie style. And wow! Was it delicious! That was the first time I’d ever had it like that. 
Okay, so here’s another dish that I think is kinda new and not something I remember having as a child. It’s called sisig. And this is what it looks like. I believe they have chicken sisig and pork. This one pictured is pork and it has pork cracklings on top. This is a spicy dish and has red peppers mixed it there.
Okay, so it’s getting late and I want to wrap this up soon, so I’ll just share one more dish that is the popular dish at the Aristocrat Restaurant, BBQ chicken. Their rice is their own little blend, which includes little bits of veggies and a little ground beef. They also include a side of their local pickled veggies. Here’s what it looks like.
I think I’ll continue next time with a part 2 because I really like food and might as well share these pics since I’ve got them. But for now, the sandman is calling me.
Nite!
Marlakins zzzzzzzzz. . .
Permalink
03.06.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:02 pm by Administrator
I was hoping to have a bit more time to continue my travelog of the Philippines, but I’ve only got a short moment. So for now, I thought I’d share something that I got in the mail recently. When Brian handed me the package, it was singing to me, ha! Some of the words I couldn’t make out (seemed to have an accent), but when I opened the package, this is what was inside! I haven’t given him a name, yet. But he’s from my friend, Helen, from Australia. Hmmm. Now that I think of it, I think my favorite Australian actor is Guy Pearce! Well. . . maybe I’ll name him “Guy.” Ooohhh la la.
When you press the little little yellow sticker on his belly, he sings, Waltzing Matilda. Very cute song, but there were a few words that weren’t familiar to me. Apparently, they are Australiain slang. I wish I could put up the actual song on my blog, but alas, I don’t know how. But, here are the lyrics:
Waltzing Matilda
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
under the shade of a coolibah tree,
and he sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy boiled,
you’ll come a waltzing matilda with me.
Waltzing matilda, waltzing Matilda,
you’ll come a waltzing matilda with me,
and he sang as he watched and waited
’til his billy boiled,
you’ll come a waltzing matilda with me.
Aside from my little koala friend being so cute, I particularly like how he came with a little card that gave an Aussie Slang Dictionary. That amuses me because I find it interesting how English is spoken in many parts of the world, yet English is not spoken the same way in all places. Even here in the U.S. some words are used differently on the east coast from the west coast, as well as other states in the U.S. I remember seeing a survey once regarding what we call a soda. What it found was that people on the west tend to say, “soda,” to reference soft drinks, while it’s more common for people on the east coast to say, “pop.” And judging from my UK friends, I can see they also speak differently from us and even from Australians. Sure we generally speak the same, but there are also lots of differences. I find it makes languages and translations interesting and not to be taken for granted. So this little card with a small sample of Aussie slang is just the thing that I find fun to learn about. Here’s the short list:
Aussie Slang
Waltzing – walking along a bush track.
Matilda – de facto wife who accompanied a wanderer, the bedroll became known as the ‘matilda’ or de facto wife
Swagman – a wanderer who carried a swag
Swag – bag to hold his billy, blankets and provisions
Billabong – Aboriginal word for a waterhole
Coolibah – Aboriginal word for a type of Australian eucalyptus tree
Billy – a tin with a wire handle used for boild water and heating food
G’day – hello
‘Owyagoin’ – how are you?
Mate – friend
Well, gotta run for now.
Marlakins
Permalink
