Posts filed under 'Aussie Aussie Aussie'
If you read the Sunday Telegraph today, then you probably came across this article. (Click here for a larger view).
My mate Dan and his trusty sidekick Steve, recently completed the Mongol Rally 2007 in a $900 Suzuki (Stacey-Jane) they found on Ebay, accompanied by a Telstra touchpad phone (Touchy) as their mascot; they called themselves Team Touchy. The Mongol Rally, now in its fourth year, sets off from London’s Hyde Park and the goal is to arrive in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. Rally cars must meet certain specifications to be eligible to enter, but once on the road the teams can follow any route they like to get to their final destination.
Dan and Steve were among the 150 teams to make to Ulaanbataar! 
It sure sounds like they had a most excellent adventure. Way to go, guys!
Check out Dan’s facebook and the Team Touchy website (linked above) for photos and details on the rally. Well worth a squizz!
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September 2nd, 2007
In just over one week, France will kick off Rugby World Cup 2007 in a match against Argentina at the Stade de France in Paris.
The next day (8 September), Australia will play its first 2007 World Cup match in Lyon against Japan. My mate Craig will be volunteering at the World Cup and he has managed to pull “show the Japanese rugby team around Toulouse” duty. I wonder if he’ll still manage to be nice to them if by some miracle they beat the Wallabies.
Toulouse is one of the Rugby World Cup 2007 host cities and, since this part of France is completely rugby-mad, I’m expecting quite an exciting atmosphere to reign over the city until the end of October. Especially since this year, Toulouse’s beloved rugby team, the Stade Toulousain, is celebrating its centenary.
29 September should be a particularly festive day for Toulousains and expatriate antipodeans: French rugby fans love the All Blacks - so much so that you can actually buy All Blacks memorabilia in certain roadside rest stops along the highways - and the New Zealand team will be playing against Romania on this day, at Stadium Toulouse! Fast-forward to 3 pm and, two hours up the road in Bordeaux, Australia will be playing against Canada in their last match of the group stage. Let’s hope they make it to the quarter finals!!
Last but not least, that same evening, the Garonne River that runs through Toulouse will be set ablaze with fireworks as part of the Stade Toulousain birthday celebrations. And of course there will be parties and entertainment. Phew! what a day it promises to be!
In the lead-up to that big day, Remi and I will be attending the Romania vs Portugal game on September 25th with some mates. It’s not one of the major matches, obviously, but we managed to get some decently priced tickets and wanted to experience Rugby World Cup fever first hand.
Go the Wallabies!
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August 29th, 2007
Last night we got taken out to a gorgeous French restaurant by a new friend of ours who happens to be one of the most senior people here at Meteo France, who also happens to love sailing, and who also happens to love Australia and anything remotely connected to it. So he hit me with a good dose of patriotic pride just in time for Australia Day…
Because I come from the land of plenty… Happy Australia Day to all you Aussies out there!
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January 26th, 2006
Yesterday I received an invitation to an Australia Day party right here in Toulouse!
The email:
“Salut everybody,
As most of you are no doubt aware, the 26th Jan is Australia Day. No,you didn’t know that? Well, now you do - so you have no excuse.
To celebrate, on Friday 27 Jan I will be hosting a genuine Australia Day Party! For those of you that have never been to the ‘Lucky Country’ that means that I will fill the bath with ice and you will have the pleasure of bringing lots of beer to fill the bath. Then we will all drink your beer and eat as much meat as we are able, and whenever an Aussie song comes on the stereo, we’ll all get up to dance and to sing. Deadset. Fair Dinkum! It’ll be beaut!
Now for those of you who are true blue, you’ll know the rules, but for those of you who are a little less dinky-die, let me explain. For the duration of the party you are aloud to say “G’day” as often as you like; we will all call one another “mate”; we’ll drink lots of “coldies”; and if someone is gracious enough to bring you a “tinnie” you can say “onya” (which is a compliment you philistines); there are never any worries at an Aussie Day party; and the answer to any question is “she’ll be right”; and the music of course, is as good as it gets.
If you can make it - beaut, bonzer, ripper!
If you can’t make it - no worries.
PS dress code: Dress singlet, blundies, and thongs are acceptable. No trackie-daks. No Pommes. No Whingers. No Whakas. No Pikers.”
Needless to say, I had to explain a lot to Remi!
Anyway, I hope I can make it to the party. It’s looking a little unlikely at the moment because yesterday I had my first appointment with my French immunologist and he has scheduled me in to the day hospital for a full day of intensive testing, prodding, pricking, scanning and whatever else they can think of… on the 27th :/ Since I have to start taking anti-allergy medication 3 days beforehand I am anticipating a hard day that is going to require some recovery time.
Today I went to see a GP/Homeopath/Acupuncturist who was recommended to me by a couple of people on a Toulouse newsgroup. He seems very good, only time will tell. I have 5 homeopathic treatments to take over the next month, at the end of which I have to see him for a follow-up. Let’s see how it goes!
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January 10th, 2006
A French perspective of our beloved Down Under
As mentioned in one of the most recent comments, I was recently one of four lucky winners in a contest Mr H ran on his BD-blog (a “BD” being a Bande Dessinee or comic strip). As one of the winners I got my very own dedicated drawing/comic strip and of course my Australian origins were source of inspiration. I have published it here, complete with translation. Enjoy! and thank you Hadrien!
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January 9th, 2006
Yep, even in France… these were lifted from an Irish pub in town 
Notice how Tasmania is not part of Australia?
A quick update to let you know I haven’t forgotten about you. Those of you who have been patiently checking for an update daily, thank you for your determination!
The last few days have been very busy with doctors’ appointments, job hunting, domestic duties, and… a trip to Barcelona!! which I was hoping to tell you all about a few days ago but which will now have to be my next post… hence the wait.
The last couple of days I have suffered a terrible flare-up that has left me bed-ridden and overdosed on codeine and ibuprofen. Yuck. BUT… my Remi is a wonderful nurse and I am getting better and Christmas is just around the corner and there is a lot to be grateful for, including my Mum whom I spoke with this morning on the phone
So the doctor’s appointment ended up being rather positive. Apparently it is normal for Sarcoidosis to sometimes manifest itself like that and other times not. Just to be sure, I got a second opinion. I also have a specialist appointment on January 9th… a Dr Gache (don’t laugh) who has a very good reputation and both GPs I saw agree that I will be getting the best care possible from him, so that is extra good news.
About the flare-up in the last couple of days… don’t worry. We think it was triggered by the use of cheap Spanish wine when cooking a tomato sauce. Normally using wine in cooking does not cause problems because the alcohol evaporates, but Mum told me today that she read an article that said some allergies can even be triggered by smells. I do remember the wine smelling extremely strong even once it was cooked in the sauce… So we’ll have to be more careful with all that. It’s not an experience I am keen to relive any time soon!
Some of you have sent emails asking me if there is anything from back home that I really miss. An Aussie friend of mine here just had her niece over for a visit and she was kind enough to bring me the top 2 of my wishlist: golden syrup and vegemite!!
Aside from that I almost cried in the bread aisle of a supermarket once when I realised that I would never see packs of crumpets in a bread aisle in a French supermarket *sniff*. I am still trying to recover from that. Someone tells me there is an English supermarket somewhere in the city and they might sell them… the adventure continues. Especially since I am now blessed with the best butter and honey in the world.
Other wishlist items:
- Tea tree oil
- Cherry Ripe
- Tim Tams
- My special yummy scratchy cloth from the Body Shop, but am pretty sure you can’t get those anywhere anymore 
- My special yummy lip pencils from Face of Australia
- My family and friends (though those are definitely top of the list!)
A bientot alors with the Barcelona adventures!
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December 16th, 2005
On Sunday there were two CRS on our bus as we headed home. No, they have not swapped their dark blue vans for public transport and no, they were not armed to the teeth. This seemed strange to me: I figured they were there to protect us and yet they were armed only with a two-way radio. Until we turned the corner and I saw the dark blue van shadowing the bus.
To me, coming to France has been somewhat like coming full circle, face-to-face with a childhood that faded into oblivion when I arrived in Australia at age 13 and a half and struggled to integrate to this new culture that I had been exposed to in small doses all my life and yet that seemed so foreign to me. As the months wore on I began to feel totally separate from my other life, as though none of it had ever happened. I cut off from my friends and took to growing up too fast. So now I have this opportunity to join both ends of that circle and try to be careful to blend each end into the other so as not to leave any unsightly bumps. I already have too many bumps to sort out 
The French president has called a state of emergency and given prefects the power to impose curfews to restore peace. The last time such a measure was taken on French soil was 20 years ago in New-Caledonia and I was there and I was grateful to see the army and the CRS landing and taking over the streets because I really thought I was going to die. I remember one particular day, my mother had been evacuated to Australia for radioactive treatment and back in Noumea we had the worst riots I can recall. I can still feel my heart palpitations and my mind racing as I packed my bags in case we had to leave our house or still could. And I remember crouching down beside my bed and crying because I thought I was going to die and the worst part of that was that I was never going to see my Mum again.
But this time must be different. These people aren’t fighting for their right to freedom from French colonisation, they are fighting for their right to be accepted as being French in French society. The issue at hand is very complex. I received an email the other day stating quite plainly that ‘it is up to them to integrate, it’s not up to the French to integrate them. When you live in a country you bend to its laws’. If you see only in terms of black and white this statement could be true but we all know that reality is very different. There are issues here that we are only just beginning to encounter. Yes, there is a big problem here that needs to be addressed and it will take time. No, you don’t solve those problems by burning cars and spreading violence and bigotry. Ironically, actions are now being taken, changes being planned, and this outburst was the catalyst. What message is that sending?
So things are starting to calm down over here and it may take a little longer for tensions to simmer down but let’s hope that some real positive and durable changes come out of this whole experience. I can only wonder how the world will be for the next couple of generations now that it has become so much smaller and easier to navigate and people are migrating all over the place. Where will our children fit in? How do we go about making sure they have that precious sense of belonging? That ‘home’ element that seems so vital to us humans?
In other news… the other night I turned on the radio to drown out the noise of sirens and circling helicopters (imagine that with a less dramatic tone please) to hear some ridiculous song about ‘Aimer jusqu’à l’impossible’, a song I had heard before and hated just as much. Imagine my surprise when they announced that it was performed by none other than Australia’s Tina Arena! Geezus, god help us. She’s taken to singing in French now. As if Celine Dion wasn’t punishment enough to the francophone/anglophone worlds. Apparently our little Tina has quite a following here!
More important news… read this because it could help you save a life. The other day my friend Betty forwarded me an email that explained how to recognise when someone is having a stroke. Since it was a forward that asked to be forwarded on to 10 other people and didn’t reference any names, institutions or anything vaguely scientific, I almost ignored it. But I didn’t, because I’m curious So I did a little search and here I quote from an article I will be linking to:
‘Every 45 seconds someone suffers a stroke and many are not acting fast enough to prevent a fatal outcome or the serious long-term disability that can occur if treatment is not received in time. Researchers report 80 percent of strokes are preventable, yet one in four Americans cannot name a single risk factor for stroke.’
And though I am not American and though I have previously held a first-aid certificate, I realised I had no clue how to recognise the signs. So PLEASE, read this article
Though I hope you will never need this knowledge, it may just help save the life of someone you love.
Lastly, I have started sorting through my photos to bring you the French albums soon and also a ‘best of… Canada’. I hope you all took a peek at the Pyrenees photos, they are really worth checking out. The blog will probably be going back and forth in time over the next few entries to accommodate for the blanks that will link to the photos, so please bear with me.
As for me, I am on the job trail and fingers crossed something will come up soon!
xoxox
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November 16th, 2005
Back in Montreal it’s raining and the heatwave finally seems to be over. A friend told me that it even got down to 10 degrees while we were away. I’m really freaking out about France but also glad that I don’t have to relive another harsh winter here. We stepped into our apartment yesterday and it looked like a bomb had exploded right in the middle of it. Total recall of how hectic the last couple of weeks were before we left for the States, what with my last days of work, my birthday, last minute plans for the trip etc. we didn’t really have time to take care of the domestic side of things. So now it’s back into overdrive trying to get organised for the big move and packing things for Catherine to bring back for us when she leaves for France this afternoon since she has a pretty huge baggage allowance compared to what we will have. So we’re packing all our Quebec winter gear… scarves, boots, gloves, hats, coats, plus photos and whatever else will fit.
This is my last weekend in Montreal! *sniff* I’m having a bad flare-up since the night before we left Phoenix, probably a symptom of my internal panic at what lies ahead. I swear I just spent 3 weeks hearing nothing but negative things about France, especially the elitist society that it is and how hard it is to find work or break out of pre-defined moulds. We will see what the future holds I guess, but from what I’ve seen since leaving Sydney, Australia really is the lucky country!
Yesterday we bought my TGV (very high speed train in France) ticket to Lyon where I will be welcomed by Remi’s mum. So it’s off to Paris Friday night, arriving Saturday morning, then boarding a train to Lyon a couple of hours later. We still don’t know if we have managed to secure a studio apartment in Toulouse, so fingers crossed.
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August 20th, 2005
I went back to work today and it was a very busy day as seems to be the norm these days. I’m going to have to do some overtime, which I guess is a good thing because every little bit of cash helps. This time at home alone is going way too fast for my liking - I think Trace gets back on Sunday and everything will be different again. God how I love my solitude.
I had a pretty lazy morning on Saturday. I’d stayed up chatting to Bons, Kev, Kayv and Paul till about 2.30 am and with no baby here I managed to sleep till 10.30 that morning. I did some cleaning before Mum arrived and we just spent some quality time together in the afternoon before the play that evening. The play was great. Was it great because it was a great play, or was it great because Socs was in it? I’m not sure. I don’t often go to plays, but I really enjoyed it. It was great to see Socs, he’s a very talented actor. It was weird though, as I was watching him I kept getting flashbacks of us goofing about all those years ago. Now is not the time for us to make contact again - will there ever be such a time? I don’t know. But some people are momentarily flashed before you like a promise or a sneak preview. One day perhaps, and if not well we served a purpose in each other’s lives for a time.
The play was on at the Wharf Theatre down at Wharf 2 so afterwards Mum and I walked back to Circular Quay along the Harbour foreshore and under the bridge’s South pylon. It was a beautiful night and my god what a beautiful city I live in. You appreciate it more when you’re going away or coming back from being away - sad but true. I guess it’s like most things.
The next morning I slept in till 9.30 and was attacked by guilt because I’d been a bit snappy at Mum the night before when we got home. I was really sore and when I’m like that I just need quiet and to be left alone, but she wouldn’t stop talking and my nerves just couldn’t take it. I wasn’t too bad, but every minute is so precious that I get overwhelmed by guilt. Anyway, so Sunday morning I thought it would be nice to take her out to breakfast at the Blue Groper which is a great little cafe around the corner. When we got there the place was pretty packed so we had to sit at the communal table - that is, share with others. The minute we sat down Mum started her usual friendly chat with the guy who was already sitting there. I guess he took that as open season because the next thing he’s saying “I was just reading about that MP (member of parliament) who got sacked for stealing a bottle of wine from the office christmas party”… and off they were. I picked up a section of the newspaper and promptly buried myself in it. I had to put it down to order though and they seized this momentous opportunity to pounce on me and drag me in to their dizzying Sunday morning stranger banter. Well it turns out this guy was really nice and we all talked for about 2 hours straight. Jim, his name was. He’s travelled a lot and is well educated so it was very interesting. I love that about travelling - how you’re more open to just talking to people you wouldn’t normally notice. You’re much more willing to put yourself out there. Of course my Mum is so friendly she does that wherever she is
Apparently I take after her. Ack!
I’m trying to recall some of the things we talked about… of course one of them was the cold in Canada. We talked about Berlin and we talked about the precise German way versus the Aussie “she’ll be right, mate” way. We talked about the effects of protesting… umm I can’t think of anymore though obviously there was heaps. And Mum came away happy, which was great
Then we went and hired a couple of DVDs to have a lazy Sunday afternoon in - which we did quite nicely thank you.
On Sunday night I was supposed to go to the movies with Pete, but 2 weeks in a row we ended up ditching that plan and for the 2nd week in a row Smella dropped in quite unexpectedly. We had a really nice night just the 3 of us. Got Thai takeaway and treated ourselves to some good company and more great conversation, then we watched Solaris which was… kinda odd.
So! that’s been the last few days for me!
Yesterday I bought some American Dollars which makes everything seem really close and real now. At the end of this month I’ll be able to get my hands on my visa application form. Some time this month or next I also have to take the necessary steps to get my French passport renewed.
Yesterday I also saw Jems which was absolutely awesome. I love that girl. God she’s been through hell these last few years, but I can see her pulling through.
She wanted me to go to a gig tonight but I had to decline because the work Xmas party is Thursday night so I have to keep myself well for that.
In other news, Paul has kindly offered to host my site for me and manage all the bits of mine that need managing while I’m away. In order to take advantage of this I had to register a domain name which I justified by making it a Christmas present to myself. So www.fizzylight.com is coming soon to a web browser near you!
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December 9th, 2003
I went out last night for the first time in a while. I got home at 1.30 am! I was very proud of myself and so was Trace. I felt so good and had such a great time. I remember standing on Elizabeth Street at about 1 thinking this is how good I’m always going to feel soon. I truly believe I’m going to get better. Last night I pretty much felt like a normal person and I tell you that’s very rare.
D had drinks down at Opera Bar after work for her birthday. Such a beautiful setting and it was the first sunny day we’d had in a while. We were basically sitting on the harbour next to the Opera House in the sunlight and really, that’s what Sydney life is all about. I love Sydney, it’s such a beautiful city.
After that I had to rush up to the other end of the city to meet S and her friends for her birthday celebrations. Lucky for me I got a nice bus driver because otherwise I would have been late. The bus doesn’t stop near Park Street anymore but I told him where I needed to go and he let me off at the red light, bless him. Ran up to the bar where the crew were waiting for me, then we made our way to Karaoke World. We did karaoke for 3 hours straight and it was so much fun. A really good crowd too. Karaoke isn’t fun if you take it seriously and luckily we only one diva amongst us. After that we went to a couple of bars but it took so long to get moving places that the mood got a little disjointed and I figured I should go home while the tide was still high. It was damn impossible to find a cab though. I walked from one side of the city to the other and ended up getting on a bus to Bondi Junction and then getting a cab home from there.
Matt T was out and I hadn’t seen him for a very long time. After the big hug and kiss hello he immediately launched into ‘So I heard you were married or something!’. For the rest of the night he insisted on trying to talk about all that and then when I wouldn’t oblige he started talking about Shane. For some reason he feels like we’re partners in crime by the sounds of it because we both caused so much controversy at the time. Well that’s what he said anyway. I never saw my relationship with Shane as controversial but apparently others did! I reminded Matt about the day he and Shane went golfing and Matt told Shane he thought I was an airhead. Seems Matt had conveniently forgot about that and couldn’t quite let it go all night after I mentioned it to him. Anyway, I guess that was a bit of a flashback for me but it was good to see him nevertheless … and looking happier than I’d seen him in a long while.
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November 29th, 2003
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