Saturday, October 22, 2011
CHOGM
Hello again. I haven’t written in a while, because nothing major has really been going on; just work and church, friends etc. I finished teaching my class for this term so I have been doing lots of marking. I think I have become harsher in my marking this term. Last term I felt so bad if I had to fail someone, I felt like I was being mean. This term I feel that I understand the marking rubric better and I know that I am following the guidelines correctly, so it is not my fault if someone fails, they did not meet the requirements. My conscience is clear.__________________ something interesting that is happening in Perth is the special holiday called CHOGM, a holiday that happens only when the Queen of England comes to Australia. The definition of this event is and I quote “CHOGM stands for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Every two years Commonwealth leaders meet to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, and agree collective policies and initiatives.” CHOGM can be held at any of the commonwealth countries (around 50 counties are part of the British Commonwealth including India, S. Africa, Singapore, and Canada). Apparently the Queen has not been in Australia for 10 years and since she is coming to Perth we get an extra day off! I don’t know if the rest of the country does or not. We did not get the Queen’s birthday off in September as we usually would in preparation of the CHOGM holiday. There are also the commonwealth games, a sort of mini Olympics for just commonwealth countries.________________ with all this holiday stuff happening it seems appropriate that I have invented a new one myself. As some of you may know, my family likes to make up holidays. It has been several years since we have made up a new one and I thought it is about time. This new one has not yet been celebrated (next weekend will commence the festivities) and I have no idea if it will work out or not. It is called Culinary Wimsey (thank you Kathy G for the name!), a day when you get together with friends and each person brings the ingredients and recipe for a food that they themselves have never cooked before. Then will follow a fun afternoon of cooking and helping each other to tackle these new culinary challenges. This is not a competition! No no! Rather a space to finally try that recipe that you find you have never gotten around to making, but always wanted to try. And of course and the end of the day you get sample all the food, now that is what I call a pot luck, who knows what kind of creations will be make. A lot of the details still need to be worked out and of course throughout the day we will determine new traditions and customs of the holiday (I love that part, hee hee. I am such a nerd!). next post will tell you all about the outcome. Cheers!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Music and Aussie Phrases
Last weekend I got to go to a singing workshop. There is an Aussie A Capella group called the Idea Of North. They came to give a concert (which I did not get to see) and then they gave a two hour workshop on Sunday. It was really fun. They showed us breathing exercise and taught us a song in parts; there were about 50 people there. Four of us from the music team from church went, very enjoyable. It makes me really want to learn more about music, I am beginning to understand how little I know and how much there is to learn, which I suppose is the first step. I took some pictures of one of our music practices (not the workshop, forgot to bring the camera to that one) we meet at Cam and Sue’s house. it is a bit slap dash, but we have allot of fun.___________I have several Aussie phrases that I am keen to share with you. That is the first one, ‘keen’. Meaning of course to be very interested or excited, example: “she is very keen to get started”. Another one is ‘rock up’ to be used in place of ‘come’ or ‘drop by’, example: “the party starts at 7, but you can rock up anytime”. These are more subtle phrases that took me longer to notice. I have also noticed a different way of saying ‘a week from Sunday’ and that is you just say ‘Sunday week’ example: he is coming into town Tuesday week” means he will be here a week from this next Tuesday. I found that one confusing for some time. I am also getting comfortable with saying loo for bathroom. I have a very clear rule that one should not use slang that feels fake when you say it. I really want to say ‘ta’ for thank you, but it just feels like I am trying to be something I am not. I have tried out saying ‘loo’ lately and it seems to be working. I also pronounce Tomato and Banana with an Aussie accent most of the time without thinking; which is seriously cool.__________we are coming to the end of the uni school year in a few weeks, that means that I have marking (grading) to do for the class I have been teaching, which is not much fun; and that soon all the undergrads will be gone for two months and I will have all the lab space I want, we which is good.
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