Category: Orble – Aussie Folly

From Orble to WordPress – Aussie Folly to Daily Adventures

On By taniacreationsIn Orble - Aussie FollyLeave a comment

Back in 2008 I created a blog at the the Australian Orble Community called Aussie Folly.

It was dedicated to writing about interesting happenings and cultural differences.

The Orble community disappeared suddenly a few years after I started writing, taking all the posts and content without notice.

One day it simply went offline.

I decided to move everything across to WordPress.

I was able to transfer the text, finding the images (or as close as I could) inside my old files, noting how many votes I had in Orble, the date and time they were published. I wanted to keep as close as I could from the original for historical data.

I’m keeping the new archive inside the category “Aussie Folly” in my Taniacreations.com website.

Here is a print-screen of the final statistics of the blog before it went awol:

14 Posts + 2 Comments +. 1,263 Votes

Brazilian Dance at the Sydney Salsa Congress 2010

On By taniacreationsIn daily adventures, Orble - Aussie Folly, The Dancing BugLeave a comment


Brazilian Dance styles are invading Australia and the Sydney Salsa Congress 2010 will have a Brazilian Room every night of the event.From 28th to 31st January 2010.
Samba, Gafieira, Lambada/Zouk, Forró and Capoeira are spreading and thousands of dance fanatics are getting into their groove.
If you have never been to the congress you are missing out on the biggest event of Latin Dance in Australia, one of the top 3 in the world.
It is an amazing experience, more than 5,000 dancers in the parties, more than 80 shows and 75 workshops.
Three days of dance classes and four nights with shows then parties that will go into the night.
The energy is fantastic and there are different options of tickets. You can choose from one night to the full passes for the whole event.
I’ll see you there!


97 Orble Votes

To be Brave Enough to Write…

On By taniacreationsIn daily adventures, Orble - Aussie Folly, UncategorizedLeave a comment

and more incomprehensible Australia…

Here I turn to the “masters” and to me they are the writers of this genre, this style of writing about day to day, making fun of day to day incongruous occurences, back in Brazil: Mario Prata (my personal master), Luiz Fernando Veríssimo, Arnaldo Jabor, among so many others.

From them I take the strength and the courage to say what I think: in capital letters and a large font.

After all, we would all be doomed without courage. Mario Prata would never have released a book about a pimp and his prostitutes, would he? Anjos de Badaró is a great book!

And the daily columns in many newspapers and media would be doomed to monotony, to what is agreeable to all and absolutely no fun!

I say all this because I was criticised for my last article {link}, because there are parts of Australia I find amusing. I will confess all I wanted to do was to hide and cry.

Instead, here I am again, smiling and all.

To prove my love for my Aussie Land here I will write a few new incomprehensible details. 

Good details, but still incomprehensible!

The ridiculously organised crowds: New Years Eve in Sydney is a good example. There is no shoving, no screaming, no mess. The people bring the sleeping kids in arms and prams, and they manage to be 1 millimetre away from you without touching anything. When the inevitable happens everyone always say sorry.

The signs in car parks in shopping centres that advise you to “lock your car” were one of the first things to get my attention when I first arrived here. 

It crossed my mind simply: how come you have to remind people to lock their cars in the car park? We would never consider otherwise back home.

The buses’ timetables: I would be dumb stricken to see written that the bus arrives at exactly 10:17. All I could think was: impressive! 

I know it is not totally perfect but just by having a time table that states time like 9:23; 10:17; 11:54 is a serious indication of what we can expect: precision. In my homeland I would go to the bus stop and someone would simply say it all in a few words: the bus comes around once per hour. The acceptable margin of error would be one: one hour more or less. 

No doubt one of the best nonsenses I have ever experienced was to be given money back from taxes by the Australian government. Only if you come from a land where a lot of corruption happens you would truly appreciate what this means. I would never believe it possible if I hadn’t seen it in my account myself. 

I can now criticise Brazil with confidence, because saying you don’t like a part doesn’t mean you do not love the whole. I love the Brazil I carry with me, I’m proud of being Brazilian and having been born there. I love Australia, the new home. I have worked hard to be its proud citizen, even if I do not like Vegemite!

98 Orble Votes

Incomprehensible Australia

On By taniacreationsIn daily adventures, Orble - Aussie FollyLeave a comment

I love this Aussie Land, especially Sydney that is now my home. I’m very glad to be a new Australian Citizen. 

Although I have multiplied my Brazilian love to include my new nation there are some things around here that do not make any sense to me… 

Foodwise: 

Avocados are not for sandwiches. I try to explain to the natives that that is not how you are supposed to eat it, I think when avocados arrived with no instruction manuals someone thought the nice green colour would do well with the bacon in bread. But they are actually much better as Avocado Frappes, Mousses and blended avocados with sugar (not salt!); Mouth watering hum? 

No Australians ever agree with me.

Vegemite: 

Most South Americans have tried the bread with the chocolate colour paste expecting a sweet sensation on the taste buds. Only to be almost knocked out of the chair by something salty, strange and very strong. 

‘What kind of pie is this?’ I ask.
‘Cheese pie.’ Says the nice lady.
‘Ok, may I have one, please?’
One minute later I’m back:
‘Sorry, I believe you sold me the wrong pie. This is meat.’

‘Of course it is, they all are! It’s a cheese meat pie.’

It was the traditional meat pie with a thin layer of cheese between the filling and the pastry. 

In Brazil a cheese pie is made of cheese and pastry only, no meat. It’s a cheese-cheese pie. 

In transport: 

The changes of drivers in the middle of the bus route do not make any sense to me. 

The first time I saw it I thought I had gotten the wrong bus and it was the final stop. I stood there on the tip of the bench, all packed, ready to go. But no one else moved, not even to look to the front. So I waited while the driver packed and left with money box and all, and a new driver got comfortable, set up the bus, restarted it and we all got ready to continue the trip. I find it hilarious every time. 

Another incongruous thing is the same route number for buses that go to different destinations. I have found myself in North Sydney more than once having taken a “175” that usually goes to the city. I think they like to create crazy people, several times I thought I was losing my mind. 

Another absurd is to be able to go to the city using one bus and not being able to catch the same bus to go back to the same stop because the bus will only stop there if someone is there trying to catch it, as some of the express lines do.

Lose-trolleys: the champion non-sense: 

Supermarket trolleys: the ones from Australia are the drunkest ones I’ve ever seen. In my motherland the two back wheels of the trolleys are locked, that means you have much more control over the thing. I know there is always someone that will think the trolleys are much better here, but to that I can only answer: “are you serious?!!” 

114 Orble Votes

My Father’s Secrets

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‘Come on! Smash it again! Do it harder!’

This is what my father heard when he arrived at his new fraternity house, where he was going to live while studying for his bachelor’s degree. 

He went to the backyard to find four blokes trying to get the pasta out of the pressure cooker after leaving it cooking for a long time.

To be the eternal hero of the house and to be protected above everyone else, it took him only one phrase:

‘I can cook.’

And he truly does like a master! I love the story of how he was inspired into learning.

It was one of his first fishing trips without his mom, with all the mates camping next to a river. He arrived to find his cousin holding a pot of boiling water, over the camping fire, while his uncle holding the 5k bag of rice pouring the grains directly into the water. Even being only a teen he knew one thing:

‘This is not how my mom cooks rice!’

They made an agreement with the troupe in the tent next door to clean fish and all they needed and be their slaves for the rest of the trip if they cooked for them, and that’s how they ate that week.

That was when he decided to learn how to cook and survive anywhere. During Uni he cooked everything, his only rule was that any strange meat had to be dead and clean! 

He never questioned the origin of the meat or the talking about missing cats, chickens and ducks in the neighbourhood. 

The downside was sometimes to be awaken at three am by a bunch of hungry guys whose sobriety was highly questionable. 

From my dad I learned most of my secrets. My sister and I cook as he does: no recipes, using all the leftovers in the fridge, creating food out of thin air in fifteen minutes. 

That is the result of countless Friday nights seated while he pampered us with delicious food as well as from family meetings and weekend’s lunches and dinners.

We learned from him a lot of other things like the power of common sense, how to enjoy life, how to be calm and rational in difficult situations. 

He passed to us the best Guardian Angels on Earth and Heaven. Dad is the kind that gets his Angel to send a mechanic, in the middle of nowhere when the car breaks down. 

I also learnt with him how to live happily every day. What I didn’t really learn was a secret he keeps from his time at the Uni. Once he started telling me some story but finished mid sentence:

‘Youngsters are naughty, some of the things that I’ve done…’

I’ve been trying to get the full story out of him for years but all I get is him to blush, start laughing and playing “mute”. He doesn’t say a word. I think I will never get this secret out of him!

105 Orble Votes

It is time for the June Parties

On By taniacreationsIn daily adventures, Orble - Aussie FollyLeave a comment

It is time to meet friends, try delicious food, enjoy the colours and atmosphere.

The “Festas Juninas” are folk celebrations that take place everywhere in Brazil, from parties that engage whole cities to small family parties.

My Family’s Traditional Yearly June Party, in 1981!

They happen through the month of June in commemoration of the saints’ days: St John, St Peter and St Paul.

They are about dancing, dressing in funny folk costumes, eating delicious food, drinks to warm up the heart and a lot of excitement.

BraCCA organizes its annual party in Sydney (Arraial do BraCCA) so all can experience a little piece of Brazil. The best part is the food, I felt like a child in a candy store last year. 

Everywhere I looked I saw something that I wanted to eat or drink: party pastries, churrasco (barbecue meat), delicious sweets and cakes, cheese bread, Guaraná, sugar cane juice, coconut water, Feijoada (black beans) and other scrumptious dishes.

It is a great opportunity to meet new and old friends, there is music all day and the traditional dancing for kids. 

If you want to have a full Brazilian experience without having to cross the ocean you have to come to this event!

81 Orble Votes

Over the Moon

On By taniacreationsIn books, daily adventures, Orble - Aussie FollyLeave a comment

I feel “Over the Moon” with the release of my first e-book at Amazon.com.

Fio da Meada, at Amazon.au, at Amazon.com, at Amazon.br

It is a very big deal for me, although, people that have done the same could say it is easy, anyone can write a book and upload it to be sold at Amazon. It isn’t hard. 

However, the journey to have a book with a quality you feel is marketable is not so simple. It was a great adventure but a lot of work too.

It has been years and years I have been moving in this direction, doing things in order to get here. I feel I can allow myself to be proud of my achievement. 

I have risked a lot, migrated, worked very hard, pursued never thought of avenues (such as doing a pastry course), to get to this point. 

My expectations are only to change the world through my writing… do you think it is too huge a dream? Well, I believe in huge dreams and small miracles. 

20 Orble Votes

Apocalypse – The Best News of the Year! 

On By taniacreationsIn Orble - Aussie FollyLeave a comment

They say the world is going to end on 2012! According to the Mayan prophecies. Such good news! Now you have the perfect excuse to make all your dreams come true. Go crazy, risk, enjoy, change your life. Sure you have to be prepared in case the world doesn’t end, like leaving some reserves, keeping the properties and not going into debt. But other than that, you have to get at least a third of your dreams in life! Do all that you can for that, move, put the wheels of fortune in motion. You should steal a kiss from that gorgeous lady across the street, offer flowers to a stranger, make someone’s day, do something nuts, look someone different deeply into his or her eyes. 

You could wear socks of different colours, create some funny little lies, belly dance on top of your work table… or howl to the moon. There are so many ways to transform a life into a daily adventure! If your day is too normal, do not take it! Life is to be enjoyed. An idea for the ladies is to go to the toilet and remove your underwear. If you are wearing skirts, even better. Go “al fresco” and feel that you have changed your life and no-one knows about it! You will laugh for nothing and feel very strange, but life got more adventurous and it didn’t cost you a thing. 

Here is my advice for the New Year: one folly per day. I can think of so many! 

  • Try black coffee, or one of those lollies only kids like, the ones that pop in your tongue or make it all purple. 
  • Send a kiss to the ugliest man you see from the bus window. 
  • Wave to a stranger and pretend you know the person. 
  • Dress with strong coloured clothes that do not match at all and say you have a slight problem of colour-blindness. 
  • Create new words and pretend they exist. 

One of my friends who lived in Sydney as a student in one of the best English courses around used to mess what the locals thought of the Brazilian culture. When her homework was to talk about proverbs, she created completely new ones from her own mind some that no-one else would recognise. 

I can’t remember exactly but it was something like this: 

“Dead birds do not fly high” the explanation being that this was said to make people take risks. 

Or “Lower than the table’s base there is only the floor” which would be used by mothers to teach the children that life needs structure… 

She would spend the rest of the day laughing about her own creations and when she told us we laughed together.

In a Brazilian party here I found a friend teaching an Australian: “look, there is a really nice phrase you can use” and she would say in Portuguese, slowly, what actually meant “I am cra-zy”. My friend had this serious teacher’s face. I spoilt her fun when I started giggling and the guy realised there was something wrong… 

So this is it, my advice for the New Year: daily doses of free adventure… take risks, use the pink shirt! Coral Pink for the guys, bright pink for the ladies… and add to your diary: laugh out loud at least once a day! 

50 Orble Votes