The first time you hear a kookaburra call is pretty damn spooky. Here, have a listen. But when I hear them now, cackling madly in the Australian sun, I sprint outside for a look. There’s something about these birds, something quintessentially Australian.
And in the height of the Australian summer, on the eve of Australia Day, [...]
Archive for the ‘expatica’ Category
Oh, Your daddy’s rich and your mamma’s good lookin’
So in the end I’d like to say, that I’m a very thankful man
I grew up with distant Grandparents. Not emotionally – they were wonderful when we had a chance to see them – but physically. Our family was nomadic for much of the 70’s, and our wanderings took us far from my parents’ parents. What this meant is that my sister and I saw our grandparents a couple [...]
Don’t you see what life here has done to me?
28 Sep 2009 at 22:11
A Free Man
Australia, Britain, Country, Florida, Georgia, USA, expatica, politics
I feel, of late, that I’ve been veering uncontrollably into the Daddy Blogger genre. I guess that’s what a new baby and two weeks of paternity leave will do to a guy. This bothers me a bit, because one of the things that keeps me interested in blogging is trying to write about a wide [...]
Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store…
I’ve been in Australia long enough now that the local accent is starting to sound normal. Of course, that’s made easier by the fact that I’ve been living with an Australian for eight years, but still a sign that I’m beginning to feel at home in my new home.
I’ve been thinking a lot about accents [...]
Song for my father
It is not Father’s Day in Australia. So don’t bother telling me what a good Dad I am or scrambling frantically to come up with an excuse as to why you haven’t sent me a gift. But it is Father’s Day in 52 countries, including the United States, so Happy Dad’s day to all you [...]
There are ways to tell the tides and waves of change
If you could soup up a DeLorean and travel back to 1989 to ask 17 year-old not so Free Man where he would be living in twenty years, he would have probably told you Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans. One of those old genteel port cities of the South, slowly crumbling into the sea. One [...]
I think I’m cured. No, in fact, I’m sure
All through our last autumn and winter in Blighty we were bombarded with the “So, where the bloody hell are you?” ad by Tourism Australia. It wasn’t a fantastic ad – notable only in its use of the word ‘bloody’, which sent the Broadcasting Advertising Clearance Centre into conniptions. ‘Hell’ didn’t seem to bother them.
I [...]
And now I know there are no secret tricks
Those of you of a certain age may rememeber the Minneapolitan alt-rockers Soul Asylum. They hit it big in 1993 with their album “Grave Dancers Union” and the brilliantly marketed single “Runaway Train” – one way to get your song played to death on MTV is to turn the video into a PSA. They were [...]
I got medicine to cure all y’all’s ills
If I were to make a list of ten things that I missed most from the States, eight of them would be food. (The other two would be my family and college football on the TV). And the food that I miss most is Southern food – biscuits and gravy, collards, proper fried chicken, hush [...]
Dr. John - "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The Wild Tchoupitoulas - "Big Chief Got A Golden Crown": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Jimmy Smith - "Minor Chant": Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadThat’s Dr. Cricket to you…
I know what’s going on
I know how you going on
I got the Ra Ra
go ahead and throw the ball
Cause Bingo, now I’m hittin’ a six…
Mike Hussey’s got nothing on my special lady friend. ‘Twas a stellar weekend filled with sunshine, beach cricket, barbecues and friends. It’s weekends like this that remind me why we [...]
What You’re Saying