Don't think I've ever seen a cat on the street in Oz, will a cane toad do?

I've got County Tyrone on the work sweepstake. It's probably got 3 legs.

Never realised it was such a big thing here, everyone asking "what are you doing for the Melbourne Cup?" - d'oh, dunno what's that??

Di

TAB also used to be that low calorie cola drink

lol.. you may just get 20 fags all clambering your way. Ciggies or cigs , or smokes most people around me use

suppose so.. but watch his skin dosen't squirt you with his venom... he may not take too kindly to so many questions.. odd things are toads

Err, wot a rip off, good job I dont waste me hard earned bucks gamboling.

Its a bit of a worry here, loads of the highschoolers who finished school just last year are now 18 and guess where they are hanging out at due to the cheap grob and food. The RSL clubs, most of them are straight out of High and gamboling already. Those poker machines are incredible to Aussies, such a draw card, I dont get it, even in Las Vegas I only bet with dimes or something lost about $5.00. Tight or wot

Woops, grob should read grog

you sound as if you may have had too much of the "grob"... or it's champagne (cup tradition)today

Not a gambler myself .. just do the Melbourne cup each year. Pokie machines .. hate them, very anti social things. The club near us have loads of the them. You go in there and the people are like zombies sitting in front of them all night, no conversation. old, young men and woman.. actually I notice more women using them than men. Imagine going out with your hubby and just sitting there in front of a machine all night .. not talking to one another.. actually Hubby might enjoy that..lol he says I talk too much

cheers

...and gamboling should read gambling - though gamboling is cheaper and more entertaining!

Just been outside and everyone's all dressed up, never seen such a sight in Brissy before - and I don't mean best singlet and thongs either!

They call them Durries

I asked an Aussie friend for a fag the other day and didn't get any funny looks, so maybe its something they know about even if they don't use it. (I did get some looks when I asked for a jiffy bag though!)

I seem to remember when I lived here in 89/90 that pokies were illegal in QLD and legal in NSW.
there used to be loads of mad folk flocking over the border to Tweed Heads to throw away their hard earned each weekend. the casino was still on the Gold Coast, but that was it.

My observation at that time was that pubs in QLD were much the better for the lack of pokies, if you could actually find one open as they had daftie closing time laws, particularly on sundays.

A lot of the pubs (hotels) are still like that with the closing times. They shut up shop when they feel like. The only thing which opens late around me are RSL's (clubs). A couple of Sunday's ago my satellite went down (I wanted to watch a rugby game which was only live on fox) so we went out to nearby town as they had a sports bar which had fox sports.. this was at 6pm .. we walked in and asked the lady if they were showing the rugby .. yes but we are closing .. what at 6pm??. Pubs still have weird closing times here. we've been in pubs before now where they shut up shop because there's only a few customers there. You'll notice advertisements for restaurants and pubs with their opening times.. but never their closing times, it normally says "till late".

I've been in Qld for 5 years and the pokies have always been legal in this time I've been here.. I think the government regulates how many machines can go in a pub etc .. but all the clubs have a huge amount of them. It's an odd addiction if you ask me. Don't these people realise that the machines are programmed.. now if I could own one that would be a different matter. One way to get rich in gambling - own the poker machines.

talking about pubs.. right I'm off to one now to watch the race .. race starts soon in about 20 minutes

Have got the radio on at the moment, usual music has stopped, they're broadcasting the race instead. Hubby didn't need a packed lunch today either, they're having a sweepstake lunch at work. I suppose this is like the Oz equivalent of the Grand National?

Talking about gambling, have fun all you newbies trying to figure out which lotto (lottery) ticket to buy. I still haven't figured it out yet. There are state lotto draws, national draws, draws on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as Saturdays, Powerball draws, regular huge jackpot draws, and loads of scratch & win tickets to choose from.

Melbourne Cup winner is Makybe Diva, by the way.