A larrikin is quintessentially Australian. A bloke who likes to take the piss. Likes to bring uppity bastards down to size. Don't understand those phrases? Well, it's Aussie slang. Basically it means a man (sometimes a woman but not often) who has a rebellious streak and tends to be anti-authoritarian. Not rough, not tough, just cheeky more than anything. Fundamentally, larrikins despise pretentiousness. They hate anyone who has tickets on themselves.

I love being Australian and reckon we are just about the luckiest nation on earth. But I don't say so with any sense of arrogance or egotism. Quite the contrary. The saddest aspect of being Australian is that we don't appreciate what we have. And we like to cut down our tall poppies. That is, we tend to dislike those who achieve success. The further they move from the mainstream the more we tend to dislike them.

Australians, like much of the rest of the world, tend to fear that which we don't understand and we certainly don't understand intellectualism. This is not a good thing but it is a reality. Consequently, many of our intellectuals opt for a virtual exile and circulate among foreign populations where their ideas are not savaged simply because they require us to think about them.

If I now say I like to make people think, I am doomed to be castigated as a wanker who considers himself an intellectual. No, no, no. I don't consider myself as anything other than someone who simply loves words and ideas and who likes to make people smile. I regard every smile I earn as a fabulous reward.

Hopefully, my speaking and writing will find some kindred souls who enjoy whatever it is that goes on inside my head. I'm not always sure that I understand, but ... !