"Oz" she spoke - Part 1

I've been in Australia for 3 weeks now, and I figured it was time to post of list of different words and sayings that are common here:

Sayings:

Ta - Thank you
How you going? - How are you?

People:

Chalkies - Teachers
Chippies - Carpenters
Cockies - Farmers
Sparkies - Electricians
Bikies - Bikers
Oldies - Old People
Life Saver - Life Guard

Things:

Torch - Flashlight
Sunnies - Sunglasses
Bathers - Swim Suit
Jumper - Sweater
Chooks - Chickens
Boot - Trunck
Bonnet - Hood
Reticulation - Sprinker System
Tafe - College
Uni - University
Mate - Friend
Que - Line up

Places:

Bottleshop - Liquor Store
Chemist - Drugstore

Margeret River

This weekend, I went down South to tour some of the Wineries in Margeret River with my Dad, Penny and Paula. We had a great time. We stayed in a fabulous Beach house at Margeret's Beach Resort which was 5 minutes away from the ocean. Have a looks at some of the pictures from our trip.

The Wineries we went too:

Driftwood Estate: www.driftwood.aussie.com.au
Lamont Winery and Restaurent: www.lamonts.com.au
Xanadu Wines: www.xanaduwines.com.au
Voyager Estate: www.voyagerestate.com.au

And we went to the Chocolate Factory

The Margaret River Chocolate Factory: www.chocolatefactory.com.au

Voyager Estate

View from the Rose Garden

The Vines

The rose garden and the vineyard

The grapes are slowly ripening

The grapes.

The pink roses

The yellow roses.

Penny and Paula

Penny and Dad

In front of the fountain

Xanadu - Paula's favourite Winery

Paula and I at Xanadu

The Fountain

The Beach near the Margeret River, Rivermouth

The surfer's beach

Surf's Up!

Not sure I want to swim here.

Dad and Paula

The waterlily in the fountain

The Sunset at Margeret's Beach Resort

The Sunset

Me and my Dad

My Stepmother Penny and my Dad

The Indian Ocean

View of the Ocean

Treacherous looking, eh?

Cowaramup Reef and Beach

Cowaramup Reef

The view

Make's you want to go swimming, doesn't it?

Paula on the rocks.

Standing on the beach

Yallinup Reef and Beach

Yallinup Reef

The reef

My Stepmother Penny and my Stepsister Paula.

The waves and the rocks

On top of the world...

Nice Beach, eh?

Myself and Paula

Driftwood Estate

Paula and I

The Vines

The first Winery of the Day

Paula and I.

The grapevines

Celebrating Nana Pearce's Birthday

The Blended Family.

Nana Pearce celebrating her birthday.

Myself and Paula

Me with my Stepsisters - Donna and Paula

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day! This morning I went to the beach and swam in the ocean. I also got a sunburn. I forgot to put my sunscreen on in the morning. Now I am paying for it. Then I went to see some Cricket in the afternoon. My stepsister's (Paula and Donna) have a tradition of going to see their male friends play Cricket on Australia Day. And thanks to a good explanation from Gardiner, I actually understand how the game is played. It's not something that I be watching when I go back to Canada, but when in Rome, you do as the Roman's do. I spent the evening with Donna and a couple of her friends back at her house. It was nice sitting out on her back deck and enjoying good company and some awesome weather.

Is the tractor big enough? This is one of the smaller tractor's they have on the farm.

Can you see the salt lake in the background? Ask me about Australia's salination problem if you are interested when I get back.

Another wheat feild.

Here are sheep on a farm in the wheat belt. The owner have a small farm - only 20,000 acres.

Wind Farm in Albany, on the coast of the Southern Ocean.

The Wind Farm in Albany. Harnessing Wind Power.

Here's a Wind Turbine up close. It is 65 m high and the sweep of the blades is 70 m. Pretty cool, eh?

Sitting in front of the Wind Turbines.