So to talk like an Aussie, the two biggest things are 1) shorten all your words and add "-ie" (as mentioned before), and 2) don't pronounce the letter "r", especially at the end of words, but sometimes at the beginning, too. So keep that in mind for the following conversation:
"Your dog is really cute - what's her name?"
"Ani"
"Oh, as in Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
What?!?
But following Rule #1, Arnold becomes Arnie, and following Rule #2 it becomes Anie. I'm still not sure why they thought we'd switch to an Aussie accent just to pronounce our dog's name and then resume our Yank accent for the entire rest of the conversation (which was a few hours), but that's OK.
So in case you were wondering, our dog is not named after Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's named after a bird called the Ani (either the smooth-billed or the groove-billed - you can choose).
11 January 2010
04 January 2010
New Year’s Eve
Sydney has some of the world’s best NYE festivities, and this year we decided we wanted to be part of them. Downtown gets absolutely packed (like 1.2 million people); some people even camped out the night before to claim the best spots. We didn’t have the time to be able to do that, so we decided we’d do even better – and be on a boat! So we made a last-minute decision to book a NYE harbour cruise, and managed to get upgraded to a nicer cruise than we planned on, essentially getting ~25% discount. Talk about happy new year!
So we boarded our boat and were greeted with cocktails and appetizers (both included in the price).
Ben and I were starving and decided we should get our money’s worth, so we kinda stalked a few of the people walking around with the food trays. Yes, we’re classy. So we ate our shrimp and drank our wine as we cruised under the harbour bridge, past the opera house, right by the crowded masses of people on shore, alongside all these extravagant sailboats, enjoying the last bit of sunshine (which graciously made an appearance late in the day).
And then the light show began. The family fireworks were at 9, and then the blockbuster fireworks were at midnight. And the thing about Sydney’s NYE fireworks is that they’re EVERYWHERE. There are 5 places along the harbour shooting off synchronized fireworks, then there’s a whole different set of fireworks on the bridge, and then there’s more being shot off the sky-scrapers in the CBD, so they’re in front and behind and to the side. And in case that wasn’t enough to look at, all the boats also have lights on them, so there are all these great floating light displays around you in the water. Definitely a night to remember!
We were using our cheap back-up camera, thanks to the demise of our blue camera, so our pics aren't the best but I've posted a few of them anyway. To get a sense of what it’s like to be in the middle of all this pyro-technics-mania, you should check out this video (click here).
Boats, skyline, opera house, and the bridge.
The shark boat :)
Fireworks from on bridge, fireworks in the sky, and boats in the water
Passing under the harbour bridge at the end of the night.
Happy New Year!!!
So we boarded our boat and were greeted with cocktails and appetizers (both included in the price).
Ben and I were starving and decided we should get our money’s worth, so we kinda stalked a few of the people walking around with the food trays. Yes, we’re classy. So we ate our shrimp and drank our wine as we cruised under the harbour bridge, past the opera house, right by the crowded masses of people on shore, alongside all these extravagant sailboats, enjoying the last bit of sunshine (which graciously made an appearance late in the day).
And then the light show began. The family fireworks were at 9, and then the blockbuster fireworks were at midnight. And the thing about Sydney’s NYE fireworks is that they’re EVERYWHERE. There are 5 places along the harbour shooting off synchronized fireworks, then there’s a whole different set of fireworks on the bridge, and then there’s more being shot off the sky-scrapers in the CBD, so they’re in front and behind and to the side. And in case that wasn’t enough to look at, all the boats also have lights on them, so there are all these great floating light displays around you in the water. Definitely a night to remember!
We were using our cheap back-up camera, thanks to the demise of our blue camera, so our pics aren't the best but I've posted a few of them anyway. To get a sense of what it’s like to be in the middle of all this pyro-technics-mania, you should check out this video (click here).
Boats, skyline, opera house, and the bridge.
The shark boat :)
Fireworks from on bridge, fireworks in the sky, and boats in the water
Passing under the harbour bridge at the end of the night.
Happy New Year!!!
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