Our Country from an Outsider's Purview...

[ST.George]

Here's some of my favourite US Author's views of Australia (even tho he's born a Pom):


A true story from an actual lady (Catherine) he met in the '90's when he toured:


"In the 1950s, a friend of Catherine's moved with her young family into a house next door to a vacant lot. One day some builders arrived to put up a house on the lot. Catherine's friend had a three year old daughter who naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door. She hung around on the margins and eventually the builders adopted her as a kind of mascot. they chatted to her and gave her little jobs to do and at the end of the week presented her with a little pay packet containing a shiny new half crown, or something.


She took this home to her mother who made all the appropriate cooings of admiration and suggested they take it to the bank the next morning to deposit in her account. When they went to the bank, the cashier was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her own pay packet.


"I've been building a house this week" she replied proudly.


"Goodness!" Said the cashier. "And wil you be building a house next week too?"


"I will if we ever get the f*cking bricks," answered the little girl.


 - from "DOWN UNDER" Bill Bryson p121.

[StinkyPete]

Bill Bryson's take on Australia in "Down Under" is a very amusing insight into our country and culture.

[Biggles]

Good one, Bill Bryson.
That's far from his only eminently readable book.
"A Short History Of Nearly Everything", "Notes from a Small Island", "The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America" and "A Walk in the Woods" are also on my bookshelf.  I've got "Seeing Further" just waiting for me to get a round tuit.  He's very readable, and can be found in every library if anyone wants to go looking.  Alternatively they're all in Amazon Kindle for under $10 each (which I still think is too dear for electronic versions, but probably wouldn't if I were the author [but then he only gets about $1 of it]).

[ST.George]

Thanx guys, Bill Bryson is something special. An honest, intelligent but no bullsh*t rover of the world who would enjoy an ST if possible:

Another excerpt from Bill Bryson's "Down Under". This one redolent of last year's trip to SA Middleton. I said exactly the same thing to myself and tried to remember to tell my riding buddy "BillStef" when we stopped over at Balranald. But I forgot to. Anyway here's the story:


"In the late afternoon, I stopped at a roadhouse for petrol and coffee. I studied my book of maps and determined that I would stop for the night in Hay, a modest splat in the desert a little off the highway a couple of hours down the road. As it was the only community in a space of 200 miles it was not a particularly taxing decision. Then, having nothing better to do, I leafed through the index and amused myself, in a very low-key way, by looking for ridiculous names, of which Australia has a plenitude. I am thus able to report that  the following are all real places: Wee Waa, Poowong, Burrumbuttock, Suggan Buggan, Boomahnoomoonah, Waaia, Mullumbimby, Ewylamartup, Jiggalong and the extremely satisfying Tittybong.

As I paid, the man asked me where I was headed.

'Hay' I replied, and was struck by a sudden droll thought. 'And I'd better hurry. do you know why?'
He gave me blank look.
'Because I want to make Hay while the sun shines,'
The man's expression did not change.
'I want to make Hay while the sun shines,'  I repeated with a slight alteration of emphasis and a more encouraging expression.
The blank look, I realised after a moment, was probably permanent.
'Aw, you won't have any trouble with that,' the man said after a minute's considered thought. 'It'll be light for hours yet.'.