Aussie life... so far

It's two weeks since we arrived in Melbourne. Not much has changed. The weather is still bloody freezing, I'm still job hunting and still living with the in-laws. At least our stuff arrived from the UK today. All 27 boxes undamaged!!

The hardest thing for me so far has been the language. Not so much the slang (there are enough Aussies in London for me to have picked that up!) as the pronunciation of place names. Try some of these on for size: Corhanwarrabul, Wonthaggi, Mooroopna, Warrnambool, Rupanyup or Buninyong. Easy? I guarantee that however you said it, the Aussies would say it differently!

And then there's the price thing. Don't get me wrong, it's relatively cheap over here, but after spending pounds, prices just 'look' expensive. An example: A shirt that used to cost, say, GBP15 now costs A$35. Same price, but sounds like a lot more!

Anyway, for those of you visiting or moving to Australia in the near future (yes cuz), these are some of the words that you will have to learn (or learn to pronounce):
Queen's English = Aussie English
hello = g'day
good-bye = hooroo (pronounced ooroo)
afternoon = arvo
swimming costume = bathers (only in Vic and S. Australia
duvet = dooner
chicken = chook
crisps = chips
trousers = pants or daks
beer = amber liquid
short bottle of beer = stubby (375ml)
cool box (insulated thing for your beer) = esky
turtle neck shirt = skivvy
sausage = snag

There's more, but I'm not listing them here. Try this link for the Aussie Slang Dictionary.

Chat soon,
DelBoy