Australians shorten everything. Christmas becomes Chrissie. Sunglasses are sunnies. Swimsuits are cossies (figure it out yourself).

And every single name gets reduced to the shortest nickname possible. Is it the heat? Does the extreme temperature make it hard to get more than one syllable out? When I first moved here in 1990 Walter became Wal. That’s right - Wal. But try dragging the vowel sound out by a yard or two. Oops - make that a metre.

And then there are the nicknames. Some of them come from Cockney rhyming. Americans are Septics. (Yank rhymes with Tank and while we’re there I think Septic Tank.) Every person gets a nickname. One of my colleagues has the surname Churcher. She got the nickname Cherry and now can’t shake it (see the photo she sent - I think she’s quite proud)!

What was your nickname? What’s the worst nickname you ever heard - or gave? What’s the fascination?