And'y finally gets around to writing the next load of smelly brown stuff...

The song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ has apparently been offered up as a potential national anthem. So much hype is attached to this 1903 song by Banjo Paterson that there is even a museum in Winton, Queensland called, appropriately enough, ‘Waltzing Matilda Centre’. Strewth…I’d have NEVER thought of that…give that man a job at Saatchi and Saatchi. Banjo was a young solicitor when he wrote the now infamous tune, and he was holidaying in Winton with his fiancé, later to bust up. In fact he wrote the words in 1895 but not the tune, which was written by Marie Cowan later….and with a few modifications to the words to get them to fit….! If your interested go to here.. http://www.matildacentre.com.au/EducationCentre_WaltzingMat.asp . …and here… http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/WM/#Words

Here he is:

Quiz: - So anyone know what the swagman was called? (Answer at the bottom of this entry).

Matilda was a slang for ‘swag’ and 'waltzing it' was to sling it over your shoulder and walk. The term is thought to derive from a German expression Auf die Walz gehen meaning to take to the road. Another use of the name Matilda, is for a bed roll…which is a bit of a come down from the Teutonic Mathilde, which means ‘Mighty in Battle’. Our very own Matilda embodies the Teutonic meaning as you all know…ha ha.

Interestingly, there’s some debate here about the cost of fuel, and shock horror, they’ve reached between 108 cents a litre and about 124 cents a litre. Oh they don’t know the half of it eh…. That’s about 50p. There’s a search site that tells you where the cheapest petrol station is to you…and the cheapest one to us right now is in a place called ‘Kalinga’. Guess what the fuel company is called! ‘Matilda’ (See pic)

Here’s another good idea: The Ipswich council (the one that runs our current area) hosts this site http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/toilet.aspx?type=toilet&id=de4670c9-e55d-474d-afb5-9f071baad449 which shows the public toilets in Kalinga. Good eh? Another good one is this: http://media01.couriermail.com.au/multimedia/2007/04/070400-traffic-cams/traffic.html which shows what the roads are like at any one time….this is what our nearest camera is doing at the time of writing (about 2.45 am)…

Which makes me realise its time for bed. Been busy today building stuff with bricks…but I won’t bore you with that, save to say that its like trying type with sandpaper stuck to your finger ends…

Goodnight.

Answer to the quiz: The swagman was called ‘Andrew’ - How do I know this? Cos the song says it… ‘andy sang as he tucked that jumbuck in his tuckerbag….’ Of course in the Esperanto version he’s called ‘Kies’….Oh you knew that already…sorry.

Here it is in Esperanto for those of you who didn’t know that.

Valse Matilda

Gaja vagabondo kampis apud bilabong

kie la Coolabah ombris por li

kaj li kantis atende gxis bolos en la billipot

Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi

Venis sxafido por trinki en la bilabong

kaptis vagulo kun gxoj` plena kri`

kaj li kantis sxovante la sxafon al la mangxosak`

Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi

Aperis farmisto sur pursanga al cxeval

Venis gxendarmo unu, du, tri

"Kies bela sxafo, tiu en la mangxosak"

Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi

Tuj la vagoulo saltis al la bilabong

"Vi vane kaptas vi min," diris li.

Kaj fantomon vi auxdos pasante cxe la bilabong.

Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi.

A.B. Paterson

Trad. En Esperanto: Ralph Harry