Looking at my visitor stats most of you are not at all Aussie but I couldn’t pass up this mostly un-book related meme. It lists 101 Aussie activities and the idea is to see how many you’ve done. I pinched the meme from And the plot thickens and the entries in bold are the ones I have done.

1. Heard a kookaburra in person.
2. Slept under the stars. (the whole family used to sleep in our driveway during summer when I was a kid – no air conditioning)
   
3. Seen a koala. (even held one)
4. Visited Melbourne.
5. Watched a summer thunderstorm.
6. Worn a pair of thongs.
7. Been to Uluru (Ayers Rock)
8. Visited Cape York.
9. Held a snake (just the once)
10. Sang along with Khe San (drunk and sober)
11. Drank VB. (again, just the once, I prefer my beer not to taste like pee)
12. Visited Sydney. (used to live there)
13. Have seen a shark (only in an acquarium)
14. Have used Aussie (and NZ) slang naturally in a conversation.
15. Had an actual conversation with an indigenous Australian (Aboriginal)
16. Eaten hot chips from the bag at the beach
17. Walked/climbed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
18. Used an outside dunny, and checked under the seat before sitting down.
19. Seen Chloe in Young & Jackson’s (it’s a pub in Melbourne, been there several times but no idea who Chloe is)
20. Slept on an overnight train or bus (both, on the overnight train to Melbourne I was robbed and then locked in the train carriage with the robber, the long-haul bus trips between Sydney and Adelaide in the late 80′s when the pilot strike was on were not quite that exciting)
21. Been to Sydney’s Mardi Gras (what fun)
22. Have gone bush-bashing
23. Taken a sickie (though the official terminology is ‘chucked a sickie’)
24. Been to see a game of Aussie Rules football. (sadly)
25. Have seen wild camels (Northern Territory is full of ‘em)
26. Gone skinny dipping. (not for a long time though, the world doesn’t need that these days)
27. Done a Tim Tam Slam.
28. Ridden in a tram in Melbourne.
29. Been at an ANZAC day Dawn Service.
30. Held a wombat.
31. Been on a roadtrip of 800km or more (heck there are days I’ve done 800kms before lunch)
32. Seen the Great Australian Bight in person. (well not all of it but a good chunk of it, have even swum in it and been on a boat on it)
33. Had a really bad sunburn.
34. Visited an Aboriginal community.
35. Seen a redback spider (including one that ran across my childhood friend Glenn’s leg and disappeared inside his shorts – never seen fear quite like it on a person’s face)
36. Have watched Paul Hogan.
37. Seen Blue Poles in person.
38. Wandered barefoot in the bush/outback.
39. Eaten Vegemite.
40. Thrown a boomerang (but my boomerang didn’t come back)
41. Seen the Kimberleys.
42. Given a hitch-hiker a lift. (I used to drive regularly between Sydney and Adelaide – 1400kms of pure boredom including the longest stretch of straight road in the world – it was either pick up hitch-hikers or poke my own eyes out with a pencil to keep awake)
43. Been to Perth.
44. Have tried Lemon, Lime and Bitters.
45. Tried playing a didgeridoo.
46. Seen dinosaur footprints.
47. Eaten Tim Tams.
48. Been to Darwin.
49. Touched a kangaroo.
50. Visted the Great Barrier Reef.
51. Listened to Kevin Bloody Wilson. (more’s the pity)
52. Killed a Cane Toad.
53. Gone to a drive-in theatre.
54. Have read and own books by Australian authors (see I knew I could relate this to books, here are my reviews of Aussie authors)
55. Visited Adelaide. (I live there)
56. Know the story behind “Eternity” (if it’s the one about the homeless drunk who sobered up and started doing graffiti)
57. Been camping.
58. Visited Brisbane.
59. Been in an outback pub.
60. Know what the term “Waltzing Matilda” actually means.
61. Gone whale watching.
62. Listened to Slim Dusty. (even saw the man walking down the street in Tamworth when dragged there by a country music loving friend)
63. Own five or more Australian movies or TV series.
64. Sang along to Down Under.
65. Have stopped specifically to look at an historic marker by the side of the road.
66. Eaten a 4′n’20 pie.
67. Surfed at Bondi. (I do not surf though have been to Bondi)
68. Watched the cricket on Boxing Day.
69. Visited Hobart.
    
70. Eaten kangaroo.
71. Seen a quokka.
72. Visited Canberra.
73. Visited rainforests.
74. Used a Victa lawnmower.
75. Travelled on a tram in Adelaide.
76. Used a Hills hoist (does swinging around on it hanging by one leg actually count as ‘used’?)
77. Visited Kata Tjuta
78. Used native Australian plants in cooking.
79. Visited the snow (not in this country)
80. Chosen a side in Holden VS Ford (the most pointless debate on earth)
81. Visited the desert.
82. Been water skiing
83. Read The Phantom.
84. Visited Parliament House
85. Gone spotlighting or pig-shooting.
86. Crossed the Nullarbor (on foot? on camel? I flew over it does that count?)
87. Avoided swimming in areas because of crocodiles.
88. Listened to AC/DC.
89. Called someone a dag.
90. Voted in a Federal Election. (I am such a dag that when I was 17 I signed up especially early on the electoral roll so that I could participate in the election that was due a few days after I turned 18)
91. Have been swimming and stayed between the flags.
92. Had a possum in your roof.
93. Visited the outback.
94. Travelled over corrugated roads.
95. Hit a kangaroo while driving (not me driving but was in the car when someone else hit one)
96. Been well outside any mobile phone coverage.
97. Seen an emu.
98. Have woken to the smell of bushfires.
99. Subscribed to RRR (no, but have done to the Adelaide equivalent)
100. Patted a pure-bred dingo
101. Seen the Oils live (I once was sweated on by Oils lead singer, the very lively Peter Garrett who is now the Federal Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts…and they say the world isn’t a peculiar place).

Feel free to play along and if you need any translations let me know.