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Years ago, I was talking with friends who’d emigrated to Australia from South Africa. There were quite a few quintessentially Aussie words and slang that they’d managed toof plate they should take. ‘Oh just a salad would be perfect,’ their host said. At which point the penny dropped. Our food section this week has some great ideas if you need to ‘take a plate’ this Christmas, which reminded me of that story. It also got the team talking about Aussie-isms which people from overseas simply don’t get. Beth said her British fiancé Suddy only recently discovered the word ‘boofhead’. ‘He loved it immediately,’ said Beth. ‘Then I overheard him on a work Zoom call referring to someone jokingly as a buffhead, which I thought was pretty cute.’ Sarah, who grew up in the UK, recalled the time when she was at a pub with an old schoolfriend who happened to have bright red hair. ‘A man across the room who’d clearly had one too many beers, kept yelling ‘Oi bluey!’ at my friend. We were both really confused and slightly scared!’ Jude’s mum and dad, Joan and Lawrence, moved here from the north of England in the ‘60s and there were lots of things they found strange. ‘Baked dinners instead of roasts, lollies not sweets and chook for chicken were all baffling,’ said Jude. ‘Not to mention pressies, biccies, cossies and Chrissie!’ I’d love to hear any words that have caught you by surprise.