G'day, guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today I have the pleasure of chatting with my beautiful wife about our recent adventure to my grandparents farm. So, I wanted to tell you all about it and kind of share the experience that I had there showing my wife all around the place. When I was a kid and growing up there it was an amazing experience and I wanted to show her that before Noah was born.
So, we sit down for today and have a bit of a chat about that. I want to mention too that I have made a Walking With Pete episode whilst I was at the farm talking about what the place is like and what it was like there for me as a kid growing up, hunting down animals and you know running around looking for lizards. So, if you want access to that make sure that you are in either the Aussie English Classroom or that you were signed up to the premium podcast because this will be a members only episode.
So, get on there, guys, and remember in the Aussie English Classroom you get access to all my other courses, my other content and I've in fact just posted the Effortless Phrasal Verb course in the Aussie English classroom, guys. So, go there AussieEnglish.com.au, you can sign up for one dollar for your first seven days, give it a go, you've got nothing to lose. Anyway let's get into today's episode, guys!
Alright, Kelly, what's going on now? Good morning!
Good morning.
How are you feeling?
Just woke up.
Just woke up, just woke up. I've dragged you in here to do an episode today about the farm before we obviously forget about the experience. So, last weekend, what did we do last weekend Kel?
We went to your grandparents farm. It is in... is it Bendigo?
Yeah, it's near Bendigo. Exactly, exactly. So, I wanted to take Kel there because I grew up there. Well, I didn't grow up there, but I grew up going there when I was a kid, right? So I would go there you know a few times a year and it used to be an amazing experience because my grandfather had sheep on the property and he would get everyone to come up to the farm to help him deal with the sheep.
So, a few times a year we'd need to go up in order to worm the sheep. So, they had to be given a medicine to avoid or to kill this parasite that was in their stomach like worms or something. And so, he would have to put them in like the... I don't know what you would call it, little lot, right? Fenced off lot and one by one he'd have to spray this medicine down their throat that they would swallow and it would kill the worms.
And then on top of that, we would have to go up in November before the start of summer to shear them and so we would all have to help out and I gave you a tour of the shearing shed where the sheep would get pulled into the shed. They would be waiting there and then a shearer would pull one of them out and shave effectively or shear all of the wool off it, let the sheep go and then we would have to sort the wool and that would be something my grandparents would sell as just a sort of hobby thing, but I remember telling you all about it and showing you the areas and it was such a really cool community kind of event that I really remember fondly because we used to all go up there. My extended family, my grandparents cousins, my parents as well, my sister, we were all involved and there were lots of people around.
Yeah. did you, sorry for interrupting, did you enjoy it at the time or is it now there you are obviously a grown up and you look back and you're like there was such an important part of my life?
I think if you'd asked me at the time I probably would have said that I like going to the farm, but I didn't necessarily like being involved with the shearing because I was like, I mean, I liked doing bits and pieces, but I think as any kid you'd be bored after a while.
And you get given the job and you want to play, you want to run around and you don't want to have a responsibility, right?
That's it. So, I think I was spending a lot of my time running around, lifting rocks looking for snakes and lizards and stuff and I was showing you that as well, but yeah that was something that I would do...I don't know how many times my grandparents did that. How many years... Probably less than a decade, but there were quite a few times from probably the age of five to twelve where we went up every single year multiple times and it was really cool because, as you would have seen when you were up there, we lived in this log cabin that my grandfather built.
That was the best.
He bought he bought this house that was in pieces effectively like it was a... What's the word for it? A house that you buy and then you have to build it yourself, kind of like Lego, right? So, you get all of the components, but yeah you have to organise the concrete being poured in the right dimensions and then he himself literally put the house together. Although, he bought the pieces for the house.
That's great.
A kit, a kid house. It comes in a kit. Yeah like a set a Kit, a Kit house. Yeah. So he built that. It's very there's like an open fire.
It's awesome.
Yeah, It was really cool and there's no electricity so, that was something that I used to remember fondly we had candles everywhere at night. As soon as the sun went down you'd have candlelight, but you couldn't do things really like read very well because the candle light was pretty poor.
It was funny because your mom was trying to, you know, improve our conditions there, like she got led LED lights.
LED lights, yeah.
And you were like what? Mom! Candles! Like that's the whole point.
You'reruining ambience, the atmosphere because I think too the yellow light, like the fire light is much more... It's much more calming.
Yeah, definitely.
Whereas if you have LED it tends to be like white or blue light.
It's really, really bright.
Yeah it's sort of like you know how you have computer screens and nowadays they go yellow at night when you're working sort of automatically. If they are not yellow and they're white it kind of leaves you a bit, you know, awake and sort of... But so what was your experience? What did you think of it?
I loved it.
Was it what you expected or were you expecting something completely different?
No. To be honest I didn't have many expectations about the farm, I knew, because you've been telling me about it you know quite a lot of times, I knew that it was an important place for you guys as children, you and your sister. And I was curious to see the place, like the house and the fire and everything. Yeah it was really, really cool. Just, you know, I can imagine how important it was like for you growing up having this get together with your family. It was really nice. I have never had something similar. I think the closest I got to it was...my dad has always been really, how can I say it?
Really willing to get away on weekends from like work and the city. So, he got this property, which is like 30 minutes from his house, where there's a swimming pool and there's like a barbecue and things and he's been improving the place, you know, slowly over the years and there's no connection, like there's electricity, but no Internet connection or anything. But I was already a grown up like I was probably like 20s when he got it.
And for me was like oh my God I have to go to this place, where there's nothing to do and like I'm no really a big fan of swimming pools or anything and yeah, but because you, because of your experience in the farm, I'm now like, and because I'm away from my family, I'm now like that was, you know, such a good chance to chat to him and to be around family and now obviously I can't do it easily because I'm in Australia. So, yeah I really, really enjoyed going to the farm and seeing everything you guys were doing a while back.
It is funny like that I think at the time it's always, you know, as a kid if you were to ask any child in that situation they'd be like I want the internet, I want my gameboy, I want my playstation, I want my friends. But looking back, you sort of see it through rose coloured glasses where you kind of like... That was actually really good and it was very important to do that and have that time way and I think it's going to happen more and more, right? In the future where those moments without technology become more and more important. Because we probably... I was doing that in the 90s, which would have been just as the Internet was coming through, right? And nowadays Yeah must be really, really, really difficult to get kids to disconnect from any kind of technology or whatever.
Not only kids like, even for me sometimes I'm like where's my phone? I need to check, you know, I need to see if I have a notification. And it was good to be like, not that I didn't touch my phone, but I wasn't really into it. I was like ok I want to see the fire, I want to, you know, walk around and do things.
The problem is now that the farm has reception. So, nowadays you can. It's not amazing that you can get reception on your phone and still check things.
It's good enough for you to be like ok I'm going an important email from work or whatever.
I mean, I was still checking my phone from time to time as well and doing things.
I loved it.
And it's funny because of the smells and everything as well like I hadn't... A lot of those smells I hadn't smelled for ten years or whatever and as soon as you get back in there you're like oh, that takes me back and you remember instantly like what it was like being a little kid in this area and the open fire. Man, we need to get somewhere where we have never had an open fire.
It was so relaxing.
Yeah.
Did you have this feeling that things when you were a kid were much bigger?
Yeah.
Did you have this feeling there?
Was I talking to you about that recently? Where we're saying that I felt... I can't remember what the context was, but I was having that conversation with you about how things... Oh, when I went to my grandmother's house.
Yeah, ok.
Yeah I remember talking about it with you, we went recently to my grandmother's house. She passed away. She died when I was 12 and I remember saying to Kel when we went and had a look at the house, which is still standing there, in Beaumaris, in Melbourne. Except it's really rundown, falling apart and the garden's overgrown, it's abandoned. But I remember saying to Kel far out! This place is tiny. I remember it being huge because I was a little kid growing up here and playing in the driveway, but then when you go there as an adult you're like... Everything is really small. So, yeah it was sort of like that with the farm I guess to some extent. I remember the the bunk beds being more spacious.
Definitely, because you were tiny.
So, we were sleeping there. To describe the cabin for you, guys, it's effectively a rectangle and at one end you've got the sort of living room and the open fire, right at the end of the rectangle. And then as you come in you've got the kitchen and across or equal... How would you explain it? You've got the kitchen on one side and on the other side you've got my grandparents bedroom. And then once you walk past the kitchen and my grandparents bedroom, you get the bunk room, which is where other people can sleep, which is next to my grandparents bedroom. And then you've got the bathroom and then the toilet next to the bathroom and that's pretty much the entire house. It's very small and cosy.
But yeah, that's sort of the the shape of it and so the open fire is on all night and it warms up the entire place, although I think that as you can sort of see through the log walls you can kind of see the outside world, you know, that it doesn't retain heat very well.
I wasn't really cold, to be honest. I was actually fine and just to mention the same experience like when you look back, when you visit places that you used to go when you were a child and you imagine oh, and you think oh everything was so much bigger. I remember I went to my primary school in São Luís... I think I had to vote or something, but I wasn't living in the same suburb anymore.
I wouldn't go there unless I had a really good reason. So I had to vote. It wasn't like an election for president or whatever. And it was in the same school and it was like What? That's so tiny! And I remember being scared off, because I had this school and you had like another school in the same sort of area, that was for the little kids. So, I was like this school is so far away like it's like now is right here. Like I can literally just walk five minutes I'm there. So it's funny how our perception changes.
I had that as well recently and that's so funny because it's exactly the same thing, the only time I go to the primary school I used to go to when I was a kid, which is in the town that we're now living in, Ocean Grove, is when I have to vote because they open up the basketball court the indoor basketball court of primary school and that's where everyone in Ocean Grove, the town that we live in, have to go and they have to go to place their vote.
So, that's the only time I ever see the place and it's the same sort of thing where I remember being there until the age of I guess twelve. And the place always seemed way bigger. Especially like playing on the basketball court. I remember being like wow the basketball court is so tiny because, you know, I'm twice the size that I was when I was 12 or younger.
It's crazy how things change when we get older.
Yeah but I think the best thing that came out of going to the farm this weekend was just realising how important it is to try and get something like what my grandfather had happening, where it pulls the family together for a sort of common cause, where you have that everyone get together and let's work on something together. So we feel like we've achieved something.
But nowadays I think, you know, not many people have sheep or like that those kind of activities are much rarer.
Rarer.
Rarer to happen like. You know, you go to work during the week and on weekends you want to stay home when there's no many reasons for you to get together.
I still think it's important to obviously get together and do barbecues and we do that. But I really am nostalgic for those times where we were all working to achieve a certain task. So, you were spending time together, you were having meals, you were hanging out, but there was also ok, this is the you need to do this job, you do this job, the kids can play, but everyone gets together and it was for a prolonged period of time so, we would be there for several days all together as an extended family, as opposed to just come and spend the afternoon at my house for two hours.
And so, that's made me really think about what can we do in the future to, not necessarily have sheep and do the exact same thing, but what can we do you where we're getting all of the family extended family to come together to work towards a certain cause in a certain place.
That's so hard.
I think it's so important to try and give that to our kids because it was such a good experience for me. I have to think about what we can do.
I'm always saying like Christmas in Brazil is such a big deal. At least for my family although they are some relatives don't come and they live far away. But anyway my mom's family usually gets together and it's something like they're like she cooks, I do something else, and then my grandma's cleaning like it's one day, but it's one day to everyone, you know, gets together and just work together to get this party ready.
And you know why and that's funny because I think my grandmother's always been that way where she's very particular about birthdays in her immediate family so, her husband and her, as well as Christmas which is usually at her place and I think it's partly probably because of this feeling of well, I'm going to work and make all these meals, people are going to come over, we're all going to have a good time. We're going to organize this thing and work together to have this party. It's a lot of sharing and spending time together. I remember seeing her always emphasizing the importance of these events and not understanding that as a kid, I was like I don't want to go to another family event. I don't want to do this. But looking back you realize man that was actually really important.
And you need someone to keep things going right. If she is like I'm not doing it like...
Everyone just goes off in their own directions and is no longer being pulled together for the common, you know, those common events.
I think fatherhood is hitting you.
I don't know, that's gonna be interesting. What are we? A month away a month away.
It's interesting to see like how we tend to value and appreciate things that we are not necessarily able to do any more as you get older. And I have that all the time and I'm seeing you like thinking of all those things and trying to come up with an idea to get your family together so, your kids and your sister kids and so, they will have the same precious memories when they grow up. It's really interesting.
That was a big reason for coming back to Ocean Grove, I think. Like... I didn't ever think I would come back to Ocean Grove and want to live here. But then I saw that you were in Australia, you didn't have family and I thought it's important for you to get to know my family so, I mean we could move away, like we we spent six months in Canberra. We could spend more time, you know, somewhere else in Australia on our own, But aside from obviously having to battle to survive ourselves, by ourselves and make new friends and get a new support network, you wouldn't get to know my family as well.
Yeah and with the bay was so important for me to be around your parents and your sister. Although, I think the Australian family is much less invasive than the brazilian family. So, they are really polite. Like oh, can I come over?
They will give give you space.
Yeah, I mean, whereas my family would be like knocking on your door at 7 a.m. like you had a baby?!
That sounds like a TV show Everyone loves Raymond, where the mom would always just, they lived across the road from one another and the mum would just walk in.
Just absolutely.
Yeah, but I love that we have very close here. And you know we'll be able to share Noah's childhood with them like from a very, very close perspective and they'll be able to stay with him as much as they want.
Assuming we stay here, assuming we stay here. Who knows, anything could happen.
I think we'll stay here for a couple years. I don't know.
It'll be interesting, but it was something I was thinking about it was the main reason I wanted to be here and even that we rented this house because we're about 150 metres away from my parents and about the same away from my sister's house.
Like if a comet struck Ocean Grove in this area, my entire family would be wiped off the face of the Earth, but I made an active effort to try and be close to all of them because I kind of lamented the fact that when I was a kid I never got to grow up close to cousins because my family lived a long way away, probably an hour and half away from everyone else in Melbourne where my mother's parents and my father's parents lived and all my cousins and everyone else so, I got to see them a few times a year, but I never got to really get to know them as friends. And so I wanted that for Noah at least two to potentially do that with my niece and future children from my sister to be good friends.
Yeah, it was the same for me. Like I didn't have any contact. I mean, I had contact with my cousins, but...
Not on the a daily basis.
Yeah and on top of that my parents are divorced. So...
It was even further separated out.
Yeah. We would get together like once in a year, just like when I was visiting my dad and that was it. So we've never really being friends or anything.
Yeah I know it is funny how family becomes more and more important the older you get. And it's probably the same for you guys listening to us. I mean you probably understand it better than I do because a lot of you have moved to Australia on your own or in small families and have had to sort of eke out a living on your own, right? Away from your family so I'm sure you guys understand as much or if not more than me how important it is to you cherish your family.
Definitely. I don't know, I have a funny relationship with my family I was trying to explain that to you yesterday. You don't see me calling them all the time or like I have to share this with my mom or things like that is not that we don't love each other, it's just different and distant.
I'm sort of the same with my parents to some extent. I don't really call them very often we have like a family Facebook group where we all chat in there and if we're going to organise an event, will tend to just organise it in there. Or maybe they'll phone, they'll call me on the phone, but I think because we live so close now I don't really call my parents and just talk to them, you know, I'll talk to them when we're in the same place. You know, if we're going to have a conversation about something or about you know, Noah or family or whatever, but yeah it is funny I meet some people who do definitely have those, that kind of relationship a lot more with with different members of their family where they're on the phone to them every week for long periods of time.
My friend Beatriz in Sydney, she was like, the other day I sent her a message and she took ages to reply, she was like oh I was on the phone with my parents and I was like that's so interesting because she is an adult, obviously, and she is like I need to call my parents on a daily basis and see what...
Daily?
Yeah.
Far out!
They are always chatting and she's pregnant, they're coming here.
I can imagine that's different when you get pregnant as well because you know you probably especially if you're in a different country.
Yeah. So, for me is I would love to bring my parents here. Like my dad, he would love it. And we have plans like he mentioned that the other day the he'll you know help us out and maybe we can go to Brazil in December or something, but it's just not the same. I don't know. I don't know how to explain that to you, it's just not the same. And it will be good to be there with them because we are very useless when it comes to keeping contact over the phone, like Skype or anything, we hate it and no one wants to put the effort into it so, it would be good to be in the same city, in the same place and you can see if you like them.
Fingers crossed, right? Fingers crossed they like me.
They'll love you.
Alright, guys! Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time. Peace out!
Bye!