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Shrimps On The Barbie

Shrimps On The Barbie

Old Apr 30th 2023, 4:48 am
  #226  
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Default re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Rainydaze
It seems that it’s less a case of shrimps on the Barbie than of yabbies lurking in a dam. We can’t see them, but we know they’re there.
Nice point, Rainy! This thread began as a simple question, at a time when the Barbie forum was deficient in both creatures. It actually flourished, then, until I unwittingly fell afoul of one of BE's rules - see above somewhere. Even defunct, the thread has attracted a goodly number of visitors (yabbies). The weekly and monthly head-counts have been roughly the same as my two other BE threads - "Back in the Day" in The Rest of the World forum and "Life's Turning Points" in Canada's Maple Leaf forum. But it probably won't last; even the yabbies will lose interest. Ah well, I gave it The Old College Try! I'll see you on one of the other threads. Cheers.
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Old May 2nd 2023, 2:23 pm
  #227  
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Default re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Gordon Barlow
As a former Australian, I check in on this section from time to time, but there's never much action, is there? Not many visits, even. Why is that? The Canadian equivalent (The Maple Leaf) is much more active, and I wonder why. British expats in Canada aren't inherently more interesting than their counterparts in Oz, so what is it? The same monitors service both sectors (presumably), so that can't be a factor.

I'm not really going anywhere with my questions. I don't intend to get involved. But in a long life I have been involved with a variety of forums, persuading people to at least follow topics and threads, so I know how it's done. Ah well... I'll come back in a couple of weeks just to see if there's been any change. I hope there is, for the better, because that's supposed to be what BE is all about - right?
Maybe the percentage of complete wankers is less in the Canadian forum? I always feel like I've walked on a secretive chat by people who still use the word darkies and wish Tony Abbott had been a bit more right wing.

Tata.
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Old May 19th 2023, 7:31 pm
  #228  
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Default re: Shrimps On The Barbie

This thread is still attracting quite a lot of visitors (1000 since my last posting), despite its retirement from its original purpose. That seems to indicate an interest in the BE community, in posts from or about Australia. They're not all "complete wankers", Hutch! It would be a shame to allow the Barbie section to go back to the desert it used to be! So I wonder if the monitors would allow a change of name for the thread, to "Shrimps on The Barbie"?

The original and current name was a question, and the question has been answered. The new name would be appropriate - a link for those who contributed the almost 24,000 visits, and an attraction for others. Not a new thread, just a new name for the existing thread.

Would our masters support that suggestion, in order to help keep the Australian section active?
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Old May 19th 2023, 8:38 pm
  #229  
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Default re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Gordon Barlow
This thread is still attracting quite a lot of visitors (1000 since my last posting), despite its retirement from its original purpose. That seems to indicate an interest in the BE community, in posts from or about Australia. They're not all "complete wankers", Hutch! It would be a shame to allow the Barbie section to go back to the desert it used to be! So I wonder if the monitors would allow a change of name for the thread, to "Shrimps on The Barbie"?

The original and current name was a question, and the question has been answered. The new name would be appropriate - a link for those who contributed the almost 24,000 visits, and an attraction for others. Not a new thread, just a new name for the existing thread.

Would our masters support that suggestion, in order to help keep the Australian section active?
Apart from not thinking that it would make the slightest bit of difference to the state of the forum, I have to say in my 20 years of purgatory I never met anyone who talked about shrimps on the barbie. Lots of prawns but never shrimps
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Old May 19th 2023, 9:49 pm
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Default re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Pollyana
Apart from not thinking that it would make the slightest bit of difference to the state of the forum, I have to say in my 20 years of purgatory I never met anyone who talked about shrimps on the barbie. Lots of prawns but never shrimps
I've always thought it was a Sydney affectation, but I don't know. I probably picked it up from a post here on BE. In Queensland, in my day, nobody ate shrimps. Far too lah-de-dah. We ate yabbies or prawns - as in "don't come the raw prawn, mate!" And we never barbecued them, either. What we barbecued were saveloys, or other varieties of sausage.
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Old May 20th 2023, 11:50 am
  #231  
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Default Re: Why so few shrimps on The Barbie?

Originally Posted by Gordon Barlow
This thread is still attracting quite a lot of visitors (1000 since my last posting), despite its retirement from its original purpose. That seems to indicate an interest in the BE community, in posts from or about Australia. They're not all "complete wankers", Hutch! It would be a shame to allow the Barbie section to go back to the desert it used to be! So I wonder if the monitors would allow a change of name for the thread, to "Shrimps on The Barbie"?

The original and current name was a question, and the question has been answered. The new name would be appropriate - a link for those who contributed the almost 24,000 visits, and an attraction for others. Not a new thread, just a new name for the existing thread.

Would our masters support that suggestion, in order to help keep the Australian section active?

Seems like a reasonable request. Done.

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Old May 20th 2023, 12:08 pm
  #232  
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Gordon Barlow
I've always thought it was a Sydney affectation, but I don't know. I probably picked it up from a post here on BE. In Queensland, in my day, nobody ate shrimps. Far too lah-de-dah. We ate yabbies or prawns - as in "don't come the raw prawn, mate!" And we never barbecued them, either. What we barbecued were saveloys, or other varieties of sausage.
So if its a "Sydney affectation" and is 'lah-de-dah" why is the forum being renamed in honour of it? The original idea of calling it the Barbie was because barbeques were considered very inclusive (ie just the opposite).

Not that it matters much to me as I can't see me using this forum much longer anyway.
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Old May 20th 2023, 2:23 pm
  #233  
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Default Re: Why so few shrimps on The Barbie?

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
Seems like a reasonable request. Done.
Thanks very much!
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Old May 20th 2023, 2:57 pm
  #234  
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Pollyana
So if its a "Sydney affectation" and is 'lah-de-dah" why is the forum being renamed in honour of it? The original idea of calling it the Barbie was because barbeques were considered very inclusive (ie just the opposite).

Not that it matters much to me as I can't see me using this forum much longer anyway.
It's only the thread that's been renamed, not the forum.

Gordon, if you want mods to take action on something please do hit the 'report' button - otherwise the chances are we won't see your requests (unless some other kind soul alerts us to it). Thanks.
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Old May 21st 2023, 4:36 am
  #235  
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Pollyana
So if its a "Sydney affectation" and is 'lah-de-dah" why is the forum being renamed in honour of it? The original idea of calling it the Barbie was because barbeques were considered very inclusive (ie just the opposite).

Not that it matters much to me as I can't see me using this forum much longer anyway.
I just want to reiterate my sincere gratitude for all your advice and support during my spouse visa saga aeons ago. You won’t remember it because I’m sure you were providing the same advice to many others ad nauseum, and tbh I can’t remember it either lol. But I do remember feeling supported and encouraged and I remember that BE kept me on track in a spaghetti junction of bureaucracy.

I will be sorry to see you go because I can see that you are still guiding posters as one of the better angels of this community. So a hundred thousand thanks again and good luck to you pollyanna x
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Old May 21st 2023, 4:38 am
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Gordon Barlow
Nice point, Rainy! This thread began as a simple question, at a time when the Barbie forum was deficient in both creatures. It actually flourished, then, until I unwittingly fell afoul of one of BE's rules - see above somewhere. Even defunct, the thread has attracted a goodly number of visitors (yabbies). The weekly and monthly head-counts have been roughly the same as my two other BE threads - "Back in the Day" in The Rest of the World forum and "Life's Turning Points" in Canada's Maple Leaf forum. But it probably won't last; even the yabbies will lose interest. Ah well, I gave it The Old College Try! I'll see you on one of the other threads. Cheers.
Thanks Gordon Barlow I’m sure you will. Yabbies are easily enticed!
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Old May 22nd 2023, 10:14 am
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

Originally Posted by Rainydaze
I just want to reiterate my sincere gratitude for all your advice and support during my spouse visa saga aeons ago. You won’t remember it because I’m sure you were providing the same advice to many others ad nauseum, and tbh I can’t remember it either lol. But I do remember feeling supported and encouraged and I remember that BE kept me on track in a spaghetti junction of bureaucracy.

I will be sorry to see you go because I can see that you are still guiding posters as one of the better angels of this community. So a hundred thousand thanks again and good luck to you pollyanna x
Ditto x
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Old May 25th 2023, 1:45 am
  #238  
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

I'm surprised no immigrant hanging around the Barbie has brought up the topic of the classic introductory book "Let Stalk Strine", published sixty years ago by the famous author Afferbeck Lauder. How can any immigrant hope to understand the local lingo without its assistance?

"Strine" is the native word for "Australian", and Professor Lauder's name the phonetic rendition of - well, you can probably guess. In fact, you'll have to guess, because it's your weekend homework.

Linda and I learned to speak standard English during our years overseas - so well that we managed to remember only a few of the more imaginative Strine words. Our favourite was "bim-bye" (hyphen optional), which was for us any stinging creature. "Be careful! There's a bimbye inside the egg nishner!" Ants, snakes, spiders, mosquitoes... all of them were creatures we avoided being ... - wait for it! - "bitten by" in standard English. I hope I don't need to explain what an egg nishner is.
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Old May 29th 2023, 3:29 am
  #239  
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

It's my brother's birthday next month... time for our twice-yearly exchange of emails... We're not a close family, we three boys. The youngest of us spent some years in Malaysia, and married an Indian-born Malaysian there; but they came back to Oz to retire, leaving her adult daughter to do her thing in her home country. His three Australian children have never left Australia. The birthday brother has never left, either. His son called into Cayman for a few days some years ago, and stayed with us, but that side of the family are all living in Oz now.

I'm the only one who has abandoned the home country. Linda and I didn't turn our backs on it at all; we just liked where we were living and working from time to time - Canada, Bahamas, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), England, and Cayman. Having Norwegian grandchildren kept us over on this side of the world, of course. Talking on the phone to my oldest grandchild today, I found that she has no particular desire to visit Down Under. So we (I) don't need to keep a place around the barbie for her, at least! My son has lived in Norway on and off for the past twenty years, and he plans to move to Ecuador later this year. I wonder what his English, Scottish and Irish ancestors would think of such shenanigans.
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Old Jun 3rd 2023, 3:11 am
  #240  
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Default Re: Shrimps On The Barbie

They call it "virtue signalling" over in my part of the world (North America): it's showing-off that you know the latest rules of conversation and propriety. A lawyer friend of mine was chastised the other day for saying that a judge had "gone off the reservation" in making some courtroom comment that she should not have done. The chastisement came from a Canadian present, who complained that my friend's comment was "a bit racist"! Because many North American Indians live in their own communities on what are called reservations. He and I agreed that it was a foolish stretch to call his comment "racist" - and that the Canadian had been virtue-signalling.

Since we're all standing around our imaginary barbecue with no particular agenda, and since I haven't lived in Australia since 1971, I would like to know when it became "racist" to abbreviate the term "aboriginal" in Australia, and why. When I left, the abbreviation was both normal and common. It was in no way disparaging, and it seems to me that it is "virtue-signalling" to label it racist today. And, why? Did one or two or some or all of the aboriginal groups object, or was it some white man's sensitivity?

With the rediscovery of small groups of pygmies living in Australia (perhaps akin to the pygmies of Flores Island in Indonesia), it is being suggested by some professional historians that they might have been the first settlers in Australia. Perhaps, too, the earliest of them might have been killed off by the later immigrants whom we call the aboriginals. If that proves to be the case... well, what a conundrum! Would it suddenly be kosher to revive the abbreviation? Or should we somehow re-define the term "aboriginal"?

(I don't want to open a special thread for this topic. raising it around the barbie is fair enough, I think.)
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