pommie bastard

Living next door to people from the North West of England in Australia , it shocked me still I now know more about Liverpool and Manchester than Australia.

dotty

Unworldlyness (no doubt that is not a word), but people seem so narrrow minded/sheltered, far from the rest of the planet and showing it.

1980ish ness, hello its 2003.

Lack of variety in purchasing stuff, like is having a CD player in a car really a luxury feature rest of the world got it years ago. Cheese mild or Tasty - wheres the rest of it?

Suburbia tho was the biggest shock. The great majority live in huge sprawling housing estates, rarely leave the house without the car, fenced in by 6ft palings.

Bronzed aussies not, fatty junk food chompers yes.

The Tooth Fairy

Losing hair or just a bad blow dry?

dotty

Please note Carriane asked for honest answers not a slanging match. Thank you Megalania.

Megalania

You called my name?

You nasty nasal little snotty cockney! You are my culture shock - your "culture" appears not to extend beyond being seen in London fleeceries.

DianeOZ

Culture shock??

Not knowing my geography regarding Australia and Asia. Especially when I started work and didn't where any of the towns were that our customers are in. I'm forever piping up "where does so & so live" & "whats the airport in Indonesia?" stuff like that.

It's starting to get a bit more familiar but found this the most difficult thing when srating my new job. Such a small thing but I felt like a bit of a prat I can tell you. They probably refer to me as the office idiot.

Diane

Herman

Work culture was my biggest shock - coming from London and hearing the constant messages put out by the UK media, I was under the delusion that I worked harder and longer hours than anyone else on this planet. I really thought I had it tough. Wrong. Very very wrong.

Hunnie

It is a shock how very few big hairy huntsman spiders you will see, I have still to see one, in fact i haven't even seen a redback.

It is also a shock when you have arrived from "summer" in scotland and it is hotter in winter in Oz. It is even more of a shock when you are on the boat going to work and the Aussie in front of you has a full length wool coat and scarf on, and you are standing in a skirt and blouse, no coat.

Yes, it is stramge wandering round the shops and knowing what brands to buy, our philosophy was that we would dive head on and see what happened, which ended up in us even getting fruit chutney cos we couldnt see branston pickle, the chutney was good, saw the pickle in another shop. Our other philosophy with shopping was to buy the cheapest that we saw (e.g. toilet cleaner, pasta) if it was good, fine, if not we'd try another one.

As mentioned previously, the variety of cheese is crap. I would like to get some Jack cheese, but havent a clue where to begin. They do have continental cheeses such as brie and feta, but nothing like the amounts we have. its amazing how supermarkets can fill a whole sections with different sizes and brands of tasty cheese.

Clothes shopping was a bit different, but you soon realise what sorts of shops are similiar to each other e.g. David Jones/Myer - Frasers, Sportsgirl - Warehouse/****, Target - Matalan. I found shoes to be a problem, alot of the Oz shoes seem to be really "clumpy" or the heels were too low, but I'm really picky with shoes anyway, so that might just be me. There is always Nine West is nothing else tickles your fancy, although I saw one brand i liked today something like Urban something, anyway they were nice. You get them in David Jones and some of the shops in the Myer Centre in Bris.

Emm, it's strange going to your work earlier than you do back home, I though my working hours would be comparible to the UK, but they are longer, although Im currently being paid hourly so I don;t really worry. My boyfriend works much longer hours for the same salary as back home, and so is more bothered by this.

The people are great, its fantastic being able to go into the pub and people just coming to chat to you, and introducing you to others. Its surprising how you meet people like this. Its also surprising how many people speak to you anywhere, in shops, lifts etc, ask where you're from and wish you good luck in oz, and you only ever meet them for like 1 minute.

Everyone in shops asks how you're going. Even more than the USA. It's kinda nice sometimes. You get to say thanks to the bus and boat drivers and they don't just grunt at you, they say thanks or bye back.

You have to go to the Post Office if you want a Phone Book (White Pages) Thats weird!

The noises! When you arrive you feel like you're living in a jungle with all the bird calls and insect noises. You later find out that the crows are really loud. You get used to them quickly. The ibis are a bit wierd at first, they seem to wander around everywhere, in fact one sat looking longingly beside me today when i was eating my lunch.

I'm sure there's more, it's not really a culture shock, just different stuff.

whisky

Really enjoyed your post

Whisky

highwinger

Came to Brisbane on the 11th June and no real culture shock as such, there are a few differences which you notice. Sorry if this drags on but I'm just adding things as I think of them

Walked into Telstra shop (like BT) for a pay as you go mobile we were greeted at the door and asked if we were looking for anything in particular and then directed to someone who new what they were talking about and took us through all of the options on the phones, fantastic customer service and very polite. We found this to be the case in just about every store we have visited.

Sometimes we seem to have trouble ordering things like Fish and chips.... I don't know why yet but if you ask for a portion of Chips twice they look at you like your speaking Dutch (even if you ask for hot chips)...I'll let you know the correct format for ordering if I ever find out. Chips = Crisps, Hot Chips = Chips and Lollies = Sweets.

You will probably wake up earlier this is probably because they don't tend to have heavy dark curtains over here and the wildlife will wake you.

Obey speed limits... 99% of Brisbaners seem to and there are hefty fines if you are caught speeding.

Banks charge for everything we use HSBC as they don't charge for the use of their own ATMs and give you the first 5 uses of other banks per month free.

Internet access is metred as the call is 20cents or so the ISPs charge you by the hour. You can buy pay as you go Internet access for 6 hours it's $9.95 from any Telstra shop.

People don't seem to drink as much, you don't automatically get offered an alcoholic drink if you visit someone in the evening (we're trying to change that though!) and there don't seem to be as many smokers.

I haven't seen a beggar on the street yet and litter is something you notice because there is hardly any of it. Brisbaners it seems can't deal with the shame of being seen dropping litter (which is great).

Travelling on the train I have started 8 or 9 conversations with complete strangers. I think in 29 years living in London I may have had 2. You will usually get a seat I haven't had to stand yet and have been travelling into the City for nearly 2 weeks by train. (and of course it's air conditioned)

Another bad thing we have come across so far it trying to buy thousands of dollars worth of furnishings and appliances for our house and the cards have a $1000 limit per day just the fridge was $1400 so we had to use our UK Visa cards to pay for loads of things. This is normal just in case someone steals your cards liability is limited to $1000.

TV is rubish, you'll hardly watch any especially if you don't like sport. don't try to watch a movie unless you have Foxtel (cable) as it will take hours with the commercials.

Ok that's about it ..oh you'll earn less for the same hours and quite a lot less but you'll still have a better quality of life especially if you've made some profit on a UK property.

Good luck with everything anyone coming out here will LOVE IT I reckon !!

DianeOZ

I also really noticed how they are really geared up to stop speeding and bad driving but it doesn't seem to work cos the death toll in WA alone this year is nineny something. I found the radio adverts like "Speed & you're as good as dead" and "Driving Tired can Kill" quite bizarre. I was in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and the big flashy sign things at the side of the freeway flashed up "Watch you speed" then a few metres down the road there was another saying "Bloody Idiot". That's enough to cause a friggin' crash, wondering if you were seeing things.

Diane

dotty

They just put one of those flashing boards up here, last week it was reading "are you speeding" at the time 9 roadworks guys were directing 3 lanes of dole day traffic into one completely congested lane. Speedo at the time 5klm per hour.

Bella

Diane,
your posts really do make me lol. Keep 'em coming, they're fab!
Bella

Rosy

Well, you`re right about the absence of litter - makes a pleasant change to the filthy streets of the UK!

You`re also right about the crap TV!!!

However, as far as 99% of Brisbanites obeying the speed limits - LOL!!!

And the bit about people not drinking so much over here - well, give it time and you`ll see just how much of a problem alcohol is here...

Yes, I think it is easier to start conversations on a train over here - but then in your post you said YOU started them - I think when people move to another country they make more of an effort to be friendly - perhaps we become complacent in our own familiar surroundings???

As far as "quality of life" is concerned, as it has been said on this forum many, many times before, it depends what you are after.

gOD

When I arrived in London after living in Hong Kong, I was *shocked* at how clean London was. Still find it not too bad really... For the amount of people, lack of bins, it is better than some of the towns I think!!

Other thing I really missed was custard creams.