Originally Posted by Toryglen-Boy

I am curious, do Australians think that every country in the UK is alike? have you ever been to Scotland, Northen Ireland, or Wales? or is the true "Pom" an Englishman?

just want to get this clear ...

Originally Posted by blowers

Are you australian?
If so, maybe its just an Australian/English thing. Londoners seem cliquey to you, but maybe they don't take much interest in Australians as they see so many passing through?
And Australians aren't social and inviting to Brits for the same reasons.
I found that Londoners were always going to the pub after work,sort of thing, which made it easy to make friends, while here, people all have their mates going back to childhood so stay in their little circles.
But maybe its just an old fashioned case of people sticking with their own kind?!
Of course if you're not australian then i've gone and written a load of ol twaddle!

Originally Posted by kiwichild

I've noticed quite a few people saying that Aussies tend to be very friendly initially and at the casual level, but getting beyond that can be difficult. That fits with my experience in Perth, but then again it could just be me. As you say, it's all subjective really.

Originally Posted by blowers

there is definitely a certain class of person in the UK and its particularly evident in the Surrey area thats a stuck up unapproachable, nose in the air type. But they are the minority, honest!

Originally Posted by Exile

The culture in Perth is probably the strangest in all of oz. I have found varying degrees of friendliness across the country where I have been, but Perth stands alone in my opinon for in terms of being a place and people who think life stops to have any meaning beyond the WA border, and that the emaning of life and therefore your value as a human being is dependent on who you know, what you do, and what you have. Think it truly has to rival some parts of america in this regard.

Originally Posted by Exile

I think people also have to be aware that generalization is not a criminal offence. Some posters seem unwilling to accept that places and their people develop distinctive characteristics over time, owing to various, social, economic and cultural factors.

Originally Posted by lostpom

Some great posts on the Is It Worth It ? post in this forum prompted me to get a few things off my chest here. We (me=British, girlfriend=Aussie) moved here last June, and have had a very unsettling time of it so far, and in fact are considering moving back to the UK in the near future.

What follows is meant to be (fairly) lighthearted, so I hope I don't offend...well...too many people ! For your information, we are living in Gympie, QLD, but have spent most of the rest of our time around the Sunshine Coast. Feel free to correct, or have a good old Aussie pop at me as you like.

My Top 10 Aussie Gripes!

1. TV quality. Never, NEVER again will I complain and bitch about paying the TV (BBC!) license in the UK. The quality of programs here is really quite poor, with mostly American imports, and to be honest not even the good ones. How Desperate Housewives won whatever award it was for best something Australian category says a lot about the general Aussie viewing public. THEN there’s the TV ads. My God! Is ANYONE allowed to make their own TV ad in this country? It seems all you need is Phyllis from the sales desk to "act" a nice little scene (obviously thought up in....ooohhh....all of 5 minutes), and then Bob the delivery van driver to film it all on his $200 camcorder. I laughed heartily at these gems at first, but after a short while this turned to dismay. Do these people really think doing this will make the public want to buy their product? Oh (I'm not finished yet) and WHY do they think it’s clever to stick their child on at the end of the ad trying to say something about buying brand X??? Yes, I'm just about to spend $30,000 on a new pool, and my buying decision is going to be influenced by a 2 year old who may be cute, but can barely speak and knows nothing about deep excavations and pool construction?

2. Internet. Yes, that Internet Thingy is finally getting popular down here in Australia, though your choice of Aussie web sites and e-retailers is way, WAY behind what you will be used to back home. I actually read somewhere that they only launched ADSL services around 18 moths ago. Can you believe it! Whilst the rest of the western world has been happily embracing the new technology age for the last 6 years or so, Australia is just beginning the journey. I have been greatly disappointed at the breadth of stores and information to be found on the web in Aus. The very first thing I did in the UK when I want to buy something (regardless if it’s going to be an internet transaction or not), is I go online to check out reviews and typical product prices. Erm…not really is Australia. You will find web sites and stores at least 2-3 years behind the UK in terms of functionality and data. Some of them, I’m sure, are being designed by young children in technology sweatshops in India. And on the subject of shopping, what IS it with this idea that if you want to buy something in a shop, you have to go into a store and haggle them down to a reasonable price? Once the internet finally gets to be a popular purchasing medium here, and people get used to fixed, low, transparent online pricing, this tedious sales model will finally go out the window.

3. Cost of Living. Compared to the UK, the cost of living is really quite high here. With average salaries being only 40-60% higher than the UK (directly in $-for-£ comparison, so if you earn £30k in the UK, you might earn $42k-$48k for the same position here), yet property prices being certainly in the region of $300k-$600k for anything half decent in a nice suburb with any sort of amenities, you’ll find your pennies going a lot less further here. Oh, and did I mention the whopping 47% tax band that comes in at only $70kpa? Then there are the other costs of living. It seems our fortnightly grocery bill (for 2) is unlikely to come in under $250 each time we go. Products and produce seemed to be priced way over what we would pay for things in the UK. This situation isn’t really helped by what appears to be the blocking (or high levys) on imported products to Australia. Whilst the ‘Australian Made, Australian Owned’ stamp and campaign (for consumers to only buy Aussie made goods), is rather patriotic, it unfortunately doesn’t give consumers the choice to buy cheaper, as-good quality foreign goods if they want to, or maybe if even can’t afford the home grown product. The UK is a massive open market for all sorts of products, and you will notice a big difference here.

4. Australian Red Tape and Regulations. I really thought Australia was going to be a land of opportunity, but sadly it really is more of a land of regulations and obligatory training and qualification for the most basic of skills (like painter/decorator!!! – there’s probably a 2 year apprentiship to become a ‘Grass Cutter’ too). Such over regulation dumbs down the population, so they think they’re not allowed to do something themselves with a little common sense, so its “Oh…..better get a tradie in to do the work”, and there’s another $500 gone. I happen to be a very practical person, and like to be able to do whatever I want to, and just about every time do a really good job of whatever. I actually got interrogated in a trade electrical suppliers about my qualifications to do electrical installation work. Despite being qualified in the UK (oh, and having the small matter of a degree in Electronics), oh no! Of course that was not good enough for them. I seem to have heard “oh, you can’t do that” so many more times than “yeah, go right ahead, no worries” in this country.

5. Lack of cultural diversity and restaurants. If you enjoy an occasional good quality Chinese meal, or maybe Thai or Italian (and I mean proper Italian), then get ready for a shock. Despite Australia apparently having a large Asian population, you will find that these people seem to choose mostly to live in certain areas of the big cities. Unless you’re in one of the capitols, you’re unlikely to find any sort of authentic cuisine. We went to a Thai restaurant on the Sunshine Coast, and the meal cost a fortune and was only distantly related to Thai cuisine, probably not helped by the fact there was not a single Thai person working there. You like a curry? Don’t even ask about Indian restaurants. I have seen hardly any. My local Italian Ristorante is Dominoes with their disgusting looking current ‘Triple Cheese’ offer. Ugh!

6. Lack of History. Now heres something that maybe I took for granted living in the UK, but I tell you, when it’s taken away from you, you certainly miss it! Whether its sitting in a nice country pub with old walls and old….errr.…odd things hanging on the walls, or reading something about a town or buildings history, you’ll get little of this is Aus. In fact, go to any ‘pub’, and you’ll find yourself sitting in a stark room with TAB (betting) machines everywhere and the weekly meat tray raffle results still chalked up on the board from last week. Its hardly inspiring.

7. Where is everybody??? The lack of people out socialising is quite astounding. Where are they all, and what are they doing? For example, the town of Gympie has a reasonable population of 32,500. In the town there are probably 10 pubs, also of reasonable size. Now explain to me, why if we go out on a Friday or Saturday night, there are maybe 3 people in one pub, maybe 10 in another and maybe a small handful spread over the rest of them (and these are big pubs, capacity 40-80 people). Where are all the young people? What on earth are they doing?? Take New Years Eve. Despite my girlfriend’s unwillingness to go out and have a boring night (again), I persuaded her otherwise. “Come on! It’s New Years Eve!!! There will be loads of people out and about”. Well the first pub we walked to had closed early (9:30pm), the next pub had some old wrinkly and guitar strumming out some music from some sort of genre I know nothing about, and want to know nothing about, along with about 10 people in the place, max. Then we headed off to the local RSL club (for the uninitiated, this is a sort of Nationwide ex-Army working mans club), and this as always was at least full of people. But oh what people!!! The entertainment of a Country and Western band really put us in the mood for a cool night out! Then it was off to the local one and only club in town. At least they had the sense to change their name to ‘The Shaft’ from ‘Phantomz’. Yes, what a cracking name, total quality with a K. Actually with a KW on second thoughts.

8. Style and Class. They say Australia is a classless society. I actually think that’s a typo, they meant to say it’s a styleless society. Blokes in stubbies (baggy nylon shorts) and singlet vests or even shorts with their white socks pulled right up to their knees. Girls in masculine men’s board shorts that do nothing for the figure. Shudder! Don’t even get me started on the current ‘fashion trend’ of graffiti T-shirts that everyone seems to be wearing here. What IS the point on these, can someone enlighten me? Now I know the UK is not blameless in this category (does anyone remember shell suits?), but come on Australia!! You can do better than that!

9. “You’ll Love It”. Aaaaggghhhh ! WHY am I constantly confronted by people telling me I’m going love something? How do they know what my tastes or standards are? In fact, in most cases, the things I have been promised I’m going to love have turned out to be very mediocre places or events indeed. Personally I think it’s all wrapped up in the slightly annoying habit of Australians of harping on about ‘How good it is here’ or the such. Personally, I’m slightly suspicious of anyone who blahs on about how good they have it constantly. It’s like if you keep on saying it enough times, it might become true. If it IS so good in Australia, then how come they flock to London in their thousands to live every year? Maybe it’s the lack of self depreciating humour that we Brits are so good at and the ability to joke about yourself that I miss.

10. Cost of Travel. Yes, OK, Australia is a tad further away from it neighbours than you might be used to in the UK – with Europe (or should I say the rest of Europe!) on your doorstep, but the cost of flights originating from Australia is disproportionately higher than the same flight inbound. Due to the lack of airline competition in the region, it seems we are expected to pay up to 30%-40% over the equivalent flight costs. I recently planned to go back to the UK for a break, and it was actually cheaper for me to go back early on a spare return leg I had, and book another return flight from the UK than to book a one way ticket from here! If you like to travel, then you really should research if this is going to be financially possible, particularly on the value of the Aussie dollar, and typical salaries here.



Good lord, I do sound like a whingeing Pom, don’t I? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret on my whingeing Pom theory. Whingeing Poms ARE a reality, and they exist in the majority of cases because UK people come over to Australia, and expect to have the same standard of living that they got used to back home. It’s too hot! – we moan, Its too expensive ! – we moan, I can’t find Lurpak in Wooly’s – we moan. We are, by nature a complaining nation, but you know what – I’d much sooner people complained about things to try and change or better them, rather than sitting back and saying ‘Its great here, isn’t it?’.

lostpom.com

I think I better go and lie down now

Originally Posted by Exile

The culture in Perth is probably the strangest in all of oz. I have found varying degrees of friendliness across the country where I have been, but Perth stands alone in my opinon for in terms of being a place and people who think life stops to have any meaning beyond the WA border, and that the emaning of life and therefore your value as a human being is dependent on who you know, what you do, and what you have. Think it truly has to rival some parts of america in this regard.

Originally Posted by Hutch

This some strange portion of the female anatomy they've just discovered? Am I likely to chance upon the wife's copy of New Woman magazine and glimpse there-in a guide to discovering and pleasuring your partner's aresehole? Is any form of lubrication or perhaps a special stretching exercise regime required? Do tell.

Originally Posted by turtletom

I cant believe it! There is someone out here who feels the exact same way about Australia as i do!! Wow!! I thought it was just me who didnt like this place!!

Everything you said is true!!

Tom

Originally Posted by fraser

F**k me mate if Sheffield is better than Canberra it must be grim

Originally Posted by lostpom

Yeah turtletom ! What the bloody hell ya doin in Canberra ?? (mind you, I can't speak, I'm in Gympie! )

Originally Posted by Pollyana

But isn't Gympie the place that Things Happen, Beer gets Brewed, Fish get Caught, and Mice get Trapped?????