Aussie Humour

I was sitting with Dale (my partner) just tonight watching The Best Of The Paul Hogan Show. For those who wouldn't know Paul Hogan aside from Crocodile Dundee, he started off as a scaffolder and painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge until someone decided he could have his own telly show to make a few bucks.

And that he did. His sense of humour and Aussie larrikanism put his name into Australian comedy history, probably moreso than many others. Okay, maybe not Graham Kennedy or those of that ilk but certainly one of his own.

At the end of the show, Dale suddenly said, "They don't make humour like that anymore". And it was so true. Why it was so funny we have no idea, but I couldn't help laughing at the Cooking with Hoges segment on how to make a nostalgia sandwich. Firstly, it involved getting the loaf of bread and grabbing the middle two slices, since the top slices might be poisonous or be stale, probably the former. Then you got your butter and slabbed it on, but don't wipe the excess butter back into the butter tub, do it on the Vegemite jar. But then when you get the Vegemite out of the jar to slab onto your bread, don't use the bit around the top of the jar because it has butter on it, which is bad for you and poisonous. Then take a bite of your finished product and wash it down with a mouthful of milk from the bottle. If you do it properly, crumbs will have gone back into the bottle. And so it went on.

And tonight for instance, A Current Affair mentioned Dennis De Nuto from The Castle (but they didn't mention The Castle, only his name) stating his signature line from the film, "Its the vibe". As mentioned in a previous blog, that was made 16 years ago. Hoges' show was in the 70's. I highly doubt there are many shows that a) are still relevant today as those two and b) carry that quick witted humour and Aussieness that defines us from the rest of us.

There have been so many American shows come out that are honestly quite crap by comparison and nothing like our Aussie humour. Look at Kath and Kim. It worked here in Australia but not overseas. Why? Because it was written for Australians. My Name Is Earl was probably the closest thing to equate it in the US since they wrote it for Americans. We get Aussie humour, no one else does, except maybe the Poms.

I know I have been a bit of an advocate of Aussieness of late but that is because I am honestly fearing our loss of culture. I read Tobruk recently and loved every bit of it. The ruggedness of the Aussie diggers, the humour in which they seemed to bring forth in any situation, the lack of authority that they showed but ultimately the toughness that defined them from the Brits and the Italians, not to mention outwitting the best Army of the time, being the Germans. How's that, a bunch of Aussie battlers being the thorn in Rommell's side. And they so were, to the point of sticking it up them but being good sports about it all. Even when they were caught or took prisoners, they did so with honour for the enemy and respect. With all due respect to the Germans, so did they.

But what made Tobruk a success? From what I could see from Peter Fitzsimons' book, it was the tenacity of the Aussies, the ability to make do with what they had and the laughter and humour that they could show in the most harshest conditions.

Our Aussie spirit is one that is defined so clearly from others and yet is threatened to be wiped out in a world of PCness and greed. What happened to helping the man next to us? You just don't see it that much these days.

This kind of went a bit sideways but hey, it is all relevant. I guess getting back to the topic at hand, we have our own sense of humour and our own culture, despite it being "new" as everyone keeps saying. We are a strong nation and a very rich one. We are the lucky country for a reason and one that is loved by so many. I only hope that it stays the way it is.

Life

Why is it that I am writing a blog on life itself? Because it throws sooooo many questions up in regards to it.

For instance, I gave up a job that was paying $100k including super to end up with no job and nothing for the immediate future. And you know what? That doesn't bother me.

That is not to say that I will become one of those dole bludgers that I absolutely hate because they eat up my taxpaying dollars, but instead, this is something that I have never done before, and a risk that I am glad that I have taken.

Now I can find the time to do all the things I wished I had the time for. How my friend Kat has the time to do things, I'm not sure. Cos I know that me, when I was working full time, either when I was in town I often had to stay back and finish work or start early, often being stuffed at the end of the day, or when I was working remote, in my R&R I didn't find I really had time to be able to do the things I wanted to do in my time off because 1, I couldn't just journey somewhere because of Dale and 2, I didn't know if I would have the energy anyway. We were able to do some things, but not really go exploring like I could do.

But ultimately, I am happy not grinding the wheels inside my head for a big corporate company that doesn't give a crap about my livelihood. I have come to realise that these big companies, whilst always knowing that they have no interest in their workers, I didn't realise just how stupid some of their ideas are until recently. And I have a very, very good understanding now why most supervisors can't stand engineers.

Well, the gloss of being an engineer wore off pretty much as soon as I first started working as one. There was no hands on work like promised, they said that there would be but I soon realised that once upon a time there might have been but all engineers are now are glorified data entry clerks, and given enough time, will not know anything more than one about engineering, due to a lack of being on site.

I know I could have been a fantastic engineer had I been one 30 years ago as opposed to now. Getting my hands dirty was really, the biggest thing that drove me to work in construction.

But I soon came to understand that I will never get to have that hands on experience that they say I will. Because unfortunately, that's what engineering consists of nowadays. So am I sad to leave the engineering world?

No. Because I will soon return to it, in time. You see, the risk I took in resigning from my role was one that was potentially going to take me to the army, as a surveyor. So I will be returning to engineering but in a different capacity. And a few people who have known what I want to do support my decision and say that it is actually a good choice.

But until I can prove that I filled out my medical form wrong and that I do not suffer from headaches, I will need to ensure that I have a form of income and that is where the casual job fits in.

Working casually in whatever capacity, probably retail, sounds fantastic, and no one ever thinks that working in retail is fantastic unless they have a real desire for it! But me, working maximum 30 hours a week and doing my own thing for the rest of it is sounding better and better each day. I can do volunteer work as well, something I would actually like to have a go at, for the RSPCA or the like, putting my time into something I have a lot of interest in, not something that brings me dollars. Riding for the Disabled was another venture I wondered about, once a week or whatever.

Whatever the role, I have the time now to do it. And this is something I have not had in the last 10 years or so. So I am very much looking forward to it, even if it wasn't what I was envisaging what was to happen a month ago when I put my resignation in.

Life happens when you are planning other things, or some such phrase, as William Shakespeare put it. He couldn't have put it better.