One sleeve rolled up...

I stopped at our local butcher this arvo on the way home from work. One of the butchers was talking to a woman he was serving.

"Yeah, my mate's a real estate agent and he reckons the best place to buy real estate in Perth is Medina, believe it or not. Medina! I told 'im, 'Mate, I'll tell you why - that place's full of niggardies.'"

Niggardies??

Clearly the poor chap was using some mangled derivation of an American racial epithet to describe our indigenous brethren. I immediately identified him as un-Australian for not using our own ghastly slang to denigrate an entire portion of the population. Anyway, he obviously liked the way it rolled off his tongue because he used it a couple of times more, with pride.

I took a look at him - dark eyes, lustrous moustache, swarthy complexion, slight hint of accent - and I was on the verge of saying to him, "Same thing here in Beaconsfield, hey. Only we've gotta put up with the wops as well."

But I didn't say anything. I wasn't sure how easily he could leap the counter and beat me to death with a leg of lamb.