With the move coming up so quickly I’ve found myself thinking lately about what it means to be Australian, and who we are as a collective group of people. Like any kid that attended public school in Australia I had to learn the Australian national anthem (’Advance Australia Fair’) off by heart, and every Monday morning we would stand in assembly and sing the anthem whilst facing the Australian flag. ‘Advance Australia Fair’ means less to me however than other songs which seem to more accurately portray my own experiences of Australia, such as Bruce Woodley’s ‘We Are Australian’ and GANGgajang’s ‘Sounds of Then (This is Australia)’.

‘We Are Australian‘ is one of those songs that teachers are fond of playing for their young pupils to encourage feelings of acceptance and multiculturalism, and it’s a popular feature at children’s end-of-year concerts and at Australia Day performances. The chorus, one that sticks in the minds of those that have performed it themselves, encourages understanding:

We are one, but we are many,
And from all the lands on Earth we come,
We share a dream, and sing with one voice:
I Am, You Are, We Are Australian.”

The first verse of the song describes the Aboriginal people, who ‘for forty thousand years have been the first Australians’. The second verse illustrates the convict settlement and ends with the phrase, ‘A convict then a free man, I became Australian.’ The third describes the two World Wars, the impact of the Depression, and the feeling of being an ‘Aussie Battler’ through the bad times and the good. The two verses I love the best however, are the final two in the song: Read the rest of this entry »

For as long as I have known Rob we have been arguing over the correct terminology for those yummy but highly fatty potato snacks commonly referred to as ‘chips’ by Australians and ‘crisps’ by the Brits.  Rob has a problem with calling the cold ‘crisp’ a ‘chip’ because in his mind, ‘chips’ are meant to be hot.  I think Rob is an idiot.  The jury is still out.

It occurred to me today whilst chomping through a miniature packet of chicken crinkle-cut chips that I will soon be in Crisp Country, otherwise known as the UK, and I will be banned from using the term ‘chip’.  Rob and I have agreed to use the term native to the country we are currently residing in - when we’re in Australia, they are ‘chips’ and the game is ’soccer’, when we’re in the UK it’s ‘crisps’ and ‘football’.

My train of thought led me to ponder if anyone had ever done a study or project researching the world’s greatest flavour of crisps or chips.  Of course the G2 section in the Guardian Newspaper seems to run a survey of this sort every now and then, and there are a few message board threads online that have the same idea.  The real answer would be found by studying the volume of crisp flavour sales in several different countries - I feel pretty confident that ‘Sour Cream & Chives’ or ‘Salt & Vinegar’ would be the best seller in Australia, but perhaps ‘Prawn Cocktail’ or ‘Ready Salted’ would win the battle in the UK.

Looking back into the history of crisp flavourings, it appears that chips were originally packaged with no flavouring at all bar a sprinkling of salt.  It wasn’t until the 1950s that ‘Cheese & Onion’ and ‘Salt & Vinegar’ flavourings appeared after the experiments conducted by a man named Joe Murphy who owned the Irish crisp company Tayto.  According to the wikipedia page for potato chips, after Tayto’s initial success the concept of potato flavourings spread like wild-fire: South Africa has ‘Fruit Chutney’ and ‘Biltong’ flavours, whilst Canada enjoys ‘Wasabi’; Japan apparently has ‘Mayonnaise’ flavoured crisps, and in China they apparently have ‘Cucumber’.

My research into the world’s greatest flavour inevitably led me to the Walkers Crisps website where they are proudly parading the flavours ‘Worcester Sauce’, ‘Marmite’ and ‘Chilli and Lemon’.  For starters, no chip flavour should ever involve a combination of something and fruit - it’s like the Red Rock Deli ‘Lime and Cracked Pepper’ flavour we have here in Australia, it beggars belief why anyone would find that tasty.  Secondly, if a company is going to use a savoury spread to flavour their crisps they should be using the original (and the best) - Vegemite - and not the second-rate imitation.  And thirdly, why would you have a ‘Worcester Sauce’ flavour and NOT have a ‘Sour Cream and Chilli’ flavour?  Walkers, what are you doing??  Bring back your ‘Turkey and Stuffing’ flavour and I may consider putting you back on the Christmas Card list.

As my search for the world’s best flavour of crisps has so far been unsuccessful, I’m considering polling everyone I come across for the next few months - friends, family and strangers alike.  Perhaps I could start a world-wide phenomenon by getting everyone I ask to ask all of their friends and family and then email me the results!

Over the last few days I’ve been feeling bogged down with a lingering head cold, tightness in my chest (probably stress-related), and an overwhelming feeling of apathy - I just can’t be bothered to do anything but sleep, read, and make a nuisance of myself.  I can’t really put my finger on what it is that’s bothering me - we’ve sold our car, we’ve booked our flights to the UK, and our trip to Italy is completely sorted - but at the moment I feel like being as uncooperative and awkward as possible.  The last thing I want to do is sit down at a computer and hammer away at mindless copy-writing work for hours on end and for poor pay, and I certainly don’t feel like getting all my paperwork in order for my taxes, for the car sale, for my visa application, or for life in general.  Perhaps it’s something to do with the growing sense of dread I’ve been feeling that my life is escaping ahead of me like rolling coins from a dropped purse.  I can’t stop the march of progress, but I can spend the day in bed with the covers over my head.

I was wondering this morning if perhaps I’ve been getting up on the wrong side of the bed.  Rob always rolls his eyes when I talk about old superstitions or beliefs, but I think that if you are brought up with such things they are just as real to you as growing up understanding that the sky is blue.  My mother and grandmother always put a coin into a new purse or wallet if they give one as a present - apparently giving someone an empty wallet will bring bad financial luck.  Rob’s mother and grandmother get quite upset if you return from shopping with a pair of new shoes and casually set them down on the kitchen table - this also brings bad luck.  Christmas puddings should always be served with a coin in the bowl, and talking about things that haven’t happened yet should always be followed by the postscript, “touch wood”.  A pink sky at night is always a shepherd’s delight (I don’t know any shepherds but that’s what I’ve been taught!), and blowing out birthday candles should always be accompanied by making a wish.  These are the little things which make us who we are and which form the imaginary familial bonds that blood can not.  Getting out on the wrong side of the bed is another one of these silly little rituals.

According to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, getting up on the ‘wrong’ side of the bed is a superstition that apparently comes from the era of Roman control of Europe, and is said to be related to the left side of the bed.  Robert Hendrickson, editor of the Encyclopedia, suggests that the superstition is related to the belief that you should not enter a house with your left foot first, and that you should not start a journey with your left foot.  Augustus Caesar was noted for being careful to get out on the right side of the bed.

I have one problem with this superstition, and it isn’t that it’s silly or obviously not grounded in science (or logic!).  No, my problem is that the side of the bed which is ‘left’ would depend on whether you woke up laying on your back or on your stomach.  Is there a pre-determined ‘left’ - the obvious choice - or does it depend on your sleeping position?  Perhaps I should conduct an experiment…