• Daily Life - Strine

    Wattle Y’Know

    As the tiny yellow blossoms slowly starting to open on the wattle trees in our garden are showing, spring is gradually inching closer to realization, but it can never happen fast enough. Cold seems to linger for an inordinately long time at the end of every winter, especially as I advance further into old age and the chill’s effects deepen. But that’s usually because I expect too much of March, having the false impression of it being a month where things warm up despite decades of experience proving that to be the contrary. One highlight of March for me, though,…

  • Strine

    Foot And Mouth

    Cold weather in the early spring is always a reminder of getting old, and few places send the message to me louder than my mouth and feet. Oral problems have plagued me for years and persist in doing so now. And it is apparently the start of effects from my ‘Don Martin feet’–long and flat and apparently bent along the way but without an arch in a manner famously depicted by the MAD magazine artist. ‘You’ve got to adapt to being old,’ was the less-than-pleasing message the podiatrist had for me last weekend. If I’ve gotta have aches and pains,…

  • Daily Life - Strine - Strine Dictionary 豪語辞書

    Enshittification

    Enshittification has been chosen by Australia’s preeminent dictionary as the word of the year for 2024. The Macquarie Dictionary, which is regarded as the main chronicler of Australian English, defines enshittification as “the deterioration of a service brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit seeking.” Most Strine speakers would probably refer to enshittification as things going to the shits. Macquire notes that the term is now being used to describe many things in life, not just tech-related, citing the example of shrinkflation of products as…

  • Daily Life - Strine - Strine Dictionary 豪語辞書

    Tray Trees Make Bonzer Bonsai

    Reluctantly dragged out of my comfort zone, I was rewarded with a bonzer trip around the Japanese Bonsai Garden inside Showa Kinen Park to see the autumnal trees in trays, lit up as part of the Autumnal Night Stroll. Related posts: Akiya Akita (空き家、飽きた), Or How I Got Sick Of The Idea Of A Japanese Home Too Cheap To Be True Magnificent Ms. Minogue Bloomin’ Slow to Flower Of Sloths And Sloth Inuit ‘Innit Saying It With Flowers オーストラリア特有の恐竜、カンタス、、、サウラス The First Class First Nations Film Festival Lots. And Nothing Economic Organizations/経済団体 Powered by YARPP.

  • Strine - Strine Sports

    Pushbike Paradise

    The few weeks leading up to the start of the rainy season in Tokyo are, for me, idyllic, and for the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to get an early morning bike ride in on most days, and today was a ripper. The sun rises at about 4 a.m. at this time of the year, and so do I! I get up, pour myself into cycling gear, have a quick brekkie and then get out on the treadly before I can convince myself there’s something better to do than ride a bike. And Mother Nature…

  • Daily Life - Strine - Strine Tucker - Strine Why Atorkin/Australian Methods of Speech/豪語の話し方

    Snot Block Odyssey

    Something was amiss with the start of the weekend when I was barely able to sleep, spending a restless night ahead of plans to head into central Tokyo to pick up some parts, but little did I know that a vanilla slice “snot block” was on the way to rescuing me. Using the restlessness to advantage, I got stuck into the garden, weeding and then being able to cut the lawn courtesy of a quiet push mower and getting down on my hands and knees to manually trim the edges. A quick clean of the Brommie, which has been squeaking…

  • Strine

    Dog’s Life

    We’ve been blessed for the past few days with the presence of Uyu, a gorgeous border collie. Uyu, which means ‘milk’ in Korean, came to stay on Friday night. We weren’t sure if she was actually going to come and stay. She belongs to our son and daughter-in-law. Our son is a notoriously poor communicator. So, even though we agreed to look after Uyu months ago, and the date was decided, we needed to wait until she actually arrived before we could be sure that she would come. Then, when Uyu did get here, things didn’t always go to plan.…

  • Strine

    The First Class First Nations Film Festival

    For a measly 1,000 yen I got to get a totally unexpected and delightfully amazing full day’s entertainment, a couple of souvenirs and an all-round wonderful time at the 2024 First Nations Film Festival held by the Australian Embassy in Tokyo at EUROSPACE. I’ve always been sympathetic to the cause of Indigenous Australians as I’ve understood it, but in recent years I’ve developed a bit of empathy fatigue, or even borderline antipathy, as the blame for society’s shortcomings are increasingly laid at the feet of all white men. So when Mrs. Kangaeroo expressed an interest in going to the festival…

  • Strine - Strine Scribes - Unknown Nichigo

    Goodbye Possums…

    Barry Humphries, the creator of characters such as Dame Edna Everage – the Moonee Ponds housewife famous for her flamboyance and shouted greeting of “Hello Possums” – Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone, and himself an entertainer and icon of Straya in many parts of the world, has passed away. Humphries died aged 89 on Saturday following complications from a recent hip surgery. Personally, I wasn’t a great fan of the Moonee Ponds housewife — Dame Edna Average is my name for her — but she had her moments and was a wonderful example of Humphries’ acerbic, anti-Establishment wit that…

  • Strine

    Wistful Wisteria

    There’ve been better times than the past week, and hopefully the climbing hardenbergia comptoniana planted today augurs a rise out of the doldrums. I couldn’t sleep, so as soon as it was light, I got out into the garden, moving the lawn, weeding and my efforts culminating in re-potting the hardenbergia comptoniana, better known as the Australian native wisteria, which had grown too much for the humidity pods. Most of the seedlings have failed, so hopefully the wisteria will be a shining light. There’s still the promise of kangaroo paw and dwarf wattle. Not much else promising going on. Work absolutely…