A client gave me a ride from the training site back to my hotel. On the way, she suggested I might want to drive up the beautiful south coast and do some sticky baking. I thought that sounded delicious. I was disappointed to learn that sticky baking has nothing to do with cooking a dessert. It means to poke around and explore.
At my next seminar I shared how charmed I was by my new Aussie word. That’s when I was taught that it’s not sticky baking, it’s sticky beaking. Now I can imagine a long beaked bird poking around in the sand the way a tourist might amble through a new town.
In order to connect with my Aussie audience, I show a photo of me at the zoo appreciating Australian wildlife. “This was my first experience cuddling a wallaby,” I told them. “That’s a wombat!” came a voice from the back. The group got a giggle out of that: she can’t tell the difference between a wombat and a wallaby!
The next phrase I enjoy is how Aussies describe a situation that has fallen apart:
“Oh, the whole thing’s gone pear shaped.”
I find pears a bit grainy myself but they certainly don’t offend me enough to give them such a bad name. And so with a sigh of resignation, I must acknowledge that all nationalities have their prejudices.
The poor, maligned pear.