I woke up this morning, urgently checked my mail as I am used to, and there was this message waiting for me: `Kevin Rudd is following you`. Yeah, that was funny to see. LOL.

I signed up to Twitter a few days ago, because I was interested what this social network is all about, that everyone is talking about these days, even  in the news. More and more celebrities are joining this network.

So I am tweeting as well, but to tell you the truth, I do not now for how long. I am not interested in doing this all the time. And you know what? I am not alone with this. According to a research around 60 percent of twewbies -new people to Twitter- do not use Twitter after the first month. I can understand this, because I also do not use social networks as much and as intensively as many others, but this time I was really interested  why it is different from other social networks, such as the Hungarian Iwiw, the Dutch Hyves or the most famous Facebook .

If you only look at the benefits or the positive side of this site, Twitter can be useful and funny. And why not see the positive side only? Yeah, public social networks can be dangerous, but this time I do not want to be more paranoid. So let`s talk about the good things.

You can make your profile on Twitter and you even can have ‘friends’. The big difference is that you can make connection with celebrities or companies much easier. Because you click on celebrities to follow them, does not mean you know them personally or you are friends. It means only that you are `following` them. Mutually, they can follow you as well, so they become your `followers`.  Why they want to follow you or be followed by you if they have absolutely no idea who you are?  The reason is very simple: it is a really good marketing tool for them to build closer relationship and/or sell you some products much easier…

Basically, what you are following is a short message consisting of a maximum of 140 characters, about what people are doing during their day. It is like: `I am going to the cinema tonight`.  People like reading what others are doing at the same time. What they are eating, what kind of situation they are in, what they are wearing, etc. I am not sure that this is true for everyone, I think there are more important things in the world, but on the other hand I can imagine it. You use to ask your family members or friends as well what they did or what they like, don`t you? And if you can not ask but would like to, it is easy to read it almost secretly, isn`t it?

So in this way, Twitter is a so called `microblog`, because you can send your short messages, like you do in sms or text-messages, but it is going to reach a broader public on Internet, not to mention, that it is free these days. It is a bit similar to MSN where people use to make a short notice next to their names -seen by their friends-, but I recon it is not changing so often.

For me the biggest advantage is that it is an easy way of getting news-updates. On a separate page, you can see all the messages of persons or companies you are following, ordered in time. I started following the Hungarian “Index” and the Sydney Morning Herald, as I noticed that they are continuously sending their latest news headlines. It was funny that the SMH immediately replied and started following me, but I am still waiting for Index, they need a wake-up call. If they only knew what they loose by not following me…

So I have four followers with Kevin Rudd: the Sydney Morning Herald, an SMH-blogger Joe Hildebrand, a figure that is changing his personality all the time, and now Kevin Rudd, the REAL ONE!!! Oh, if you have not heard from him, he is the prime minister of Australia!!!

I say the REAL ONE, because if I search for Kevin Rudd at this moment, the search engine gives 13 results. Among these KevinRuddPM is the real nickname, and it is not Kevin Rudd, just because the so called ‘squatters’ already hijacked his identity.

Not everyone is real however, it seems unlikely that the prime minister sits in front of his computer because of this. They employ someone for this purpose, the so called ‘ghost-twitter’. Hugh Jackman embarrassed himself recently, when his “ghost-twitter” was talking about the Opera Center instead of the Opera House. This looks quite bad for someone from Australia, so to save his image after these harmful 140 characters, he donated 100 thousand dollar to charity a few days later. From now on, I also will be very careful when writing something on Twitter…

Like on other sites, there are also some people here hiding behind the name of someone who is famous, and abuse it by writing nonsense. Today there was an article about this in the SMH. In general there is quite a lot of news about Twitter or Facebook, as a kind of advertisement, telling which celebrity reached a million followers or who the latest famous member is. There are also articles with a warning, how people can use these sites for wrong reasons. But there are also many success stories.

Recently I read, there was a smart company (SR7): that immediately adapted to these new developments they are doing research for other companies about the behaviour of their employees on social networks. Many companies are afraid (maybe with a good reason), that employees can damage the image of the company, if they are writing negative things on these sites. To prevent this, Telstra  came up with new regulations, about how their employees should deal with the social networks.

A well known recent case for example is Domino Pizza, when two employees uploaded a few pictures, about how they are ‘polluting’ the pizzas, before bringing them to the customers. This was all I needed! I hate it, if you are so vulnerable; you indeed never know what exactly you are eating…

It became clear, that many companies cannot really use this kind of damaging accidents and they sacked people because of their Facebook messages. Attila read somewhere yesterday, that a person got fired because she stayed home sick, saying that she cannot work, because she is not allowed to use a computer. But then she uncovered herself while writing on Facebook…

So be careful!

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It is already a bit late, and I really would like see the French movie that is starting in a few minutes on television. But I promised myself this morning that, whatever may happen, I will write this post tonight.  Today was a very nice day, not only with respect to the weather, but much more interesting than we initially thought as well. Today is April 25: ANZAC Day, I will tell a bit more about this day.

ANZAC is an acronym for ‘Australian and New-Zealand Army Corps ‘. Both in Australia and New Zealand, they celebrate this event on April 25. Maybe it is one of the most important Australian days, with very long parades and many memorial services.

Initially this day was to pay tribute to those soldiers that died in World War One. In 1915 the Australian and New Zealand army entered the Turkish peninsula Gallipoli on this day, trying to force back the Turkish troops. The initial plan did not really succeed end ended up in an almost eight months during bloody war. At the end of the year the ANZAC-soldiers had to be rescued after enormous losses. (more than 8700 Australian and 2700 New-Zealand soldiers have died.)

The first ANZAC day was already held in 1916 to honor this war, and over the decades it became a important tradition to memorise those who died. Today ANZAC day is to honor all who have died in any war or conflict. All those who have sacrificed their blood and live for the nation and for peace.

I was surprised when I heard today, that only in the state of New South Wales, there are about 3000 ANZAC memorials.  There are many parades, services, prays, flags, drums and bagpipes, and lots of wreaths.

What was really interesting for me is that the memorials already started at quarter past four in the morning.  Not only here, but everywhere in Australia they start with the ‘Dawn Service ‘ before the first light. This has a very deep meaning. On the war-field it was very common (apparently it still is), that the enemy starts to attack at dawn. For this reason the defending soldiers had to be ready for war way before sunrise, quite and without moving. These are the moments that makes the bond between troops stronger, the moment that are still remembered, that soldiers were in the same situation with the same problems.  This is the so called ‘stand-to ‘ moment, which is repeated at sunset.

The precise program of all the memorials can be found in the link at the bottom of this post. I found a lot on interesting information on these pages. Maybe you would like to know what kind of symbols they use on this day. Apart from the many decorations that can be found on the countless uniforms, there are the paper poppies. These small flowers can also be seen on Remembrance day, which are used to make wreaths and are placed on all the war memorials. They are also used to pin next to the names of those who have died, on the so called Memorial’s Roll of Honour. The other one is the laurel, which is used to make laurel wreaths, we have seen many on Market Place.

Most common on ANZAC day, is that those who ‘remember’ pin a small twig of rosemary on their breast. We asked a friendly veteran, who allowed us to make a picture of his decorations while he was telling about them. Many were not his own, but from his father who was in the army all his live. The rosemary is  a very old symbol , and because of the smell that apparently improves your memory, it is the symbol of memorial.

We are not Australians, but we like special events, and for us one of the best associations with ANZAC day is the ANZAC-biscuit. This is a small coconut flavored tea biscuit, which originally used to be baked by the women and was sent to the front, ‘to keep morale high’.

It was interesting to see the many generations of soldiers: the young man in his early twenties, the grown up man surrounded by his family or the old veterans, sometimes in a wheelchair. The city was full of celebrating families; all the bars were occupied by marines with their friends and girlfriends. In front of us one marine man traded his cap with that of girl from the royal air force.  During a memorial service in Hyde Park, the boys holding the flags were starting to faint one by one, it was to warm, or teenagers here do not eat properly either The veterans were proudly showing their medals and decorations. On every corner we met men in skirts playing the bag pipe.

After all, I am really glad that we have seen the parade and one of the memorials in Hyde Park, as it was very interesting and impressive.

So this was our ANZAC-day very briefly. And while I have been writing all of this, I also managed to see the movie…)))

http://www.awm.gov.au

Wikipedia

cityofsydney

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Some of my family members -especially my dear sister- asked me several times to write a post about the aussie slang. Here we go, I took my time to collect some funny and truly Australian slang expressions. Some of them were known by us, but there were plenty of them which were completely new to us, of course.

It was really interesting to see what differences there are between websites and between their slang word collections - what kind of words are included there, and how they are spelled. I think there are some words that are only used for a short time, but on the other hand, this country is sooo big, that it is virtually impossible that everybody in every corner of this country knows everything. Here is a nice video on Youtube, it is worth to read the comments as well. Nice to see how some people are almost angry on each other because of using different expressions in the same country.

To tell you the truth, the task to write about the slang of another country is a bit difficult-especially because we are not native English speakers. We do not know every expression here; it is much more difficult to understand them on the train when other people are chatting behind you, etc. However if we knew more we also would not use them -except maybe those two or three which are really in our mind because they are used commonly in every situation, not just as slang words, like `no worries`, aussie, etc. Furthermore it is always really weird when a non-native English speaker tries to say something funny `aussie`, because it just does not work. You can not imitate that kind of funny and energetic pronunciation, especially if you have some kind of sweet but tough European-sounding accent. This is not funny but embarrassing. Especially if he wants to curse (Attila: what about she-ilas??). There is a saying that one can pray and count numbers only in his/her own mother tongue. In my opinion, cursing is the same category. Or do you have a different view?

So, let`s talk about the topic!! We shall start with the most typical expressions.

Australians use to talk about themselves as `aussie` or `Oz`, and the latter means the country itself, as well, just like the expressions `down under` or the `Lucky Country`. By the way, the lingo or the slang is called `Strine` (Australian English).

Friends or buddies like saying hello as `ga day`/`gidday`/`G`day, mate`, but it is also common among friendly strangers and you can hear the shop assistant saying it as well. If they want to start a conversation, it often begins as ` How you going`. Also a very typical expression is the so called `onya`/`Good on-ya` instead of the well known `good on you`or `well done`. Sometimes if they want to say thanks, cheers or don`t worry, they use simply the same words: `no worries`.`No drama` is also used as no problem. They say `Hooroo` (without h) instead of goodbye sometimes, and `ta` or `tar` as `thanks`.

If you live here, the very first thing that you realise, is that these guys in Australia really like friendships, so they use buddy or mate in almost every sentence. How are you doing, mate? Good on ya, mate! Have a drink, mate? Etc. The so called `fella` (fellow) or `bloke` are also used very often. By the way, an aussie woman is `Sheila` for a lot of people when they talk about an Oz girl or woman.

After the greetings, let`s talk a little about the geography. You know, the big cities -like Sydney and Melbourne -are `big smoke` in slang, but this is not as typical as the expression for `the bush`, which means the rural area near towns. The bush is not so extreme as the `outback`, where so called `bushwhackers` live. On the other hand, even aussies can not tell you where outback begins exactly, but you maybe feel the difference between these two words. However we also have not been in the outback yet, but we are planning to do so later this year before we leave…

Going further on the map, I have learned many more expressions related to the states and their people. If you come from tropical Queensland, you are a `Banana bender`, or a `Cane Toad`. Its state capital -Brisbane- is called `Brizzie` or `Brisvegas`, showing how famous it is for its night life, local bars, casinos, etc. If you live in the far north, you come from the `Top End`, and the middle of the country is called `Centralia`. If you come from South Australia, you are a `Croweater`, whereas those coming from Victoria are so called `Gums..kers`. Tasmania is shortened as `Tassie` very often, and its inhabitants are the `Apple eaters`, while New-Zealanders are `Kiwi`-s, or `Sheepsh..ger`-s. According to this site, people living in NSW are `cockroaches`, but I can not understand why, because as far as I know, people in all parts of Australia are suffering from these animals. However, after several tough months, at least we managed to make a clear sweep of them. In addition, if we talk about geography, let me tell you, that Manchester is not a town here, but means bed linen, quilt, etc., just like `Matilda` is also meaning the `swagman’s bedding or sleeping roll`. A swagman, or tussocker is an old expression for temporary workers who travelled from farm to farm while carrying a “swag”.

There are also some nice or less nice expressions in slang lingo for foreigners, of course. Englishmen are `Poms` or `pommies`, meanwhile Americans are called as `yanks`, `Seppo` or `Septic Tanks`. Less PC words for Lebanese origin people is `Leb` or the `wog` for Mediterranean originated people usually with darker skin types, but this word is a kind of insult for them. However, wog means influenza, as well. Further more, `Westie` is used for those people, living in the western parts of Sydney and are mostly associated to people from lower social or economical background. Aussies have a slang word for refugees as well: like `reffo`.

But lets continue with some happier and more common words… Very typical and commonly used is `Barbie` instead of BBQ or grill; or `veggie` as vegetable; and those shortened `cute` words ending with `ie` or `y`. In this way, underwear is just called `undie`, and a kangaroo is `skippy`. A bottle of beer (375 ml) is a `stubby`, but the canned beer is `tinny`, while the cold beer is `coldie` among friends. Not to mention, that the famous aussie souvenir thing is called `stubby holder`. The chewing gum is just `chewie`, breakfast is `brekkie`, and both the cockroach and the cockatoo are called `cockie`. People who do not go to work because of sickness, are `sickie`, but they `chuck a sickie` if they are actually healty. Sunglasses are only `sunnies` in Australia, as mosquitoes are `mozzies`, a surfer is `waxxy` or `waxhead`, maybe because they are using wax to wipe their board. If you have a good `pozzy` in the stadium, you can see the aussie football called `footy`, and you can shout ` Av-a-go-yer-mug`!!!  to your favorite team…Children use to go to `kindie` (kindergarten); Christmas time is only `Chrissie`; a gift is a `prezzy`, and expensive is `exy`. Lipstick is called `lippy`, like sweets are `lollies`, and your cup of tea is also a `cuppa` for Oz-s, just like for the `Poms`.

There are more interesting slang expressions, maybe more interesting than the ones mentioned here. Would you like me to continue? Than make a comment))))

www.aussieslang.com

www.koalanet.com.au

www.australiatravelsearch.com.au

www.australianhistory.org

www.dunway.com

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First of all, the Easter Vigil yesterday was incredibly looong, I can not believe it! It took three hours, the reason why it was this long was because the mass included the confirmation and baptism of new candidates. I think it might have been better if these two feasts (Easter, and these sacraments) are held separately. You had to see those unconcentrated and bored faces yesterday all over the church (St. Mary Cathedral) at the end of the mass, and compare the number of people at the beginning and at the end of the vigil. I am really sorry to tell you this, but it was much too long.

But during the day we had both nice and unfortunate things happening as well. This time we planned to make a trip from Manly and go a few beaches north. We passed at least three beaches and several long rocky cliffs.

At Manly we could not swim, neither go into the sea -as we planned originally-, because for some reason it was full with kelp, sometimes the kelp-hills were almost one meter high! All along the sandy beach and inside the water it was dirty, so no one could swim. Further more it had an `interesting` smell, a bit disgusting. According to the news it will stay there for a while, because it fertilizes the sand and water, in addition there is more kelp coming out of the water in the next few days.

So we went further till Curl Curl Beach, were there also was a certain amount of kelp, but it did not seem as much as on Manly. But the boys (my dear husband and my cousin) soon realized, that it still was impossible to swim in the water or move in the waves, because these plants get stuck to you everywhere. It is a bit annoying to go under water and come back with your head full of weed.  Then we realized, that further north of the long beach there seemed to be no kelp on the sand, we thought there also would not be kelp in the water. Fortunately that was indeed the case! The sea was really clear there but unfortunately there were no waves either …

Just before we wanted to leave, we wanted to see one lookout -very close to the beach -, and this was not the best idea: because of this we just missed the bus…When you are in a hurry to go somewhere on a holiday evening without having checked the timetables at home, it is not the best idea to discover the beautiful remote places around you. No worries, we were waiting for the bus, and waiting and waiting, less and less patiently. There was a certain point when we had to decide to go and not to wait for a bus in a bus-stop where there was not even a timetable…Okay, this was a good decision, because after a few hundreds meter we realized that we were in a wrong bus stop, but while we were going further and further, we just missed two busses again…You maybe know this feeling that everything goes wrong. One day after this has happened, we can easily laugh about it, but at that moment it was a bit frustrating.

At the end we had to make our way all along the beaches back to Manly, because once we reached a bus stop where the timetable was not missing, we found out that we had missed all the busses and the following one would come maybe only after an hour. Okay, we are young, we can do that! So we started walking further. But at the north of Manly beach we felt tired again. We found another bus stop with other bus services, and we thought, the timetable was in our favour this time:  according to it, two busses had to come within five minutes. So what would you do?  Would you try to go further and walk the last one and a half km in ten-twelve minutes to the ferry -which you do not know the timetable of either-, or would you  wait for the bus? It is a difficult choice, think about it.

We stayed there waiting, and waiting and waiting, of course the bus did no come. One thing we learned is that you should not trust the Sydney busses timetable.  It gives a rough indication of when the bus is not driving.

As a result of all this, we missed the boat of coarse as well.

But at the end, fortunately we did not miss the vigil`s beginning in St. Mary`s Cathedral, which is so beautiful, it is hard to describe. It begins at 8 pm, when it is dark outside, and if the lights go out inside the church as well, it is unbelievable, it is really nice. After a few minutes the priests and the choir is coming inside the church from the back, meanwhile the light is going on continuously, as people give the light to each other from candle to candle.  That is so nice here in Sydney, I liked it last year very much as well, so I would have felt really bad to miss it.

And the vigil continued nicely as well. The problem started for a lot of people, when after an hour the ceremony of baptism and confirmation began. I think the Easter vigil is a long ceremony itself, and people came here to celebrate Easter. But putting both ceremonies together makes it less special, when people are getting more and more tired, especially the elderly and children. In my memories it was a really special moment and mass, when we had our confirmation. The mass was only about that, the speech had a message only for us, etc. I really felt sorry for these new candidates, especially because they do this as adults.

Anyway, I liked the end of the mass very much as well. The Alleluia sounded beautiful and cheerful as the singing choir was passing us, this church has a great acoustic.

It was amazing how strong my nephew was as he was standing all along the mass, although he did not need to do this because of the high number of leaving people during the mass…

By the way, I always have to laugh when I think about those Easter Vigils in Hungary. I am really interested in what my mother will tell me about the ceremony this year. How many in my family will faint during the mass…To tell you the truth, the situation is very different in Hungary. The churches are 200 percent full this time, there is no air, no place, it is like a silent rock concert, at least in the way how many people can share one square meter…The spring is starting, people are still pale from the winter, need more vitamin, and young people do not use to eat healthy, but this is maybe the case worldwide. So in this condition there is always somebody who faints. It is not funny at that moment, just afterwards if you look back and start to count your `fainting` experiences.

In addition, Hungarian catholic churches use to organise a kind of procession around the church, which is part of the mass.  That is a nice experience and I like to do it for several reasons. Apart from that it is a spiritual thing, it is a good time to socialize as well. You meet people from the past, you meet your family members, you hear some stories or have some big hugs with your aunties, etc. It is funny to see how non-catholic people in the busy bus stops or on the bus looking at you with those staring eyes; how people try to take a cutoff  during the round-route, and there are always some accidents with the loudspeakers, etc. Then you hurry home and eat the Easter supper - cold hard eggs, sometimes with green yolk, nice cakes, and other typical Hungarian cuisine. I love Easter!!

And then I have more interesting stories, like `how many rabbits were alive after Easter times` or how Easter Monday is happening in Hungary, but this blog is not about my country, it is about this country. However I really want to tell you about it sometime in the future.

Any way, we wish you happy Easter!!!

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