Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Suprise suprise, I too agree that generally they are more selfish here than back in the UK. The environment here aggravates the problem too IMO. The climate means most get up early but not all so there is more chance of being annoyed. The huge land mass has everyone living withing 2 feet of each other in suburbia with houses that are mostly not brick and block like back home. The paper thin walls and no insulation means you can hear your neighbor fart next door. The lack of manners and general courtesy of Australian drivers is much worse here than back home, infact only 5 minutes ago I got hooted and told to F off because my car was parked on the side of the road making it a bit narrow for all of 2 minutes while the missus got her car out.

So yes based on my experience here both rural and now city they are indeed far more rude and selfish here.

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Sucks.

The afternoon we moved into our beautiful Victorian cottage in Buckinghamshire, all of a sudden this 'thud thud thud thud' started up and I thought 'WTF is that?!'... the teens over the road had a drum kit in their garage... and then as their hair got progressively more Emo and their skin grew greasier, they all started to multiply and very soon there was a very shite band practising at nights, their speciality on weekends... Of course when the precious teens needed to be dropped off at the garage by their doting parents, they couldn't drive into their driveway, they'd have to park outside out driveway, blocking it up.
I remember one day when I was trying to get out of the driveway and the mother and her son were sitting there having a good ol' chat in the car, and it was only after a good few minutes on the horn and my car nose next to the passenger door did they give me a little wave and move their car, no apology no nothing... completely oblivious.
God, I'm so glad I don't live there any more... such arsey people.

It's not Aussies, mate... it's just people.

Humans are inherently selfish and it's a nice wish that everyone would have the same consideration that you yourself obviously have, but as a race, we suck at it.

Chin up... and just think, Christmas is just around the corner. Buy the littlies a toy drum kit and yourselves a pair of headphones that block out all sound and tell them to do their worst. :sneaky:

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

:rofl:

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Living in the blander bits of surburbia and the more feral rural bits is definitely a bad idea - but will prospective migrants listen, no they won't. They'll learn though.

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Whilst I do have noisy inconsiderate neighbours (or usually just people who pass by in their V8's :sneaky:), I really think this 'Aussies are selfish' thing is a load of bollox and I think you are confused with 'PEOPLE are selfish.

I have had a noisy neighbour most of my adult life - with the exception of the 2 years before we came here.

One place I lived I have had a banger put through my letterbox by the next door neighbours kid. Bangers set off right outside my then 18 month old daughters bedroom at 1am in the morning. Music put on full blast then left on whilst my neighbour went away all weekend. Things thrown at the windows, grafitti on my walls, parties that went on all night and all sorts of other harrassment from this neighbour, who funnily enough didn't do it whilst the environmental health guys had their recording equipment in out house (her Dad worked for the council!). This went on for two years, and was in a 'sleepy village' in a rather expensive house - not in the middle of a council estate.

So yeah, in my experience people are selfish the world over - you either have to get used to it or move somewhere that doesn't have any people for miles.

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

....reasons why I live in the Blue Mountains.... :rofl:

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Good choice ;):D

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

One of these days I'm going to have an open house for Expats here, have them meet our friends, see the village, see how we get involved in the community. I think it would be quite an eye-opener for many disgruntled migrants.

But I don't want the house full of old wankers.:p

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Well I'm moving house this week. I have a rental for me and the kids to go to, with views of the escarpment... I will post a few pics.
Perhaps you'd all like to come for the housewarming BBQ in a few weeks? :D

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Can't a guy generalise and slag off an entire nation without getting grief!!:p

Just to answer some points. No the neighbour doesn't get home a 7pm and that is the only time he could mow his lawn. He is retired, he could mow his lawn anytime, as he has just proved it this morning by driving his mower from 8am to 9:30 (do you think he was making a point after last nights little argument?)

We don't live in a tiny mcmansion or anything, its a large plot of land, but unfortunately that seems to make the neighbours think they can run power tools any time day or night, because obviously being 10 metres away, we won't hear it.

We already have double glazing, its still not enough to block out a souped up revving motorbike from waking the kids.

I don't come from a village in the UK, I come from a suburban town near a city, I now live in a suburban town near a city. No, thats not the difference.

Mrs JTL reckons the difference is, where I used to live in the UK was 'nice', with 'nice' people, who were considerate and knew how to apologise.

Where we live now is not 'nice', its full of rednecks who wouldn't know an apology if it came up and slapped them. Their only response to criticisms or complaints is aggressive/defensive abuse. As last nights example shows, I explained to them they had woken my kids, they in return told me to 'get a life' and asked 'where the f**k did I think I lived'. Thats an aussie apology :eek:

JTL

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Personally I was not saying you couldn't mate. I was just telling my experiences and commenting on the way the thread was going.

There's your problem.

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Yup, time to move. :p

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Have to agree.

We get a fair bit of neighbour noise where we are - kids on the left, young adults on the right. None of it is unusual though - the kids play, the adults hang out with friends at weekends. It is very loud though, which I put down to the proximity of the buildings and the echo effect. We're looking for a new rental...

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Who could have envisaged how this thread would turn out. The glum-in-the-sun brigade think Aussies are arseholes - the 'godzoners' (such a lovely phrase) think people-are-people. And nobody can say anything without the reader thinking to themselves ... "Yea, they would say that, they think Oz is paradise," or "Yea, they would say that, they think Oz is hell."

Predictable or not, I subscribe to the people-are-people view. I lived in a flat in Bath, next door to a Liberal Club. They used to put bands on (actually, not bands, just talentless wankers with a Bontempi organ and a tone-deaf bint on vocals) every weekend. It was so loud in our flat you literally could not hear yourself speak - at the opposite end of the flat. We spoke to the management and they told us to **** off and move somewhere else if it bothered us. So we got the council in - who told 'em to quieten it down or lose their booze licence.

When we were looking at houses here, noise was a definite consideration. For that reason we moved to one of god's waiting rooms - a town with a very high percentage of retirees. As a result, our neighbourhood is nice and quiet - in fact if you asked around you'd probably find that we're the noisiest people on the block. Yes, we've had whipper-snippers at 6am and lawn-mowers at 7am on a Sunday - annoying yes, life-threatening, no.

Re: Aussies are selfish
 

Touch wood, we never had loud neighbours, but we had crazy neighbours, both in Adelaide & in the GC we have fantastic neighbours, I think we are loud, because we all talk very loud.:p