G'day all,

As our warm, antipodean Christmas looms and I struggle through the party round, I must be getting overly picky. I was singing the "Aussie Jingle Bells", the same as that which Alison posted back around 7 December, and I realised that I am always annoyed to notice that the writer is obviously a city type, because the song talks of being in a rusty Holden ute (utility = pickup for our American friends) with an "Esky in the boot (portable cooler ... for the beer of course ... in the trunk) but: A/ a ute has no boot, only an enclosed tray area! and B/ It's not likely to be rusty, if it has spent its life in the dry outback ... of course, vehicles owned by soft city types drive along our coast line and get riddled with salt and rust copiously. The old wisdom was that you bought a country owned vehicle for body parts - the motor would be clapped out but the body panels would be free of rust.

Regards,

Bob Bolton