Originally Posted by
eightblack
[...]Anyway, back to Melbourne. The Liveable City. It is a great city. Don’t let any wayward Sydney sider tell you otherwise. If you haven’t guessed already there is a lot of rivalry between Melbourne and its northern neighbor. Some of it is tongue and cheek and some of it is more “smack you in the side of the head” sort of thing.
Here’s an example. You’d be on a conference call and you’d have the people from the Melbourne office on the phone and the people from the Sydney office on the phone. And everyone else in between. Some smart alec from Sydney would start the call as follows.
“Good morning everyone, this is Jack from Sydney, is everyone on the call?”
“Adelaide are you there?”
“Here”
“Perth?”
“Were here”
“Brisbane?”
“Here”
“Melbourne?”
“Yes Melbourne here”
“Ok people listen up. Melbourne just joined. Everyone please remember to speak more slowly so that they can understand us”
[...]
Don't know which kind of Melbourners you hobnob with (or which kind you are), Eightblack, but I recently had this singular experience!
We were at the Eielson Visitor Center, Denali NP. DD and I went on a nature walk with a park ranger. During the walk, I figured that the couple of ladies right up ahead were Aussies. To indulge in some small talk, I opened my big mouth:
Me: We were in Australia just last year - where in Aussieland are you ladies from?
Lady 1: Melbin.
Me: What?
Lady 2: Melbun.
Me: Where the heck (I used those exact words. OK, well, maybe not) in Australia is that?
Lady 1: In the south.
Me: What place ...? *see DD making a big face at me while making gestures to shut that big mouth*
I siddle over to her: Whaaaat???!!!
DD: She's saying MELBOURNE, daaaad!!
#facepalm#
I guess I'm getting old. Used to be a time where I didn't have any issues understanding cricket commentary on Radio Australia; heck, just last year, we were in Australia and I don't recall asking anyone to repeat himself/herself for any reason!!