My Australia: Episode 08 - Part 2

My name’s Saj. It’s short form for Sajeeva.
I come from Colombo in Sri Lanka.
I came here as an international student two and a half years ago.
There were a lot of my friends who had already come to this country and they used to tell
me of the life here.
I currently live in Collingwood in an apartment.
Melbourne was considered to be a friendly city.
I currently work in a call centre.
I would say ninety percent of my friends I met them from work
and they would introduce you to their friends and then you just form this whole network
of friends and the web just keeps spreading.
I always wanted to be independent and do things for myself.
Have you seen this movie?
No.
LA Confidential.
No.
Is it good?
She won the Oscar for it.
I guess my love for shopping I just
I, you know, it comes with the need to be kind of different in what you wear and having
that confidence.
Yeah, I guess my biggest fear was not making many friends because having friends in another
country is probably the most important thing ever.
Having good friends kind of defines what you end up doing in the country because as long
as you’re with them you have more experiences because you do things as a group.
So, that to me is very important because that basically makes up the experiences that you
have.
You know why I’m envious of Jeremy?
Even in economy it’s like business.
I feel very excited at the moment in regard to doing this activity because I think my
friends have done this before
and it seems to be a kind of part of Australian culture to play this sport at some point in
your life.
I’m just hoping that they could just give me a few pointers before we begin the game
so that I know what I’m doing.
Do you have different rates like for the balls, like in bowling?
No. I think they’re all the same.
Oh, I thought you did. I wasn’t sure.
Cool.
Yep.
I am a bit worried because this is not something I’ve done before
and considering this looks like an activity that requires a lot of coordination
I’m just hoping that I do not actually make a fool of myself while trying to do this,
specially when it seems I’m surrounded by people who do it as a sport and take it quite
seriously.
I dunno. I reckon you’ll get it.
Yeah, well, I mean ...
Can you curve the ball like that?
Hi, how you going? My name’s Daniel.
Mitch.
Hello.
I’m Saj. Nice to meet you.
Hi Saj.
Fiona.
The game of bowls is quite simple.
You’ve got one team that plays against another team.
The idea is to get your bowls closer to the jack than the opposition.
The more that your team gets in a row, closer, the more you score.
You always start with two feet on the mat, step forwards and simply roll to the other
end.
And hopefully, that’s not too bad.
That way, so it will go that way.
We’ve had a bit of coaching with this and we also had a practice.
That’s the best so far.
It kind of reminds me of a miniature golf course with the really nicely set up turf.
I did have quite a bit of fun doing this and yeah,
I think it’s one of those games that does not involve a lot of competition.
It’s a game that you could actually play, have fun with and if you lose you still have
fun.
That’s better, sort of.
Just one of those games where you could just do it with your friends and not take it too
seriously.
The idea is this is quite social.
You come down and simply play bowls, have a few drinks and enjoy yourself on a Friday
night.
Back home the drinking culture would be you just gather at a friend’s house.
Most of the time it might be during a cricket match or you know,
on the night of an election, or even probably the day.
However, here in Australia we have the whole pre-drinks thing where it’s, you know,
a little party before you go out and then another big party once you’re up at the
bar at the club.
And then there’s usually the bar-hopping thing where you go from one bar to the other
which is not something that we do in Sri Lanka.
Hello Norm, that you?
I’ve never met you Cam.
I’m Cam.
So you do this on a weekly basis or on a daily basis.
Yes we do it on quite a regular basis.
We do of it during the week the week as well, we do it.
So would you consider this something important when it comes to Australian culture?
Oh yes, you bet. I think it is.
Yep.
Oh yeah, very much so.
It’s one of those sports which everyone can do which is that’s the great part about
it
is that if you’re seventy you can still come out and bowl.
We’ve got bowlers here that are ninety years of age,
but we’ve also got bowlers here that have started up the sport at fourteen and fifteen
and they play together.
One person might have a beer and the other one has a soft drink but they still talk about
what they’re doing and they love it.
This is like my first time here actually.
I don’t play so ...
Ah okay, cool.
She lies. She’s like the second best one here.
I learned something new today with the whole lawn bowls thing
and usually what people say that when it’s your first time it’s usually a bit difficult.
I think we did fairly okay, our team didn’t win but we still had heaps of fun.
Even though the weather wasn’t that great today everybody still turned up so I think
it says, you know,
Aussies like having fun, even if the weather’s not so great,
just come out with your friends and family and have a good time.
Shot!
Go, go, go, go.
Shot!
Good shot. All right.
We just had a great time. We met some really, really fantastic people.
Really friendly people as well and I got to speak to a few senior members of the club
who told me how this sport has actually changed a bit of their life
and yeah, I would say this has been a really good day for me.
All over.
Kotchev, yep.
And I’m Evelyn.
Nice to meet you, Evelyn.
I’m Joan.
Nice to meet you Joan.
Are you hooked? Are you hooked on it?
Yes.
Good.
My name is Joan
And I’ve been at this club, I think I consider now probably about twenty-three years.
And it’s a great part of my life and yes, I am, I’m 81 now, nearly 81,
and I’m hoping I’ll be here for quite a long time yet.
So how did you enjoy your experience tonight here?
I had heaps of fun.
I mean not only did I learn a sport I just like to see the ...
just loved the whole gathering of people.
I managed to interact with my friends and actually do something with them
and see how happy people could be just as a result of a club and a sport
and kind of just shows to me personally that Australian culture, at least there can be
one day where you put aside everything and you just have fun.
Good work Saj. It’s not as easy as it looks.
Trust me. I’ve tried it.
After the break we’ll find out more about Australia’s multicultural society
and ask the question, where did your ancestors come from?
Stick around.