Wednesday Sunset

Canberra’s Wednesday sunset. I didn’t take a picture until it was almost gone.

I must rant!

There’s no denying Australia is rapidly becoming Americanised.

However, even being all too aware of that, a restaurant review in The Canberra Times yesterday had me seeing red.

Everyone these days plays “sports” – only a few years ago we were playing sport. Kids now learn “math” when we all studied maths. Aeroplanes are rapidly turning into “airplanes”. People have “snuck”, but they no longer sneak. They have “specialties”, but no longer have specialities. We used to buy homeware, but now it’s always “homewares”. We no longer have a sale, but we have “sales events”.

This review, though…

Gus’ is a Canberra institution, and has been around in one form or another since my mother was in high school in the 1960s. It recently reopened in the middle of Canberra’s city centre (and yes, it’s a centre, not a “center”!).

The review, by established journalist Kirsten Lawson, spent much of its word count berating the owners for their choice of name. Lawson then added a little grammar lesson to her text, explaining why the name was ridiculous and impossible to pronounce.

She then proceeded to, unprofessionally and sarcastically, call the restaurant “Gus’s” for the rest of the review – with an extra “S”.

The problem: Lawson is applying AMERICAN grammar, and – seeing as this is AUSTRALIA – she is totally, utterly, 100% wrong.

There was a huge outcry nearly two decades ago when the first Bridget Jones’ Diary movie came out. In order to cater to Americans, they added an extra “S” to the posters: Bridget Jones’s Diary. I was living in London at the time, and the newspapers were dramatically declaring the end of the English language as we know it.

Apparently they weren’t wrong about that!

Why is it we all have to become American? Why is it we are not only losing our own vocabulary and pronunciation (deee-fence is the new defence, reee-peat is the new repeat), but now we’ve slipped into enforcing American grammar without even noticing?

Additionally, what kind of editors are they employing at Fairfax Media these days that they let this review go through?

Something tells me hundreds of thousands of Canberrans from the past several decades might not be the misguided lot here when it comes to English grammar.

Canberra Sunset

Canberra has been the hottest capital city in Australia since the weekend – and will continue to be for at least a few more days. However, we had a bit of a cloudy day today, which always means the sunset will be nice!

Canberra Summer Sunset

Canberra’s sunset this evening – yet another day of 39-degree heat. We have the same weather forecast for the next few days, too – and definitely no rain! Everything is dead in the garden, and no matter how many times I top up all the water bowls for local animals with icy water, it’s gone so fast.

Summer Evening in Canberra

Forgive the quality of the photograph. I was watering the garden at sunset, and this silly cockatoo watched me the whole time. I took the picture with a tablet (no camera or anything else nearby), one-handed, so it’s not very good. I think, though, you can tell it’s summer by the light – it’s so orange!

Heatwave for a bushfire anniversary.

A hot, sunny day in Canberra on this fifteenth anniversary of the firestorm that tore through southern and western Canberra in 2003, taking lives and destroying over 500 homes and significant national icons in one afternoon.

Wednesday Sunset in Canberra #2

Wednesday Sunset in Canberra #1

Canberra Summer Sunset

Ukrainian Christmas

The main Ukrainian Christmas celebrations are the night before, but this 40+ degree too-hot day in Canberra was Ukrainian Christmas.

The first picture shows the traditional extra table setting Ukrainians have for family members who have died.