favorite word here, maybe

Darling.

People use it all the time.
My coffee lady, Lydia, says it to me everytime I see her.
Micheal says it to his girlfriend, Judy, every time she's over.

And it has no southern twang I would've associated with it previously (think the song about Clemetine).

And it's not in a stuffy British way, either. Just simple and sweet. Like amigo for gringos ;)

coffee slang

I'm still foggy on some of their coffee terms here. I have no idea what a long black or a flat white is. No clue. I just order a latte or vanilla latte and I'm golden. The fancy places usually don't have flavour syrups and give you a funny look if you ask if they have vanilla syrup. You can also request they add the sugars into your coffee for you.

And they have some pretty rad desserts to go with their caffenated beverages. Today I indulged and had a caramel slice. This decadent treat has a biscuit/cookie/graham like base (with plenty of butter I'm sure), a caramel center layer (hardness or softness of the caramel depends on the bakery/cafe), and a hard chocolate top. Heaven!

On the other hand, talking to Grandma Mary today, she reminded me of the irony that her husband and my grandpa's older brother were always worried about their baby brother, Uncle Lou, who has lived with diabetes for 90+ years. They didn't think he would get to see his daughters grow up...but he's outlived everyone! So...maybe I should try to cut down on the sugar since low glucose intake may have something to do with the key to staying healthy when you're old...but I just have SUCH a sweet tooth!

And on another random tangent...one of Uncle Lou's daughters lives here in Melbourne. With her lesbian partner. Except no one in our family has acknowledged the orientation bit. Which is fine. Just interesting. What's even stranger is over Christmas, Aunt Kathy was in town from Australia, and we were both at St. Therese at the same time, visiting Uncle Lou (who had broken his foot and was in there recovering)...yet, we did not get introduced. Weird. I will DEFINITELY be going to Melbourne...but whether I actually meet my longlost aunt that I've never met before...that's not something I would put money on at this point ;)

Okay...it's very late and I should go to bed! Totally stuck in a night owl sleeping pattern recently...

Cheers!

two other random observances...

1) a term with negative connotations is 'pudding' as in, he's a pudding. no back bone. old fashioned way of saying douche, perhaps? (Nichoel, you are not a pudding either! Just looked at your blog so I could become a 'follower' [which almost has religious connotations, BTW])

2) you can find people walking around in bare feet all the time. in both summer and fall. and not just homeless people (though, have seen a few shoeless guys wandering around)...think it's part of the surf/beach culture...maybe. or just another way aussie guys are cowboys...like, yeah, screw it, we don't need no stinkin shoes!

and a third...they throw shoes over power lines here, too. there's some on a perpendicular street to mine, about a block down. pretty sure it's not a sign for gangs. might be a sign for drugs? though, still could never get a straight answer on what it meant in Chicago, either.

oh, and speaking of drugs, for the first time I overheard someone being offered drugs. wasn't to me...but for the first time, I went to the sketchier train station near Uni (with 3 other people, safety in numbers!)...Redfern. The guy offered another guy acid and weed I think...seemed like an odd association of product options.

no worries! still drug-free ;)

pronunciation subtlties...

the letter h is called heche.
they pronounce the h in words like 'herb'.

the letter z is called zed.

anytime there's a u following an s, (is that a s or an s? am i making an ass out of myself?! ;) it takes on a 'sh' sound...so for all of these words:

resume, assume, consume

it sounds like:
reshume, asshume, conshume

it makes me giggle.