Dan's Blog
- One of my colleagues when I was explaining that the spelling “Sheree” is very Australian, whereas I’d spell that name “Cherie”.
They do it with lots of names though… “Sharnee”, “Shaani” (funnily enough pronounced the same), Shaynee, Stevie, Renae, Reece (and yeah I’ve seen it spelt like that in the UK too but it still seems wrong and I get vacant looks when I spell it Rhys here). It’s almost as if no one looks up baby names and they just spell them phonetically.
Today’s Australia day, and apparently it’s unAustralian not to eat meat. I have no idea who this guy is, but apparently it was a minor big thing when he released his national address earlier this month.
And for anyone wanting a slightly more blue Australia Day message (caution: very strong language in places), check out this video.
Casa de Dan!
I’ve been meaning to put these up for a while, so without further ado - below are photos I’ve just taken of the inside of my place here in Newman…
Complaining’s the same in any language.
Earlier this week I took advantage of the 27 year high the Aussie Dollar’s experiencing against the Pound and transferred a significant amount of money back home. During the process I had some grief from my bank, being pushed from pillar to post with various issues transferring such a large amount of money - this was coupled with a lightning strike that’s taken my local branch out of action until further notice.
This afternoon I phoned them asking how to close my accounts because I don’t like their service - I’m paying for an account and receiving a level of service that no British bank would dream of giving me (and I should know, I’ve had accounts with most of them to take advantage of their various promotions). As a result of this 10 minute call they’ve now waived all fees on my account until July and given me a bonus 1.5% interest rate until June. I might now reconsider closing the account for a few months…
In the next hour my apparent IQ will take a hit.
Within the next hour, the English language Wikipedia will be taken down for a 24 hour period as part of a protest. It’s worth reading the reasons for this on that link if you have the time because - apart from anything else - I thought it was quite interesting.
Nevertheless, I’m definitely going the way of the above XKCD comic strip for a day. That is unless I can very quickly master another language…
