FOOTY GRAND FINAL

I just returned home from America, and thought the perfect way to get reacquainted with Australian Life would be to perch in front of the AFL Grand Final with my old man. Carn the Cats - Bring the flag back to Victoria!

Watching the coverage was like being thrown into the deep end of adjusting to Ocker accents. As the commentators unleashed colloquial gem after gem, i was overcome with a wave of bogan patriotism... "It's fair dinkum unbelievable!" exclaimed the commentator, when the siren sounded and Geelong had won. "Bloody great effort!" said the Norm Smith Medalist to his fellow Cats (proven not to be Pussies).

We walked up to my brother's house for a drink afterwards. In a very un-Australian move, he had missed the Footy, running errands instead and claimed, "You could've shot a cannon down Punt Road - the streets were empty!"

I grinned at the Football spirit as we walked down the road in North Carlton... Front yards strewn with blue and white streamers. Club photos blue-tacked in front windows. Doors wide open with parties spilling into their hallways. Dads playing kick-to-kick with their kids in the street. And geurnsey-wearing clusters walking to and fro with eskies in hand. [Which reminds me... How's this for some bad Cockney slang. I once heard someones Esky referred to as a Jaidyn Leskie! Ouch.. Very bad taste!]

WAIT.... This is a Food Blog, not a Sports/National Pride Blog, right?? Well... just you wait till you feast your eyes on the ripper of a meal we tucked into after half time:


VB Stubbies, Party Pies, Sausage Rolls and Tomato Sauce [Cockney: Dead Horse]

Clearly you can take the girl out of Australia, but you'll never take the bogan out of my heart.

Righty-ho, I'm off like a bucket a shrimp in the sun, xo