Wayne's become a landlord? Of course....doh...he's got a bar

Fair play

Back to the OP, I must admit, that at times, I have missed a decent pint of ale....not for long, though

Do you two know whether double mattresses are the same size there as here?? seeing as everyone else is fekking ignoring my thread

You can get different sizes...king's, queen's and doubles. What's the issue? Is it your linen?

I posted this thread

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=332566

and everyones ignoring me

Iron Brew?????

Were you interested in Tassie house prices a couple of nights ago? If yes PM me, ell me what areas......too off topic here

Must be the English equivalent of Irn Bru I guess.

I'm sure I saw alcoholic Iron Bru when we were in Perth?? does that sound right or was I dreaming

Thanks Gog I've pm'd you.

I reckon that if you moan and whine in the UK now, when you get here you will still moan and whine. Its down to the person, attitude and perspective and not the place. Sure, you can change these things, but nobody if they are bitching about anything in the UK will find anything different here - except there are different things to moan about.

You moan about shit weather in the UK - then you'll moan about summer here, or the humidity, or the cold evenings, mossies, storms or the fact that it is isn't perfect - like everywhere else in the world.

I do agree with the comments of comparisons to the UK. I really wince when I see that posted since this is Australia and its never going to be the UK (I sincerely hope!). No there is no M&S and its production line of prepackaged nutritionally rubbishy food. There's no Next, no Boots and none of the names which many are familiar with in the high street. Thank heavens. We just have different names and brands!

Sure Australia has issues, supermarket domination etc and many of them, but it has advantages such as still a thriving small business economy for food, local butchers, bakers and so on. Its not perfect and its not better but it's Australia and where I choose to live. I accept and embrace it for what it is - a different culture than that in which I was born and bred. I'm grateful for the opportunity to live here and become Australian.

In the end we're all different with individual perceptions. But if your not happy where you are in life now you must ask yourself if a change in scenery is really going to make that much difference after the shine, polish and excitement has worn off?

Simply not true, but I'll excuse you because (pardon me for saying this) it's obvious that you don't know much about Australian history.

Which was the first country to give women the vote? That's right - Australia. Reckon they had to rock the boat to do it? Oh, just a BIT, perhaps...

How about the Eureka Stockade? Going to tell me that nobody rocked the boat on that occasion?

How about National Sorry Day? Plenty of boat-rocking there.

How about the ongoing campaign against detention camps for illegal migrants? If that's not a rocked boat, I don't know what is.

How about the Sydney Olympics? Australians took advantage of every boat-rocking opportunity it provided, and then some. We even forced the IOC into a humiliating backdown when it tried to prevent our sportsmen and sportswomen from appearing with the very un-PC mascot of Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat!

How about Australia's nationwide protests against the Iraq war?

My country was established on a long and consistent history of boat-rocking. It's one of the things Aussies do rather well.

That really does nothing to prove your point. The quality of the media is low because it is a relatively small market with relatively few players and one big bully (Murdoch) with a vast media empire. And how would you go about changing this, exactly? You can't!

"Rocking the boat" would do absolutely nothing to improve the quality of commercial broadcasting; people could march on the street in their millions, and the commercial stations would just roll their eyes and yawn.

This is the entertainment industry; it's not a government service, it doesn't have a mandate to give the punters what they want, and as long as it gets plenty of dough from its advertisers, it couldn't care less about the opinion of the man on the street.

It's all about money it's not about quality, and never has been.

This is a peculiar generalisation which doesn't actually prove anything. I'm not even sure what it means.

I could point to any number of problems/issues/aspects of UK society and ask why Brits don't complain about them/lobby against them/change them: increasingly strict anti-terror legislation; draconian political correctness; huge welfare benefits for dole scroungers and teenaged mothers; stupid rules from the EU that cause massive headaches for British companies; the shocking state of the NHS and schools, etc. etc.

This might prove that Brits haven't done much to rock the boat on those particular issues; it would not, however, prove that Brits don't rock the boat at all.

The same principle appplies to Australia.

Rock the boat....dont rock the boat, Baby!!!

Rubbish!

So a population of 20 million is a relatively small market is it?

I've heard this argument so many times from Australians to justify their acceptance of shoddy products. So what would your critical mass be for a 'large' market then?

The next thing you'll be telling me is that the market is so dispersed that 20 million doesn't mean anything. Not true either.

And the acceptance of Rupert Murdoch's power is a fabulous example of not rocking the boat. Why is there not more thorough legislation to stop Murdoch from owning such a large proportion of the media?

Why not use some of the huge tax receipts spent on a 'living away from home allowance' to increase investment in the ABC.

And even if you do accept Murdoch's empire, why not push politicians a little bit more - make them a little more accountable? Why not ask a few probing questions - it's so superficial.

You are absolutely right, IMO!

New Zealand granted female suffrage nealy 10 years before Australia

Hmmmm....and I thought this thread was about biscuits?