A Trip Down the Garden Path

An Australian Story. Who has time to miss home, when it's all around you over here? (Actually, I find a lot of time to miss home, but I work through the homesickness, toughen up sister, I say). Never have I felt more proud to be an Aussie than since we've been here (and that's saying something, because normally I'm one of the happiest Aussies around. What is that adage: absence makes the heart grow fonder, yup it's true). You see the thing is, barely a day goes by that we don't hear or see mention of our great home land. The Brits (and Europeans) seem to have a thing for Australia and Australians, and I'm beamingly pleased to say it's all positive. 

Over the past few months I have been compiling a mental list of all the Aussie-ness I've come across in day-to-day life.  I'm now going to attempt to list these experiences below. Some significant, others less so, yet regardless, each of these things served as a happy reminder of that great land we call 'home'.  Here goes:

• Teachers talking in the staffroom about Australian films (exactly which evades me, I think my ears tuned in halfway through the conversation).
• The number of people who ask where we're from and then speak about a year they spent downunder. Here are the places some Brits have called home: Sydney, Melbourne, Perth (a few have lived there, including one Belgian we spoke to), Adelaide, Ayr, travelling up the red centre to Darwin, The Whitsundays....Perhaps a few others escape me. But that's at least 8 people I can think of who've spent a year in Oz - Wowee.
• Students really fascinated by the Aussie accent 'oh your accent is so cool!', 'I wish I could talk like that!'
• Some one asked me today if I'd seen Summer Height's High...didn't know that it has crossed the ocean.
• Ads on TV for Fosters (deceivingly not Australian, so Glen tells me, though it may have been once upon a time). These depict stereotypical Aussie blokes imparting sagely advice to the wanting Britsh men.  I have put some of these clips below this post.  Don't forget to watch them.
• Ads on TV for tourism to Australia, sung 'There's nothing like Australia!'
• TV programs: Neighbours, Home and Away. Bondi Vet, Medical Emergencies, Bondi Rescue, *that airport customs show*.
• In fact, at one school I worked at a student asked me if I'd been to Bondi Beach, he said: 'Me and my mum used to watch that show all the time'.
• TV Trailers for 'Tomorrow When the War Began' film, coming out belatedly mid April.
• A Lady sitting on the bus with an Aborignal dot print hand bag.
• Vegemite in the supermarket.
• Pizza Shapes being put on the market over here, 'the popular Aussie snack' so they say.
• Being told by the lovely lady selling waffles that she loves Australians: 'The English are warm hearted and friendly when they come over, but the Australians have that warmth deep in their heart, and they're kind and completely genuine' Awwwww...!
• The occasional banter about The Ashes 'We beat you in The Ashes, hey!'
• Coming across a shop window in Belgium full of crazy big guns. Being a boy, Glen had to stop, look and then share a comment with some bloke-stranger next to him....who happened to be an Australian!
• Seeing Australian wines (and plenty of 'em!) in the supermarkets here and in France: Jacob's Creek, McWilliams, Penfolds, Wolf Blass, McGuigans, Brown Brothers, Houghtons (or have I invented that last one?).....I'm sure they're more.
• A weekly magazine called TNT circulated free in London (not around here :( ) For young Australians and New Zealanders staying in the UK. Accommodation info, travel, news from home, latest events, interviews, etc.
• Kylie Minogue - live in concert this week. Clearly she's still got a following over here.
• Walking past a man in the main street tonight wearing an Australia logo jumper. 

Maybe I am over-sensitive to these things as I struggle with my little bouts of homesickness. Yet regardless, of this, I can honetly say I've never been more proud to call myself an Aussie. You're only as far away from home as you let it seem....