Compliments, I think?

My first husband (RIP), who was American, used to say "Hey, you look like a million dollars!" when he wanted to pay me a compliment when we were going out. In retrospect I think that was a suitable compliment. The US being a capitalist society, what bigger praise can you give than saying that someone looks like a million greenbacks, right!

Hubby, an Aussie by birth, might say "You scrub up well.", or "She scrubs up well." about some sheila to whom he wants to pay a compliment. I am guessing that this expression dates back to pioneering times when the wives were out there working in the fields getting all hot and dirty in the strong Australian sun. Maybe once every now and again there was a reason to wash up and dress for some festive occasion and that's when this compliment was minted.

This is a lady we saw at the Steamfest in Maitland that we went to and doesn't she "scrub up well"?

The Brits, being known for their romantic streak (tongue in cheek here), would maybe refer to their sweetheart as "a rose by any other name" in a Shakesperian way. Or else they would just say that "she is fit", and everyone knows what that means.

I learnt it the hard way. We were in Tuscany with some old friends, and the older son and I got separated from the others for a while after we parked the car. This young man is a real charmer and every time we passed a girl he would check them out and sometimes he would say "She's fit".  I stupidly thought he meant it in its actual meaning i.e. sporty, athletic, slim, etc, and sometimes I couldn't really see how he could consider them fit and athletic as they were walking along smoking, tottering on very high-heeled shoes with a drink in their hand.  That's when I was told what it really meant. Now this was a few years ago and by now the Brits may have come up with other expressions for pretty girls.

So after the horrendous bush fires we are now experiencing torrential rainfalls. Hubby spent Saturday morning helping the neighbour, packing up her huge china cabinet since the rain was up 20 cm in her living room. Amazingly enough we have been spared but I am watching the pool flooding over at the moment so maybe we are next. Anyway, five houses in our street had to have emergency help this week end.

Maybe it doesn't show up so well here but the water level is very high and  I am very nervous.

These three Aussies worked together in Grenoble and here they are in Sydney.  I think the two visitors have to learn to adopt the Aussie dress code.

We had planned to "throw a shrimp on the barbie" i.e. have a barbecue, since some of our old Grenoble friends are visiting but instead we had a cosy indoor meal wishing we had had an open fire place.
Here is what we had for dessert!

Pavlova, the favorite australian dessert.