Hehehehe !!

I wasn’t going to go to Tae Kwon Do this morning. I was quietly enjoying my Saturday morning, still wearing my nightie and dressing gown, when from the corner of my eye, I spotted someone outside the front of my house. Got up to check who it was and it was my friend NA. She had driven half way across town to come to TKD with me. So up I got, dressed, shoes on, and off we went. Good session. Very tired.

I go to put on my shoes when we finished and realised that these were the shoes I’ve worn.

Now I don’t mind the fact that I wore my old shoes, but I think I have another pair exactly the same.

Madeleine

Saturday, 7 June 2008

Slang

Slang is really interesting. I’ve been in Australia for over 35 years and occasionally someone will still confuse me with an Australian saying or slang. The one I heard today was “gone to Cottee’s”. Now as far as I’m concerned, Cottee’s is a brand of cordial. Why would you want to go to cordial?

A bit more information is forthcoming: “It's gone to Cottee’s and turned into raspberry cordial.” Okay. So now we at least have cordial in the sentence. But it still doesn’t make sense.

Apparently it’s an old television ad. Sounds interesting out of context. I know it means something has disappeared and not come back. But imagine how difficult it is for non-English speaking people to get a line on slang like that. Most English words (or the other way around) don’t translate well. Nor does slang.

Just more ponderings. I’m glad I moved to a country that speaks, more or less, the same language as I do.

One that I use, and have since I was a kid is “Nickels are better than coppers”. I was born in Canada. A nickel is 5c, a copper of course is a copper coin (would you believe, I can’t remember the denomination – I think it was 1c). So of course, 5c is better than 1c with the police getting in there as well (coppers). When I use it here in Australia, Australians have no idea what I’m talking about. But it makes perfect sense to me!!

Same for the Aussie friend who told me about the Cottee’s expression. It makes perfect sense to her, where I’m left thinking “Huh?”

Have a great weekend, folks. Us Aussies get there first.

Madeleine

Friday, 6 June 2008

More News

Just heard the news headlines. Some guy on trial for murdering his wife, says that she strangled herself.

Duh!!

Madeleine

The news tonight

Thousands of dollars found on someone’s lawn has been claimed. The owner says she was on the way to a “business deal” when she misplaced it. For some reason she didn’t report it missing. I wonder what the “business deal” was !!

Long term marijuana use shrinks the brain. Damn.

Barak Obama may become the first black US president. About bloody time. I really do not understand American politics. I just don’t understand all the money these two seem to have spent. Aren’t they on the same team?? Just doesn’t make any sense to me.

An explosion in a gas plant off the coast of WA means that we might be short of gas so we are being advised to have shorter showers, turn off gas heaters etc. I wonder how much gas is saved in comparison to how much gas some of the big businesses use.

Our prime minister, Kevin Rudd and his Deputy Julia Gillard are apparently offering themselves in an online auction for a charity. Speculation as to how Rudd would feel if Gillard raised more money or got more votes than he did. I guess many men would find this a problem, and so would many women. Not sure what I think about that.

This is the highlight of our news tonight.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

Photo Selection

This is just a selection of the photos I took at the Model Railway Show today. You will notice that most of them are not about the trains, but about the scenes around the trains. Like with miniatures, there is a lot of work that goes into the detail, and often the best part are the real life bits like this photo below. (Notice the train, blurred in the foreground).

160 Years of trains, and two of the trains, one old, one newer.

Just two trains passing in the night !!

They even had modern trains

A homestead on the Nullarbor (check it up all you Non-Aussies)

And these are the sorts of details that really tickle my fancy.
These clothes were just shapes cut out.
It's all about illusion.

I love this house. I would love to make one for myself. Maybe that will be my next project.

The point of this exhibit was to point out all the things that happen beside the train tracks. All the things we don't notice as we are chugging along at hundreds of kilometres an hour.

Just some of the photos I took today. Hope you have enjoyed them

Madeleine
Monday, 2 June 2008

Naughty Kitty !!

Madeleine
Monday, 2 June 2008

Bassendean Train Station

I headed off for the Perth Model Railway Show this morning and decided to go by train. The Bassendean station has been upgraded and prettied up in the last few years.

I got to the train station just as a train was pulling in so I figured I would take my time and didn’t bother to run. I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve not really seen the Bassendean station since they’ve done it up. There was some incredible art work decorating it now. So I had plenty of time to take some photos.

This is some art work that I found at the station. I was really impressed and I hope the photos do it justice. It was all in one long plaque and quite impressive.

This one's my favourite.

I couldn't get far enough back to take the whole row (I would have ended up on the track !), but this is another set behind the seats.

Not bad for a small railway station.

Madeleine
Monday, 2 June 2008