Hamarana

Good company, good gossip, good environment. Thats the makings of a fine lunch which was had with a couple of friends on Queen’s Wharf in Newcastle, yesterday. The restaurant, Blue Water Pizza, sells gourmet pizza, as well as many other dishes. I had something called a Calypso wrap, which was pieces of chicken with lettuce, tomato, onion and chili sauce, wrapped in lavash bread, with fries on the side. It was yummy.

All in all, a pleasant place to be

And no… you don’t get to hear/read the gossip

Which I was not, but am going to, right now…

I’ve noticed a lot of linguistic change in Australia, its probably because I studied linguistics at University (it was my Major) and I tend to be sensitised to language oddities. With or without a study of Linguistics, however, I am sensitised to language change which just seems stupid to me.

Example #1: I do understand why people use shortened versions of words for sending text messages from their mobile phones. Its a pest at times to have to spell out the entire word, and, additionally, theres usually a character limit for each message. I do NOT want to see that same shortened text message style used to send me an email, or to post in forums. Its the lazy option, and its totally incomprehensible to those of us who do not know all the terms.

Example #2: I do not understand why you would use the future tense of a verb when speaking of something which has already occurred. I regularly attend a local club. Cheap meals which are these days only a quarter way decent, a flutter on the pokies for $5, and raffles for all kinds of things because you get tickets in them for swiping your membership card or tickets for other things for purchasing meals etc. Last night, as every night, the meat raffle was called by a very nice young man. However, he *always* says (after pressing the button which produces a number) “the next number will be” blah blah whatever it is. HUH? Is he psychic? Nope, he just keeps using the wrong tense. I do not know why he is incapable of saying “The next number is…”. When he’s calling our peoples names, its “the next winner will be Joe Bloggs” or “the next winner is going to be Joe Bloggs”. How do you get to that? Amazing.

Other annoyances which I have mentioned before
Using “your”, when a person means “you’re”.
A complete lack of awareness that there are differences between “there”, “their” and “they’re”.
Incorrect verb usage as in “I’ve did it” instead of “I’ve done it” and “I done it” instead of “I did it”.

You guess it… I’m a pedant about some things. This is not to say that my own language use is perfect, its not. But I do cringe, often. And don’t get me going about the use of homeboy Americanisms amongst our teens who do not come from the same environmental and social influences as the American kids who use that kind of language… how unimaginative is *that*?

ARGHHHHHH!

This photo thanks to Imagine Tours of Port Stephens. We went out for hours today on Imagine, a really nice catamaran with a very nice crew (Dig, Ray and Jane the ship’s Master) and much as they tried, the whale sightings were few and far between. Not even a dolphin came to play. Its a matter of luck, I guess. Maybe the animals were resting up because school holidays are about to begin.

I can recommend the tour, though, and plan to go again.

Visit their website here and see more photographs, as well as the one shown above.

The Australian summer has always been hot, hot hot: but I think this year could beat most we have had so far.

I leave the back door open for the cats to come and go as they please, during the cooler months, there is usually only 3-4 months of the year during which the flies are so bad that I have to shut cats outside and then let them back in when they ask. This year, its all starting much earlier.

I had a MONSTER blowfly come in yesterday and its only mid-September (supposedly the first month of Spring). The daytime temperatures are starting to really heat up, and I have begun using my airconditioning in the daytime already. I usually don’t start using that until the end of October.

I think we are in for a long, hot one.

Aussie Climate Change info can be found at the Bureau of Meterorology Info site

It seems that its now possible to get a gMail account without first requiring an invitation or SMS code.

Follow the link at the gMail frontpage to see if its permitted for your particular country. I am in Australia so can only confirm that Australians, at least, can now sign up directly, which may please those who were anxious about needing to give their email address to a stranger such as myself in order to get an invite.

Go to gMail now

Once you have a gMail account, you can also access an online Calendar, and Googlepages. These may or not be of use to you, but I thought them worth mentioning.

I made a post back in May after really listening to John Williamson singing True Blue…

That post has turned up in searches I guess, after last night’s memorial service for Steve Irwin, and has generated quite a bit of discussion…

Join the discussion here

I’ve been around long enough now to remember what life was like before television came to this country, and when pubs didnt open until the afternoon, and closed at 10pm, and when you could mostly understand what people were saying, and when terms in common use stemmed from the UK, not America. I remember the family sitting down to dinner at the same time every night, with no members missing, and the meal being cooked in the kitchen, not bought at a drivethrough. I remember when it was the parents who made decisions in the family and the kids accepted thats how things were, and it was no big deal. I remember when swearing was unusual, so if a swearword was used you knew that whatever had prompted it must have been pretty bad. I remember when I was in school, having to conform to a set of behavioural standards which were not difficult to maintain because they embodied respect for everyone. What the hell happened??