There was always a strong anti-British element in Australia stemming partly from its history, but largely from its large Irish population and from a burgeoning Australian nationalism which resented what it saw as Australia’s semi-colonial status. It is ironic to note that while old prejudices are dying, they seem to be dying hardest in relation to the Poms. Humphries had McKenzie downing his first beer and exclaiming he had been ‘as dry as a Pommie’s towel’.Ģ-: From Sam White Down Under, published in The New Standard (London, England) of Friday 20 th February 1981: The earliest occurrences of the phrase dry as a Pommy’s towel and variants that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:ġ-: From The National Times: Australia’s National Weekly of Business and Affairs (Sydney, New South Wales) of Sunday 4 th January 1981-as quoted in A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms (Sydney University Press in association with Oxford University Press Australia, 1990), by Gerald Alfred Wilkes (1927-2020): In the phrase (as) dry as a Pommy’s towel and variants, the allusion is to the alleged poor personal hygiene of the British-cf., below, quotations 4, 5, 6 and 7. – a British (especially an English) person. The Australian-English noun Pommy, also Pommie, and the shortened form Pom, designate: The previous version was just great, but I think I like this new strain even more.The Australian-English phrase (as) dry as a Pommy’s towel, and its variants, mean very dry. People tell me I’m only just now beginning to get a taste of what real Australian weather is. And there were no young kids about, so it couldn’t have been ‘that’, before anyone suggests it. I got a taster the other week when I dunked into the ocean, half expecting my arms and legs to freeze over and snap off, only for a beautifully warm current to wash over me. ![]() Wet? You really call that wet? With El Nino making a return this year, we’ve been promised drier and warmer weather. If, on occasion, that is the sight that greets me in Sydney, it doesn’t get me down thoughts of brighter days prevail and that sodden depression doesn’t have the chance to set in at all.Īnd to think that these are my thoughts after spending what has been, by all accounts, a pretty miserable (really, miserable?) couple of years under the influence of La Nina, the cold and wet weather cycle. It makes you want to crawl back into bed and, if you do make it out, it can easily pervade for the rest of the day. The sinking feeling that follows a morning peek out of the curtains to reveal yet another overcast, grey and wet day is not to be sniffed at. The reason why Aussies think everyone in the UK is obsessed by the weather probably comes down to the fact that it genuinely, and adversely, affects people. To be honest, I’m not even sure if it is a tunnel at all. In fact, the tunnel isn’t even that long. And surely it’s that feeling that helps breed a rosier outlook on life in Australia, where there always seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. ![]() It’s a liberating feeling not to be confined by something you have no control over. Things can be planned in advance without too much regard for the weather forecast outdoor things, like barbeques, picnics, bike rides, children’s parties and garden weddings. ![]() Unlike in the UK, where once winter sets in you have no choice but to hunker down and survive the next three or four months (sometimes even longer) through gritted teeth and with the help of a hot water bottle and an umbrella, here the next nice day is just around the corner. ![]() The reason for this is two-fold: first, as a foreigner, I can’t help but feel a little bit like I’m on permanent holiday (and why let the small matter of rainfall spoil a holiday) and second, more pertinently, I know any inclement patches of weather are unlikely to last too long. On the contrary, even the wettest of soggy spells in Sydney can do little to dampen my spirits. But this Englishman isn’t here to uphold the stereotype and whinge about it (even though this is being written in the middle of an epic three-day rainstorm that has soaked the Eastern Suburbs to its very core). Photo: Georgie GavaghanIt is with a certain sense of inevitability that the time has finally come for this column to focus attention on every Pommie’s supposed favourite topic: the weather.
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