Hey Sandi,

How 'bout idioms? Those words we All use daily in our general chit chat. The ones that may or may not have a clear cut meaning to someone new to the language. Such as these Aussie-used terms...

Bonza / Bonzer

Bugger

Fair Dinkum

She's Apples

Map of Tassie

Ute

Mad as a cut snake

Mob

Cockie

Biff

And so on and so forth. There's Heaps of Aussie Idioms. Some can be figured by Context. But others, as they sit here, you've got buckley's unless you've spent a good deal of time here. Spending time with the banana benders and mexicans and the taswegians - while the blowies have nothing to offer. Just avoid anyone going berko and specially at a barbie as they might try to beat around the bush even though you don't want a bar of it. And when at the rellies they might think it's a pearler while you think they're a bunch of tossers. But then you say, let's go Anna and she says bloody oath even though they're all ridgie didge and the rockmelon isn't bad but she's not one to chuck a wobbly. And your whole trip was a dog's breakfast. And you hop back on the plane thinking about all the drongos you met and can't wait to get back to the old cheese. And you take the advice to stay off the turps, avoid going troppo and remember to put your daks on before your thongs.

Now Sandi. The above is clearly understood by an Australian - frightening hey?. But I'd hazard a guess to say, you don't have the foggiest of what most of that means. And you Could figure out some of it while thinking about it, but us Aussies don't need to think about it. It's instantly clear to us.

As the book so aptly says, we're a weird mob.

Michael Ross