The year was 1990. It was spring time in England. The best time. I had arrived from Australia just weeks before on a one-way ticket with five hundred quid in my pocket.
I was 22 years old and not very wordly-wise. I thought I was. But I really wasn’t.
An old mate of mine from my early teens was getting married to quite a well-to-do young man from a ‘good’ family. They were almost society folk. Almost.
The marquee was in the garden of the groom’s rambling family estate near Windsor. It was stunning. And oh so frightfully English.
I found myself seated with all the other singles, including another girl from Australia. She was quite ocker, bless her, and she had arrived in the UK a few months before me. She was ‘bloody stoked’ to be able to share with me (very loudly) the details of all the ‘mint’ places she’d been to so far.
She reckoned her favourite place, by far, was the Tower of London. I asked her why.
“Because of them Meat Eater blokes, in them funny costumes they wear. They’re bloody hysterical, they are.”
If my memory serves me correctly, I believe she may have even slapped her thigh at that point.
Meat Eater blokes?
It took a second or two for the penny to drop. She was talking about the Beefeaters.
The Warders of the Tower of London.
One of ‘them Meat Eater Blokes’ aka a Beefeater in his ‘funny costume’
(Image credit <- click through to a fun 2 minute quiz on London)
Unfortunately, the six English toffs, also seated at our table, heard her mistake and collapsed into fits of raucous laughter. They were laughing at her too. And pointing. The poor girl. (I laugh about it now, but at the time I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow us both.)
One of the toffs, a jolly nice chap whose claim to fame was that his Dad was apparently the publisher of ‘The Joy of Sex’ (impressive back then), raised his glass and loudly cheers’d the Antipodeans.
Antipodeans?
I assumed he meant me and my new friend, MeatEaterGirl.
Antipodeans?
Was that a good thing? Or was he insulting us? I had absolutely no idea.
Predictably, neither did MeatEaterGirl.
::
Last Friday night I went out to dinner with two of my girlie friends. We ordered a bottle of sparkling mineral water.
When it arrived, I picked up the funky bottle to check it out.
“Now there’s a word I haven’t seen or heard in a very long time,” I said.
I showed the bottle to one friend, who smiled knowingly and nodded in agreement. She too has lived in the UK for extended periods.
My other friend, who is both well-travelled and very knowledgeable on a vast array of diverse subjects (she’s quite the clever clogs, to be honest), looked blankly at me. The look on her face told me that she had absolutely no idea what the word on the bottle meant.
I recognised that look.
::
According to the authority that is the Oxford Dictionary online, this is what it means …
Antipodes
NOUN
- (the Antipodes) Australia and New Zealand (used by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere)
- the direct opposite of something
The key phrase there being, of course …
“used by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere”
Namely, the Brits.
No wonder NotVeryWorldlyMe and MeatEaterGirl – two fresh-off-the-boat Aussies – had been so clueless all those years before. And no wonder my clever clogs friend was scratching her head the other night too. (She actually suggested I write this blog post to ensure more Antipodeans are given the heads up and not caught off guard in future!).
Well I never. I can’t believe this even exists!
There’s not much you can’t find on YouTube these days, huh?
Aussies and Kiwis don’t call each other Antipodeans. Because we’re not. Not to each other. Not while we’re here, on this side of the world anyway. Generally speaking, we only become an Antipodean from the Antipodes when we’re being talked about by a Brit on the (direct) opposite side of the world.
I actually really like the sound of it.
An Antipodean from the Antipodes
Apart from being a shining example of alliteration, it also makes us sound all swashbuckley and adventurous, doesn’t it?
It is definitely a lot more exciting and courageous sounding than Meat Eater ‘Beefeater’.
Has a word you’ve never heard of before ever caught you off guard?
What score did you get on the London quiz? (I managed 9)
BabbleOnCity 