Downunder, things happen differently....
 

Do you know this song? :)

Dashing through the snow,
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the hills we go,
Laughing all the way.
Bells on bobtails ring
Making spirits bright.
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh!

Well, believe it or not, in the heat of the summer downunder, things happen differently....

Here are the words!

Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden ute
Kicking up the dust,
Esky in the boot.
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs.
Summertime and I am
in my singlet shorts and thongs.

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summer's day Oh!

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride
in a rusty Holden ute!

Oh, yeah... and here's what it means. :)

Holden - an Aussie brand of car (made by the Aussie-based branch of General Motors)
Ute - utility truck
Esky - insulated cooler box (keeps your drinks cold)
Kelpie - Australian Kelpie, a breed of dog
thongs - slippers
beaut - great

Christmas in Australia.... the scorching heat, spending Christmas at the beach, Santa in his swim trunks.... things are topsy-turvy downunder! :)

Find the other verses here! :)



The Holden Ute -- the Aussie version of the one horse open sleigh
(Picture from here...)

Hmmm.... I wonder if Santa has a flying Ute to use down under? These are the Sowpub-style questions I can't help but ponder.... :)

Science question
 

Hi Dien,

If a mathematical line was drawn from your head through the exact center of the Earth, and then extended through the other side of the Earth, where would that hypothetical line come out of the ground? I think the term for this location is antipodes or something. What is Dien Rice's antipodes, is what I'm asking.

Best,

-Boyd

Virtual trip to the antipodes....
 

Hi Boyd,

> If a mathematical line was drawn from your
> head through the exact center of the Earth,
> and then extended through the other side of
> the Earth, where would that hypothetical
> line come out of the ground? I think the
> term for this location is antipodes or
> something. What is Dien Rice's antipodes, is
> what I'm asking.

I never really thought about this.... So I calculated it. I looked up the latitude and longitude of the city I'm in now, and from that I worked out the latitude and longitude of the opposite location on the earth....

(To do that, for latitude it's easy, just change North to South or vice versa. For longitude, take 180 minus the longitude of where you are, then change West to East or vice versa....)

I used www.mapquest.com to get an idea of where it was, but it doesn't seem so useful for locations in the Southern Hemisphere.... So it was okay for me, though it might not help Northerners!

I'm currently in Melbourne, Australia....

The opposite spot on the earth is ocean, but the closest land to that spot looks like this....


the Azores islands!

Smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic.

I never knew anything about them, so I looked them up.... Seems like a fascinating place. I'll have to see if I can make it there some day! :)

How about the antipodes from where you are, Boyd? Have you ever figured it out? :)

There's less land overall in the southern hemisphere, so it might be ocean....

- Dien


The Azores Islands

The antipodes of Pflugerville, TX, USA
 

Hi,

The antipodes of Pflugerville, Texas, USA are a very lonely stretch of ocean, roughly equidistant from Australia, India, Africa and Antarctica.

God is spread pretty thin at 30:44:00S -82:37:00E. If you remember your science fiction, you'll recognize this citation...

best,

-Boyd

Endless ocean....
 

Hi Boyd,

> The antipodes of Pflugerville, Texas, USA
> are a very lonely stretch of ocean, roughly
> equidistant from Australia, India, Africa
> and Antarctica.

Ah, yes.... There's quite a lonely stretch of ocean there, as I recall from my copious TV watching.(*)

An Englishman, who was sailing round the world as part of a competition, Tony Bullimore, had his boat capsize around there a few years ago. We heard all about it in Australia since, although it's in the middle of nowhere, Australia was the closest country, so the Aussie rescue service flew out and rescued him. I believe they may have made it into a TV miniseries in the UK.

> God is spread pretty thin at 30:44:00S
> -82:37:00E. If you remember your science
> fiction, you'll recognize this citation...

I don't unfortunately.... Is it from Heinlein? I did used to read Heinlein, though that was mostly when I was still in high school. I also enjoy Ray Bradbury. :)

- Dien

(*) Actually, I don't watch that much TV.... I was kidding about that. The internet sucks up too much of my time. :)