Friday, September 5, 2008

All I need to know in life, I learned from a koala


I’ve never even been to Australia, but by reading, I find all sorts of wisdom from the continent Down Under.

For example, my life is filled with the odd bit of stress here and there. Now, have you ever seen a stressed-out koala? ‘Nuff said. Must be the power of those eucalyptus leaves, and lots of sleep.

I subscribe to a number of Aussie publications, and here are some recent tidbits that caught my eye:

  • Generally, Aussies are not coffee snobs. They don’t waste their time debating the merits of Peet’s versus Starbucks versus a cuppa Dundee instant. It’s all good.

  • Playing peek-a-boo with a kid on a plane can drive you bonkers, but it's really good for the kid's brain.

  • To keep your own brain young, take a walk. This probably explains why Jack Lalanne still talks like an eighteen-year-old adolescent.
  • A mother’s stress is linked to obesity in kids. Like we didn’t know that? Who likes their kids being subjected to taunts of, “Your mama’s so big, she couldn’t float through the Panama canal.” It’s enough to drive any kid into a Twinkie rage.
  • Oh, and not to mention the fact that Australian men prefer larger women. I wrote about that happy news in a previous post.
They were the odd news items that didn't appeal to me so much. To wit:

Now, it's not as if my world-traveler-from-an-armchair reader's POV has any currency in terms of judging the real Australia. For that, I suggest you read a recent post by Clare Langley-Hawthorne, a real Australian. But for the most part, I'm a Down-Under kind of gal when it comes to my attitude toward life.

Any other Aussie-istic wisdom anyone can share? Keep it clean!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was privileged to accompany my husband on a business trip to Australia a few years ago, and it was fantastic. The fact that he was there to meet with other people meant that we got out of the big cities and saw places that most tourists don't, and I loved every minute of it.

The food was spectacular, coupled with a completely casual attitude in restaurants. No snobbery from the waitstaff.

Any place that has Kangaroo Crossing and Wombat Crossing and Koalas Ahead signs on the highways, can't be bad.

We drove from Melbourne across an entire state, some 600 miles, and in that distance we saw five cars. I counted. We did, however, see some memorable rainbows.

The Australians put beets on their sandwiches. Messy.

My overwhelming impression was that the parts of the country we saw (not the Outback) were clean and empty and truly beautiful. I'd go back in a minute.

Kathryn Lilley said...

Hi Sheila,
It's tops on my list of places to go! Can't wait!

Dana King said...

Australia has long been my dream vacation. The fact that Elle McPherson, Cate Blanchette, Rachel Ward, and Nicole Kidman are Australian has nothing to do with it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.