For the Diggers

Australia

 Pennies

Australian Friend: It’s called “two-up.”

US: Ok…so what’s the deal here?

Australian Friend: You flip two coins at once and bet on how many will come up heads.

*****
Now before you read further you need to understand that gambling is:

1)      Something that is everywhere in Australia.

2)      Something that we haven’t overly enjoyed

3)      Something we are forced to deal with every day working in pubs

With that in mind –

*****

US: That is a dumb gambling game.  Why would you even play that?

Australian Friend:  Well, we really only play it on this one day each year because, you know, they did

US: oh dammit, we’re sorry, we’re ugly Americans.

Continue reading “For the Diggers”

The imperfect mirror

Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia

One of the things that we love about Australia is that it is, as Greg describes it, “like looking at a imperfect mirror at ourselves.”

20100320 - photo - la cruz marinaOr, yes ok it has been a while since we made a nautical reference so yes, like a reflection in a pool of water.  The point is that reflection is not perfect and there are many differences between our countries but of all the places we have visited Australia is the most like home:

  • We both started off as colonies founded by the same country
  • We are both a country of immigrants
  • We’re both, as countries go, large.  Really large.  As in “Europeans don’t get it” large.
  • We both managed to butcher the same source language – granted each with our own special flair
  • We both have to deal with issues revolving around lethal weapons

We could go on and we assume you get the point: As countries go, our two have a lot in common.  This is what makes Australia so very interesting: how they took a set of similar circumstances and ended up in a different place.  The choices we both made, as a people, and the results those different decisions had on where we both are now.

We didn’t want to bring this up until now because we really didn’t want it to taint our overall reporting, or our memories, of our experiences working in Australia.

At the same time it has happened at almost every place we worked and is especially prevalent at our most recent place of employment so it’s important we document it.  It’s not our best video; we recorded it for the audio so we could get our thoughts in the moment.

This article is about our experiences with sexism and racism in Australia.

Continue reading “The imperfect mirror”

Thursday…now available in Island format!

Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia

After the arduous process of “studying” for our Responsible Service of Alcohol test we passed our course and became certified Australian bartenders!

Greg Tending barAbout 48 hours later came our first outback pub job over at Thursday Island, Australia.

One hitch – where the heck is Thursday Island?

Now we know what you’re thinking –

Continue reading “Thursday…now available in Island format!”

How are you spending your Easter Holiday?

Australia

That question took us a bit by surprise because, well, we hadn’t really put a lot of thought into it…

And we would be dramatically understating things to say that shocked our Australian friends.

Travel is an interesting thing and one of the most interesting things, in fact the very reason Greg states for wanting to travel in the first place, is to discover and challenge one’s own unknown assumptions.

20111020A - leaving the dive ship (15)

What do we assume is “normal” without even realizing that we’ve made an assumption in the first place because everyone around us makes the same one?

For example, in an urban culture (like the one we were raised in) 10PM is an early bedtime for a young professional.  Whereas in an agrarian culture…

(or a sailing one – “sailors midnight” is 9PM)

…10PM is an extremely late bedtime when you are accustomed to waking up at 6AM and 8AM is “sleeping in.”

(and no, we never got used to that… 😉 )

But what does this have to do with Easter?

Well, let us ask you this:

How important is Easter, as a holiday?   Continue reading “How are you spending your Easter Holiday?”

Australia Grog Files

Australia

Well since we’re going over adventures in outback bar tending, it’s probably about time we started updating the grog files to keep us with us.

We’ll be doing a new grog files for each state we visited in Australia but this week is all about our overall experience, which can be summed up this way:

Australia has a great libations industry –

It’s just not where you’d expect to find it.

Australian Mojito

What this pretty much means is that as long as you avoid the beer, Australia has a lot to offer.

read more

It’s pronounced ‘Cans’

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Because when you pronounce the “R” in “Cairns” the locals genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about.

Seriously people, it’s a word.  In our common language.  You can look it up.

Who uses a silent “R”!?!?!

Cairns fishThey have this giant outside pool right next to the ocean that anyone can use and the fish sculptures are a symbol of the city.

Oh, and just in case you’re asking. “Guys? Why do they have a giant public pool right next to the ocean?  Can’t people just swim in the ocean?”

Why yes, yes they could.  Right up to the moment where the giant crocodiles that are all over the place ate them.

Which would of course lead you to then ask “Guys, didn’t you just go diving in that water?”

Continue reading “It’s pronounced ‘Cans’”

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

Found Nemo

Life Achievement Unlocked-

Found Nemo!

We all knew the Nemo reference had to be made right?

We took a 3 day, 2 night “sleep on the reef” excursion.

And this time we rented an underwater camera to make sure we caught everything.

Especially the sea turtle…

Continue reading “Diving the Great Barrier Reef”

The Great Australian Overland Excursion

Enroute Cairns, Queensland, Australia

3 people

1 frigging huge campah

5 days

1786 miles

1 vast barren wasteland that inspired the Mad max movies

Some dinosaurs

(…because everything is better with dinosaurs…)
(…because everything is better with dinosaurs…)

And let’s not forget it’s us right?  So…a boat.  There needs to be a boat.

Grumpy boatAnd this is how all that turned out…

Continue reading “The Great Australian Overland Excursion”

Outback campervan relocation

Enroute Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia

Like we said, Uluru (AKA – Ayer’s Rock) is not IN Alice Springs.

It’s 287 miles away.

Alice to Uluru

Then there’s the whole bit of us then needing to immediately backtrack that whole route in order to make the 1786 mile drive from Uluru to Cairns.

Uluru to CairnsThrough, might we remind you, that whole “barren wasteland where nobody lives except freaking feral camels” part of the country.

(gonna say that twice – FERAL.  CAMELS.)

And us with a car that went and got itself all kablooied up all the way back in Adelaide.

So there we were, middle of the desert, no car, no transit system that links to Alice to Uluru to Cairns and on a short time table.

It’s moments like these that Greg loves being married to Tiffany.

Continue reading “Outback campervan relocation”

Doin’ the Didge

Alice Springs, NT, AU

Alice Springs is an odd place

We’re uh…we’re not sure they’re kidding…

So we set out to explore the many different facets of this little big town in the dead center of nowhere.

Continue reading “Doin’ the Didge”