Regular readers would be aware that Diane isn’t Australian by birth.

She became a citizen in July 2008 having lived here for nearly 6 years.  She’s also still a citizen of the United Kingdom, which is the country that Northern Ireland is part of.

In order to become a citizen of Australia, she had to undergo a rigorous examination as well as fulfill various criteria regarding length of stay and other thrilling subjects.  So rigorous was the exam that she finished it in less than 10% of the allotted time and earned full marks.  I’d barely got out of the parking lot when she called to let me know it was done.

After that, she just had to wait a few months until the next ceremony was going to take place, then she got to do this…

(as always, remember just how “rude” Australians really are

Comedy, particularly sketch comedy, often doesn’t translate from country to country, let alone culture to culture.

With that in mind, here’s something from my favourite show during my uni days (uni=university=college). Like all sketch comedy it was pretty hit-and-miss, but The Late Show had a particularly Australian flavour and the best-bits DVD was great for indoctrinating Diane into the essentials of Australian life when she moved out here.

One of the most popular segments was the Toilet Break. The show was on the ABC which doesn’t have any advertisements, so they inserted a break segment and used footage of an old “talent” show. The ratings soared for that 4 minutes, so they continued to mine the depths of Pot Luck for a cheap laugh.

This was the first Toilet Break I ever saw and it has never left my mind. It makes me laugh cry and cringe. All at the same time. It gets particularly interesting at around the 2.55 mark, followed by the stellar judging.

Remember, this was taken from a real talent show.  You’ll never complain about American Idol auditions ever again.