I STILL call Australia Home

[Marg's Man]

More years ago than I can remember a lonely boy from Oz wrote a beautiful song about his extensive travels and what his country meant to him. Perhaps you've heard of him - Peter Allen. The song was "I Still Call Australia Home".

Jump forward a couple of years to 1990; Marg and I were returning home after a four week trip to Greece. Naturally we were flying QANTAS and over the headphones as we came into Sydney Airport they played this song. Until then I hadn't felt homesick, I knew I was going to get home, I had my family with me, nothing else important was separated from me. Suddenly I came completely unstuck - I was HOME.

Since then the song has had the power to move me to tears as I feel the same emotions that Allen was feeling when he wrote it. I felt it very appropriate when QANTAS bought the rights to the song as part of their corporate image. They have created a beautiful new campaign that turns around the song, sung by a composite Youth Choir similar to the one easy child and difficult child 2/easy child 2 sang with.

I know I am being more than a bit jingoistic but what you think of the advertisement? Go to this link and click on the "Watch TV Commercial" button. http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/i-still-call-australia-home/global/en

I want honest opinions, even if you don't like it but I think you will.

Marg's Man

 

[Fran]

marg's man, I know the feeling when you are suddenly aware that you are going back home. It doesn't always happen when we travel outside the US but every once in a while it grabs me and makes me appreciate what we have here. Life could have turned out very different if my folks didn't take a chance despite not speaking the language and very few job skills. This country has been very good to me. Opportunities came to us because we worked hard. My folks got the hard, underpaid jobs no one really wanted. They clung to those people like themselves and avoided the subtle prejudice that comes with not being a native born but it's home to me and I am always glad to get back to it. Sometimes the emotion of returning is overwhelming.

As far as the commercial, when I clicked to have it start it crashed my browser so I'll skip and just believe you that it is wonderful.

 

[ThreeShadows]

That was very moving. It made me miss my innocent love of Homeland which was very strong during my growing up years. Now I'm just a cynical woman. We have had too many wars and too little political accountability.

In what language was the first young boy singing?

 

[mstang67chic]

Marg's Man....If not for the fact that I love living here, that commercial would just about convince me to move. That was beautiful.

husband and I have a running list of places or countries we want to see before we're too old. Australia is top on the list for both of us. Maybe someday you and Marg will be able to show a couple of small town Yanks around your part of the world.

 

[Star*]

Dorthy Said it best....clicking red glittery shoes - There is NO place like home. This man 'sung' it very well. Thank you for the perspective on Aussie love of home. Mr. Roo.

Hug The Mrs. Roo for me today.

 

[DazedandConfused]

I enjoyed it.

Daughter had the opportunity of visiting Australia for three weeks when she was 11. She did the typical things: Great Barrier Reef, Sidney Opera House, Australia Zoo. She also got to visit sheep farms and went to the rural areas. She loved it and wants us all to visit there some day.

My only concern is that you guys have the most species of reptiles!

 

[mstang67chic]

Forget the reptiles (not really just sayin!).....have you SEEN the pictures of the spiders in their backyard?????? You remember don't you? The ones that Marg carries a STICK for??

 

[DazedandConfused]

Forget the reptiles (not really just sayin!).....have you SEEN the pictures of the spiders in their backyard?????? You remember don't you? The ones that Marg carries a STICK for??

I must have missed that.

Though, I had bugs as a kid and a pet tarantula, that I let crawl all over me, when I was 13. Spiders don't bother me that much. Not that I want them in my house or that I'll cozy up to a Black Widow.

But, I do know that most people are completely grossed out and terrified by spiders. It's how I feel about reptiles, especially snakes! I mean, my phobia is rabid.

One time, I had class of 5th grade students in the library and a few came SCREAMING up to me that they saw a spider. So, they show me where it was and then everyone wanted to see. I pick it up and let it crawl around on my arm.

The entire class of 25+ students, boys and girls, FREAKED OUT!

I let it go free outside.

It's just another way I'm a square peg in this big ole round world. Though, I still smile when I think about that day and those kids.

 

[mstang67chic]

Yeah well THESE spiders eat BIRDS! I want to see you let one of THOSE crawl around on you.

 

[DazedandConfused]

Just as long as they're not poisonous.

 

[GoingNorth]

Tarantulas are actually kind of fun if you can get over the "spider thing". They like to eat crickets and other bugs in that size range though some tropical species can and will eat small birds, etc.

My late husband had a pet red-legged tarantula for quite a while.

Tarantulas have thick body "hair" that is sort of like barbed fiberglass.

When threatened they will back up, raise their palps (mouth parts) and fangs, and if that doesn't work, they will start tearing out their body hair and throwing it at their assailant.

It is extremely irritating as it sticks to the eyes and mouth parts.

A lot of us have heard or used the expression "snatching myself bald" and I thinik we even have an emoticon for that feeling.

Tarantulas can do it in earnest, and in fact, if you see a tarantula with a lot of "skin" showing, you know that spider has been badly stressed.

husband put me to the "test" the first time I went out to meet him at his house. He greeted me with his 6 ft long boa constrictor around his neck and Myrtle the tarantula riding on his shoulder.

Norton the snake promptly had to extend a couple of feet to check me out (I was like, "OOOOH...how cute!), and then Myrtle came scuttling down his arm and onto my hand once I held it out.

I sure thought she was a honking big spider, but in the few years we had her she never once bit us or even chucked hair at us.

Now...centipedes and millipedes? You are talking a major skeeve factor.

And, growing up in Chicago tenements, roaches freak me out.

 

[Marguerite]

I'm not sure what language the boy was singing in, it was one of the Aboriginal languages.

As for our wildlife - we may have more species of snakes here but most of them will avoid you. Snakes feel you coming from the vibration of your feet. I've crossed paths with a few snakes in the wild in my time, and never even been threatened by one.

Spiders - only one is aggressive and tat is the Sydney Funnelweb. I've never been bitten. They are deadly and people used to die, several every year, but nobody has died since they

1) developed an antivenin and

2) learned some very simple first aid to treat the bites which totally neutralises the venom (ie bandage over the bite and do not undo the bandage; the lymphatic system will destroy the venom in situ).
I mean, that was about 1982 or therabouts, that the last death happened (a five year old boy, the spider was in the sleeve of his coat).

As for spiders in the backyard - yes, I carry a stick, but that's because I really don't like walking into a web of the Golden Orb Weaver. She is a beautiful spider and the web really does glisten gold in the sun. But the web is also very strong, the lines of it can stretch many metres and to support such a web the silk is very strong indeed. I hate trying to pick it out of may hair afterwards, especially because my irrational fear that I may have an angry female spider somewhere in my hair and I can't see her, really sends me into panic mode. Hence the stick - I wave it in front of me if I'm walking through spiderweb-likely areas so the stick knocks the web down before my face does. But mostly in autumn or late summer. It's funny you mention it - haven't seen many orb weavers lately. I can't remember when I last picked up a stick to walk through the bush.

If ever you're coming Down Under, let us know. We'll meeet you at the airport.

Marg