iBeck's Favorite Things (about Australia)

Oprah decided to visit Australia about two weeks before Becky and I did.  In honor of her, I give you iBeck's Favorite Things (about Australia).

1. Male Tramp Stamps - Becky spotted one of these bold tattoos early in the trip and had a hard time keeping her excitement to herself.  I could do nothing but express my unconditional approval.  I would put the over/under on the number that we spotted at five.  That also equals the total number of male lower back tattoos I have seen in my life.

Sadly, this is not my picture.  I have no excuse for not capturing the glory that was witnessed.  This will have to do.

2. Language - Stubbies (Bottled Beer), Stubbie Holder (Coozie), Jumper (Fleece/Jacket), How ya going, guys? (How ya doing), G'day, Mate, and adding the letter y/ies to every word like Chrissie (Christmas), Sunnies (Sunglasses), Esky (cooler), Good onya (good job), Pom/Pommy (Englishman),

3. Burger King is Hungry Jack's and McDonalds is Macca's. Enough said.

4. Commercial from the retail store Rivers. This either consisted of showing sales with hard-core death metal in the background or the most monotoned voice announcer of all time tell us why we need to go to Rivers.  Our favorite line explaining the glory of all the shirts on sale, "Some have pockets, some don't, it all depends really."

This is easily the most expressive Rivers commercial, but its the only one I could find.  Also, please don't be confused by these low prices, this is the WalMart of Aussie retail.

5. The Ashes.  Who knew cricket could be so interesting?  Well, no one apparently.  That didn't stop me from seriously getting interested in the biggest sporting event in Aussie.  The Ashes are four 5-day cricket test matches between the Pommy Bastards from the England and the boys in the Baggy Green.  They play every other year and alternate between the UK and Australia.  We were there in time to watch the last two tests, which saw Australia embarrassed by the Poms.

Is it sad that I could literally name five guys on the Aussie national team right now?  I could literally write several pages on Australian cricket.  I am pretty sure that most Australians couldn't do that.  This confirms what most already knew, I have a sports sickness.  The positive is that this is great knowledge to have now that I am moving to a commonwealth country.  I can't wait to make Becky go to five day cricket tests with me!

6. Sunrise and the lack of filter. Sunrise is the Good Morning America or Today Show of Oz.  There were plenty of things we liked about this show.  First was the QVC like shopping experience you get every 10 minutes or so.  They stopped the news and kicked it to one of the Sunrise people who were hawking some gadget or another.  It was seriously like flipping channels between Matt Lauer and Ron Popeil...but without having to change channels!

The other part that we loved about this show was the complete lack of filter.  This can best be explained by an interview with a plastic surgeon who was on to talk about plastic surgery becoming an increasingly popular gift for Christmas.  When the doctor made this proclamation, the host immediately said, "That's not true!"  He basically called the guy a quack the entire segment and ended by saying," Thank you 'doctor.'"  He literally made air-quotes when he said "doctor!"  How awesome is that?

7. Beer.  XXXX, Victoria Bitter, Coopers, Toohey's, Cascade, Hahn Super Dry, Pure Blonde all available in a schooner.

8. Tank Tops.  Did you know that tank tops are back in! Woooooooooo!  Everyone in Australia is going to the beach.  Always.

9. Steak! Bring me my steak!  Oz is expensive.  There is one exception and that is steak.  I don't think either of us actually got meat-sweats, but it wasn't for lack of trying.  Steak is not a part of the everyday Thai diet, so we tried to make up for lost time.  

10. Hospitality.  Our Aussie friends all nervously asked if people were nice on our visit which leads me to think that we were actually being made fun of to our faces most of the trip.  We were treated great by just about everyone, especially the Coopers.  Jason, Jenene, Harper and Promise all got up early and drove to the airport to pick us up when we first touched down.  They took us to brekky (breakfast) and then took us right back to the airport since we only had an hour between flights.

Then, because we had an overnight layover in Gold Coast before going back to Bangkok, Jason picked us up, took us back to their place and gave us a bed, shower and more breakfast.  What a great way to bookend our trip!

Harper, Becky, Isaac, Jason, Promise and Jenene taking the picture.

How did we do?  Did we miss anything or grossly exaggerate something?  What are your favorite things about Australia?

iBeck 

*Disclaimer - I had to ask the internets if Oprah's Favorite Things was real to make sure this post title would make sense.