Goose

Having spent a good amount of time in Australia, the UK, Europe and now Victoria, BC, Canada, I would choose to live in Australia, the lifestyle is awesome. It just depends on what suits one personally. Australia is the best kept secret, I loved the sea, sun, wonderful fresh produce e.g. meat, seafood, fruit, veg and WINE, art, theater, rugby, cricket, clean streets and the egalitarian attitude of the politicians. It depends on where you stay in Australia, Sydney could compare with any city in the world. The UK and europe are too crowded although the history is awesome - wonderful for a holiday. The advantage of staying in Canada is that it is not a remote as Oz but I find it more expensive than Aus and I can't get used to baseball and ice hockey.

Sherry

janeyray

Can anyone remember the supermarket chain "Food Giant' back in the Uk, came out around the 80's well the supermarkets here are just like those!!!

Kath

Good post jayr. Would also like to continue....

2003 - very materialistic eg. homes too large - who needs, living room, dining room, theatre room, rumpus room, games, formal lounge, en-suite on every bedroom, 4 car garage etc.

1980's - your old worn out car is still worth something at the scrap yard, you have to pay to have it scrapped in the UK. Bread is still tied at the top by plastic tab !

1970's - electric bar heaters brought out the cupboard in Winter, my daughter's Kindy have wall mounted bar heaters, the sort we had in our bathroom in the 70's, I'm sure they're dangerous!

Think this might just be an Aussie thing but in Perth you can also get away with having no shoes or just a pair of thongs (flip flops) - I wonder why people go shopping /walk around streets in bare feet here, even in Winter?

jayr

Big houses are a bit bizzarre. Our first rental was two storey and half of upstairs was the 'formal' lounge - we never had one piece of furniture in it for six months - we moved down to something more useable. Do miss the Pool tale we used to have, even though it never really got used (anyone need a set of Pool balls?)

Those bread plastic tags, at school (in the 70s) we used to collect them all onto the brake cables on our bikes (Tomahawks and Choppers)

Electric bar heaters - yes got those - also why are there electrical outlets by the sink in the bathroom - I can't convince my wife not to use her hairdryer in it.

Barefeet - when I first arrived here in summer I thought it reallly strange to see people walking down the street barefoot - I assumed they were a bit mad - as you would think if anyone did so in the UK. Even in winter you see people doing the same around Woolies. Admit I even started to do this myself a bit last summer.

Kath

Like the plastic tags story, brings back memories. Can't get used to the bare feet bit - my feet are too soft and I find it painful, need to build up some hard skin!

A friend of mine has a 1/2 acre block, 4 bedroom home (1 en-suite), formal living & dining, kitchen diner and family room, family bathroom, study, double garage, very large entertaining area and she complains it's not big enough??!! They are planning to build a bigger home soon - it's too much. When you think how families manage in a 3 bed semi in the UK.

I am impressed with camping equipment in Australia, they have some great things and good ideas. I didn't know you could get petrol fueled stoves and lights. We've just bought a queen size camping mattress (self inflating), it's so comfortable, not like our old airbed. The kids have got that now!!

jayr

You know when you're getting used to Oz when:

1) You actually say 'G'day' to someone and it doesn't feel weird (!)
2) You go to the shop or drive the car barefoot
3) You think that a TV advert was on in the UK
4) You say dollars when you meant to say pounds
5) You stop converting everything back to pounds
6) You think 98c/litre is expensive
7) You know who Bert Newton is
8) You don't think it strange to pay to see your doctor
9) Spiders don't scare you
10) You've decided which is better, Coles or Woolies

Ceri

electric sockets near the sink.... I don't know why they put them there but they do. when we were designing our home we moved them on the plan The original plan had a socket by the sink).. we moved one to the far wall away from the sink, and the light switch to the outside of the bathroom. In Britain having a normal light switch (without the cable/ceiling pull ones) on the inside of a bathroom is illegal. The sparky who wired up our house kept asking why do you want the lightswitch on the outside wall.. we had to explain to him because electric and water ... bang!..

cheers

Kath

Oh dear, that's scary looks like I'm half way there!

jayr

Another 1950's type thing - the school has a fete and asks if you could make some pickles to sell (happened to my picklingly challenged wife)

jayr

11) You stop thinking 'Omo', 'Fluffy', 'Coon' and 'Pump' are funny names for products

Kath

Oh dear, home made pickles, not my thing either. We have a cake raffle every week at my daughter's Kindy, when it was my turn to provide the cake I was the only one who brought one from Coles - whoops! (Yes, I prefer Coles!).

jayr

Coles is better isn't it. My wife also guilty of taking shop bought to the playgroup. She also says that when people arrange to take kids to park that everyone brings some sort of preprepared buffet food along. We went to a local fair recently and there were prizes for different cakes (and pickles) - a bit like something out of 'Heartbeat', and this is in greater Brisbane. Not complaining but sometimes Oz does appear to live in a more innocent age.

Kath

I've been along to a few coffee mornings and everyone brings homemade cakes, at first I turned up empty handed and it was embarressing, now I take along the Timtams!! It reminds me of coffee mornings my Mum used to have in the 70's, some people get out the cups and saucers, come to mine you get a mug!

We've also been to a few country fairs, they've had the brass band playing in the old club house, pony rides, log chopping, tractor demonstrations - a real time warp.

dotty

There was a article on the Big house thing in one of the weekend newsaper magazines. Was not very flattering either. They have adopted the Yank term McMansion, that is big cheap nasty all the same houses. Have not got the article with me but it had some funny lines, like Spec home designers are geniuses, getting the biggest house to stand up with the least materials. The idea is to build the biggest house on the smallest block as close as possible to your neighbour. The pictures were of the true aussie sea of roof horror and ariel shots of all these identical houses and driveways. Slums of the future was another term.

McMansion the Aussie Dream. Sound awful but its so bloody true.

Badge

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jayr
Well, as I see it so far:

2003 - well, sort of obvious I guess but I think I mean that on the surface things appear here to be the same as in other 'western' civilised nations, lots of coffee shops, mobile phones, whatever.

1980's - in so many ways (and I speak really only from Brissy experience), look at the haircuts - as last seen in my 1980s school photographs.

1950's - The apparent respect of authority,....<QUOTE>

Great post!! You have it right I think. I get annoyed by the people that say Aussie is backward when it has most of the things like mobiles etc that you mention in 2003.

I never noticed really many 80s things there - apart from old cars which of course last longer due to less rust - and - fore example -the advertising is more down to USA influence than 1980s??!! Could be wrong?

As for the 1950s attitudes - as Dotty says, these are the good things I suppose and I would reckon one of the reasons why a lot of us are migrating. For me its the innocence and calm of alot of the people - the "You from the old country - welcome to Australia" attitude of the older generation. Certainly school kids seemed very polite and would give you directions on what stop to get off at etc without giggling or taking the piss as you get off etc talk to you like mini adults, take an interest in you as a a person.

nice one!

badgers