Love this story! I think I read up to the part where they first see Jim's mum and then lost track so I've just finished rereading the whole thing and love it. Having spent a lot of time in hospitals myself (although not so much in cardiac) with a cousin who had leukemia the detail is amazing.

About your Aussie slang, I'm one myself and while I've never used fair dinkum or seppo I probably might when talking to someone from overseas, we love to tease! And I have used drongo it's a great word :)

As for another reviewer, 'within cooee' I think is much more common than some of the slang you've left in! Yes it's a call to alert people to your location and to be within cooee is to be within an area where you could here a cooee call.

Glad to hear you had a great time in Oz, always nice to hear a glowing review of my country :) unfortunately even we have our rotten apples but we do try to keep up our friendly reputation.

Author's Response:

Thanks so much.  I think Steve, my Internet Travel Agent Extraordinaire (I actually had a pencil holder with a map of Australia & that title made as a thank you gift for him) was really, REALLY into teasing the dumb seppo.  He actually tried to tell me this story about "shooers" on the Harbor Bridge moving all the 'roos off the bridge at lunch time.  AND MR. BLOOD BELIEVED HIM!!!   (I commissioned a little cartoon of that for Steve, too, and framed it!)

Yep, the Australian sense of humor is broad and bawdy; it was one of the things I enjoyed most in your country.  I was IN MOURNING when I had to get on the plane to depart.  I'd go back in a minute!

Thanks for leaving the review!  Hope to hear from you again.