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Thank you all our Italian, Greek, Lebanese, East Asian and Sri Lankan friends!! For bringing us the good tucker, (food) and some mighty fine swear words too.
My best friend at primary Nun’s school was Dominico Vespucci and he was the first real Italian I had ever met too. His front yard was all concrete and somehow they grew tomatoes out of it. His lounge room had more JMJ’s than the bloody church did (JMJ’s= Jesuses Marys and Josephs ie Santaria)
Our very Holy school, The Reverend Church of The Bleeding Gums of Jesus had a roll-call that read like an Irish-Italian fone book.
Our dear pretty friend Loretta Vespucci used to call her dad 'Mr Woggo'
She had to call home if she wanted to ‘stay out a bit later’ and when she rang up she would say “Hi Dad it’s me Loretta’’
‘’Loretta ---she notta home-ah’’
“Dad!! It’s ME! Loretta!”
“I tell you!! She’s a notta home-ah!! hahahaha everytime!”
Dominic's Papa Bear gave me my first ever pizza ( a real down home one) and he said “Try this boy, if you don’t like it--throw it over the back fence” which I did, even though that was a mortal sin but it had real anchovies and real hot salami.These were aliens to my boiled rissoles palate.
Most of us Irish-Aussies -- The Harps -- were raised on the bland boiled food diet. (never complain –there’s kids in China and Africa going hungry, your Grand-Fa fled the great famine in a coffin-ship!! Eat it or ye’ll get no pudding)
Next door was grand old Mr Tessariero and his huge family. He used to take us away for the weekend cos our Da was often busy with the shop and or drinking like the Paddy that he was. As a tribute to him and his generosity and kindness, we wrote him into a joke in my brother’s Kath and Kim TV show. Kylie Day-Knight gets married and becomes Kylie Minogue-Tessariero. Ha Ha!!
AND over in the Far East is Satay Suzie!
In Australia, Europe or America she would be a model, an actress or a glamour salesperson at the poshy pefume counter in a glitzy department store.
Her trolley has a small sun and rain screen, a gas tank or a charcoal bbq with a wok, a row of pots and a little cupboard full of spices, greens and rices.
If she’s lucky she has a battery operated fan, its 30-40 degrees everyday.
Here she stands from 7 am till 9 pm, 6-7 days a week, selling satay chicken, rice patties, sausages and papaya salad. They are $1 a serve—it costs her 80 cents to make one.
She has four kids and usually minds 1 or 2 for her sister or her cousin or neighbor and she has a possibly missing husband.
Sometimes he’s like -- 2-3 times a year he comes home ‘borrowing’ money and even leaving her with another new child he has made with a wandering mistress.
She never loses her temper, never has a tantrum, never flirts with the wealthy foreigners, never spills or burns the food and she is always pleasant and smiling and usually has a hilarious joke.
She averages $10-12 a day while the cost of living is $20, if it rains she often makes $0 but she will always have a free feed for a homeless person and gives credit to her friends.
She never complains.
There are 25 of her on every street corner from Bali to Bahrain, from Da Lian to Delhi.
Satay Suzie -- YOU are Ms World and we adore you!!!