It depends on the State

Ask someone in NSW, for example, what a Pink Slip is, and how often they get them ... It is an annual vehicle safety inspection.

WA don't do them, nor do QLD.

We have to rely on ourselves to check our own tyres ...

How far away from Nanango, QLD are you ?

The Commercial Hotel even does Guiness Pie made with steak and real Guiness.

They even say they have Leprechauns ?

Its because the happy people have got lives

dont think Vic does them either.
Luckily, where I live, all of my neighbours do their daily auto checks before they leave for work.

I thinks it’s only natural to compare countries when you holiday, or move, abroad. Some people will only criticise their new environment….and are probably best staying at home. Others embrace it….most of us are somewhere in between.
I talked with Mrs BATS the other day and suggested, on our next trip to the UK, that we looked out for crap things about the UK. Things that we may not have noticed when we lived there.
So some things that are crap here, MIGHT also be crap there….
For example –
1. Bad driving – my pet hate, having been a professional driver for 20+ years.
Standards of driving in WA are notoriously poor, even compared to elsewhere in Oz. The bad drivers are bloody awful ! But then, so are so many drivers in the UK. A 15 minute commute to work in the UK would have me swearing at other drivers virtually the whole way ! Same problems – hogging the outside lane, tailgating, cutting you up, no indication at roundabouts.
On the whole, WA is no worse than the UK, especially given how crowded UK roads are. Most are OK & courteous drivers. Try Italy if ya wanna see BAD !!
Only thing I find frustrating is the obsession with catching people speeding in a state with ridiculously low speed limits….which encourage tailgating. Try catching some drunk drivers instead, of which there are many once the bars shut …..or taking the wrecks of cars off the road that should have been on a scrap heap years ago! (see previous post re no MOT tests).
….and as for lanes entering the motorway as well as being an exit….try the M4/M5 interchange at Almondsbury. It’s a hoot and the scene of almost daily accidents. So innovative, that the Ozzies copied it !!
2. ‘howyagoin ?’ – same crap different country. ‘Have a nice day’, ‘no problem’, ‘Howareyeeew?’…..all supermarket staff, the world over, are told to have some fatuous pleasantry up their sleeves to greet customers. All annoying as hell !!
When someone greets me with a “Howareyeeew?’, I reply ‘Fine thanks, howareyeew?’ That usually throws them !!
3. So Sydney has poor public transport? Not so different from the UK then? Perth is great by UK standards. New & clean trains that run on time and are CHEAP by comparison. I do miss the old cattle truck rattlers in Vic in the 1970’s tho. REALLY basic !!
4. Oz has bogans…UK has chavs….US has trailer trash….tattoos, mullets, piercings, rusting cars on the front lawn…. Sound familiar ?
5. Nationalism from people that have hardly ever been out of their backyard, let alone “abroad”!
Just take a look at the next Easyjet flight to Malaga and how many Brits wear Engerland football shirts…as if they are making some kind of nationalist statement. And what do they want when they get to Spain? fish & chips, curry and British fizzy beer. Very cosmopolitan!
It’s probably worse in “young” nations like Oz and USA. Their lack of history may have a lot to do with it. Young nations are often more nationalistic.

One thing me & the Mrs are agreed on, is that neither of us have missed where we used to live (UK). This surprised my Mrs, given that she wasn’t convinced she’d enjoy the move. The weather, people we’ve met (expats and locals), entertainment, food, wine etc are all great. Other things not so. What do you expect? It’s a DIFFERENT COUNTRY for fecks sake !!
But we think we are better off so far. It’s only employment that’s proved to be slow…but we’re working on that !!
So next time we are in the UK, we are looking forward to being whingeing Poms !!… ‘isn’t the weather AWFUL!!’……‘get out of the outside lane, you twat!’…….whilst filling our bags with decent clothes and shoes!!

[QUOTE=whilst filling our bags with decent clothes and shoes!! [/QUOTE]

for god's sake don't forget proper tea bags

OK, "proper COFFEE!"

Re aussies being so patriotic?I'd call it insecurity!Martin Luther:Yes maybe I do on on about how fab the Uk is,(on this forum anyway)but I have travelled alot,lived alot of places in Oz and the UK so can look at places objectively,I was making a point that most aussies are OTT patriotic and don't know any better.Before you decide to reply,I will point out I have kids who are aussies!

ha ha ! no 7!!!
know what you mean....

but then again, try being an innocent black guy (like my husband) wearing a puffy jacket,leaving b&q in london, with no purchase (as they didn't have what you want) and see how you feel!
my husband had a security guard (indian ,of all people, as they should know how it feels to be singled out too) follow him around the store like a bad smell, when he wasn't even acting remotely suspicious, and then stare at him the whole time from the store entrance, as he got back in his car..very unnerving...
i like how they check your bags ,anyway....if you're not nicing anything, whats the problem?
every one knows what a lipstick or a tampon looks like!

But you haven't met most Aussies, have you? I haven't met one Aussie who is anywhere close to OTT patriotic, does that mean that I can say most Aussies are not patriotic and it would be accepted? I think not.

Sheesh......this is how it works Moneypen.....people have experiences, those experiences lead them to form opinions, those opinions likely differ from someone elses, but are valid nonetheless. You do not have to have a 100% sample size before you form an opinion.....or even a 51% sample size.

If that was the case.....even trotting out, '....it's just different' ad nauseum wouldn't be allowed.

If someone says something and doesn't explicitely say, 'it's a well known fact', or 'it's universally accepted' then take it for granted that that is their opinion.

I would have thought it was physically impossible to meet anything approaching 20 million people ???

Personal opinions on a message board? Don't be ridiculous. You should know better by now.

http://www.manmeets20millionpeople.com

I dont know about that - have you seen some peoples facebook friends list?