The Australianitas and 8 odd seppos.

For one night only the Americanitas and 1 odd aussie gang turned into the Australianitas and 8 odd seppos. As we had an Americanitas event for Thanksgiving, I thought it only fair to have an event for Australia Day.

The invite read, Australians all let us rejoice cause we are young and free, which taken directly from our national anthem, can easily be translated as lets have a big party and get pissed cause we don´t have a liver problem or kids yet.

We started the evening off at my place, where with all the australia themed stuff Mum has sent me over the years, everyone agreed that if I was an american I would be a redneck. There was my full sized flag and my australia flag fairy lights, my australia flag handbag, and of course I brought out the old australia flag tattoos. (Thanks Mum!) I made a big poster that had lots of australian slang words for people to learn. It was fun to hear the americans saying "He was a good root" and "Rack off hairy legs" I taught them what a seppo was, and for the spanish boyfriends I told them they were "bloody wogs". Racism Fun times.

I couldn´t think of an australian cocktail so I made caipirinhas, using both lemon and limes to make the green & gold, green & gold straws and the old australian flag on a swizzle stick. With Bernard Fanning, The Herd and Ben Lee playing in the background, I think the americans got a feel for the australia day spirit. Having it during the day, listening to the Hottest 100 on JJJ and adding a bit of cricket would have made it more authentic but with the time difference, the fact that its winter and that no-one knows what the hell cricket is, made these things quite impossible.

I also made the americans try vegemite baguettes which I decorated with some little aboriginal flags, they were quite a hit and thankfully didn´t have anyone running for the toilet for a vommie which is what Marcos predicted they would do. (He HATES vegemite, can´t even smell it. BAD boyfriend) Sarita is here with the vegemite. She particularly liked the word "clacker" from the slang list although hasn´t quite learned how to use it, asking everyone "hows your clacker?" Is there any other way to use this word other than "stick it up your clacker" ?

Marcos unfortunately couldn´t celebrate too much with us as the following morning he was running a half marathon so he was steering clear of the caipirinhas and on the orange juice, he did however put on a tattoo and kept it on for the race the next day showing his solidarity in his sleeveless running top. ZEXY QUASI AUSSIE!

After the little cocktail do at my place, we went for tapas, OK OK not very australian I know, but if I had an oven I swear I would have made meat pies, lamingtons, anzac biscuits etc but without an oven what the hell can you do? NADA!! So tapas it was, followed by a little dancing and a lovely well deserved hangover the next day.

VIVA AUSTRALIA!

Sun brings Joy

Probably thanks to global warming, Sevilla has just had a weekend of blue skied 20 degree weather in the middle of winter, aaaaay! The sun worshipper in me comes out and the feeling of the warm sun brings such joy!!! Oh the joy! Thanks to the sun I just had a fantastic weekend. It at least briefly bought back my normal positive mood as I am currently having a hellish time worrying about job/life/location, which I seem to go through every once in a while. The weekend started with drinks at a bar, where my friend Isabels paintings were being exhibited, I really like her style, check her out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/isarte/ Then we went to dinner at her house along with her boyfriend Paco. (They are both ex-workmates and like my soon to be fate were retrenched not so long ago) We had a lovely dinner, drank wine and laughed when I said the famous line in Dirty Dancing "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" which everyone thought was ridiculous. They reckon that in Spain they don´t have as many memorable one liners from movies. I personally have a whole list of favourite lines from movies, granted most of them are from Happy Gilmore - "I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast." "You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?" and Zoolander - "hansel so hot right now hansel." Paco could only think of "Abre los ojos" Said in a scary voice, which is from the original spanish version of Vanilla Sky. No-one at the table tended to agree with him. In fact even "Hasta la Vista Baby" from Terminator, being a famous one liner for us, in spanish as "Sayonara Baby" doesn´t really rate a mention.

Anyway, on Saturday Marcos and I started swimming! To use the public swimming pools in Sevilla you have to be a member, to be a member you have one chance a year to stand in a line for 4 hours to ensure membership. In our case Marcos lined up in the rain for us, but finally...we are members! Its a very coveted thing and we are so excited. We started on Saturday. For 3 Kings Marcos bought me the whole swimming getup. I have a blue swimming cossie with a pink addidas logo on the front, a pink cap and silver goggles, and god damn I look like susie fucking oneil! Unfortunately I don´t swim like her, but it was fun, and afterwards we walked home in thongs, in the lovely global warming sunshine which washed all my cares away!

Sunday was an equally lovely global warming day, Marcos, who is training for the Seville marathon, went running with our friend Miguel who is also in training, afterwards, me, marcos, maria & miguel went to a nearby village called Carmona for lunch. I have been to a few villages close to sevilla but not many, I really liked Carmona! So pretty! We had lunch in a plaza and then afterwards walked around the streets which looked something like this pic

and up to The Parador which is an old palace/fortress thing that overlooks the countryside. So pretty and a bloody nice day. SUN SUN! BRING IT!!!!!