Vehicle Report

I remember reading about Aussie slang before we got here. They call breakfast brekky. Afternoon gets shortened to arvo (I kid you not). They say ute for SUV. Or so I thought. As it turns out, ute is its own vehicle class here. A ute is an Aussie-specific cross between a pick up truck and a car (think El Camino) and you see them all over. 

A little wikipedia surfing turns up that Ford is claimed to be the first company to produce an Australian "ute". This was the result of a 1932 letter from the wife of a farmer in Victoria, Australia asking for "a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays." See more here. There's a whole culture of modified "hotted up" utes. Who knew?

I also thought some of our young male readers (that means you Sam, Liam and Mac!) might enjoy seeing what fire trucks look like here. The drivers of this one even turned their lights on for me when I took the picture. If there's a cute nickname for a fire truck I haven't heard it yet but I'll keep you posted. 

Personally, I still haven't worked up the nerve to drive here but Brian does every day. We both find the lanes much narrower than back home. On the other hand, the overall speed limits are lower. And then there's the whole thing of driving on the other side, learning the new traffic patterns, and learning your way around a new city. I'll get there in time. For now, I'm happy that we can walk around Balmain and take the bus and ferry all over.