fish.01

You reminded me of this FB post from my brother recently titled "Spring in Alberta"....they are 45 mins north of Calgary:

Japonica

Yup, that looks like it. Edmonton had snow in the forecast for this weekend too. Oh and 60% chance of flurries for Fri the 26th of April.

<--Albertan.

Maybe, being as content and "successful" as we were, we should have stayed in Edmonton, like Oink says, but after living your entire life in a place where it starts snowing in October and doesn't end until nearly May, well, it gets to you after a while. Ooh, look, five months of the year with no snow, just city-wide frantic construction, potholes, tornado watches, and mosquitoes. YAY! Woot!

Merseygirl

My partner is from Edmonton and reckons that what you wrote is a perfect description of the city he left behind 15 years ago to live in Australia
Having said that he was pretty shocked by the above photo, I guess you must start to forget the worst of it over time.

spouse of scouse

Australian's don't have an accent - that's the immigrants

northernbird

7th May 2002!!! NW Calgary.

Amazulu

And then you hear some UK accents - Birmingham, Manchester, thick-ass Welsh.........

'nuff said

Amazulu

No different from the UK and USA where it is very easy to get rid of staff - permie or otherwise. The rise in temp staff here is in response to labour laws that are stacked against the employer.

Temp/contract/casual suits a lot of people. I'm a contract worker. Have been since 1992 in SA, UK, here. I'd work no other way. The myth of 'job security' from permanent employment really is a myth - and an excuse to pay you less.

Budawang

Some people prefer working casually that's true. I was a contractor for several years before going permanent in 2004 and, frankly, my conditions didn't change that much. I still took a month off from work when I was a contractor, my income was a bit higher, but my superannuation wasn't as good. Swings and roundabouts really.

BadgeIsBack

Agreed, I don't even understand how people even do business.
I much prefer a white collar Melbourne accent.

Shard

Are there different social accents in Australia? I thought it was like North America where everyone spoke in the same way (excepting for regional variations)?

OzTennis

Yes, different regional accents (e.g. Sydney slightly different to Melbourne), class accents, city accents, country accents, ethnic accents etc, etc just like anywhere else.

spouse of scouse

Different words for the same thing too. f'rinstance, a certain type of sliced deli meat is called polony in the west, but different States over east call it windsor or luncheon. I think it's called bologna in the US? Asked my little Pommy mate what it's called in the UK, apparantly it's dog meat

spouse of scouse

The only time I ever hear a dinky-di Aussie accent these days is out bush.

BadgeIsBack

There would be class distinctions in the US too. In general the higher the education the better the speech.

Australia can be very city vs country - so I can hear a bit of a country accent in a King's educated farmer...because he spends all his time with bushmen...

anyone who says there is no class differences in accent - work in an office - then notice the difference when the tradies visit. It's probably true though it's not so wide as in the UK - where you can still hear cut-glass and Cockney in the same office. There is a huge middle ground in Melbourne - probably equivalent to Estuary English in the SE of England.

spouse of scouse

Yes, there are regional differences but I'm wary of 'class' distinctions. More a case of how your parents/rellies speak, as do you, I think. Of course, there are exceptions. Agree about the differences being far more pronounced in the UK, even in England alone. Travel 30 kms and you could be in a different country!