An email from a colleague
(A member of a mailing list scrambled my name and that
of
Ian Drysdale, resulting in a post on the list to 'Russell
Drysdale'. After an exchange or two, this one turned up.)
Actually Russell - I am related to him - couldn't help it really - my
father married another Drysdale!
(I am related to Russell thru my mother's side of the family.)
Love the address (dropbears) - we had a whole bus-load of
Swedish backpackers too scared to walk under any tree once. Very funny
but probably not very hospitable - still - they saw the funny side of it
after a couple of days.
Of course they didn't take a lot of convincing because they were already
cautious of snakes, sharks, funnelwebs, redbacks and scorpions - to add
one more to the list wasn't hard.
I've found the Swedes to have a very dry sense of humour - some find
them humourless. They don't quite understand our joy in 'pulling the wool
over the eyes' - but they did find it funny eventually.
I'm told even by New Zealanders that the Australian habit of the 'insult'
as a form of affection is confusing at first. An American exchange
student we had at school was horrified by us referring to each other as
'bastards' - she said Yanks are deeply offended by it.
Cheers, IAN |
