The things Australia does best
 

"The things Australia does best"

• Pedestrian safety
• Customer service
• Sausage rolls
• Avoidance of bureaucracy
• Friendly rivalries
• Avoidance of chaos
• Sporting events
• Coffee
• Camaraderie
• The weather

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/t...#ixzz2AxmAF4J2

Re: The things Australia does best
 

pedestrian safety haha the pedestrian green light doesnt give anyone disabled enough time to get across the road and cars have often near missed me however in India no-one would dare hit anyone with a walking stick they would be lynched by a mob before the police could get there. and in Sydney i often got knocked over by kids walking 4 abreast on the pavement!

customer service does that mean where they search your bags and watch you closely and not go away and let you look at stuff in peace?because they think you are thieves!

sausage rolls i recently bought one it was huge and had gravy surrounding the meat urgh

avoidance of bureaucracy ..hahahaha i need a letter saying I'm deaf before I'm allowed to hire a minicom from telstra because of course all you hearing people want one desperately!!

friendly rivalries often sounds like sour grapes to me

chaos and sporting events seem to go hand in hand ..how many hours did it take to leave philip island after the racing recently?

camaraderie thats a worldwide thing every where in the world I have been and that's quite a few places, a British accent has made me friends and gotten me good advice and help from fellow Brits and also other Europeans

the weather here in Melbourne seems only slightly sunnier than the UK lately lol

now don't get me wrong I adore Australia and would happily live out my life here but I don't have rose coloured specs on either

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I'll give a tick for sausage rolls and coffee. At least, my wife's sausage rolls. They have apple and carrot in them and are yummy. Generally I hate them.

Coffee around here is top notch. :thumbup:

P.S. eddie007 - note: they have carrot in them ^^

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Meat pies...

Meat pies is missing from that list.... And the best in the whole wide world are from the European butcher on the road into freo.... Next door to the motorbike shop... Just past my mates place....

Re: The things Australia does best
 

not just meat pies fruit pies are great here as well :thumbsup:

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Possibly but for the smothering them in ketchup

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Snigger.

They are being sarcastic, aren't they?

Re: The things Australia does best
 

:lol::D:rofl::eek::lol:

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Cardboard and mince - honestly, I gave up being able to find a decent pie here and now make my own. Not only do mine have bits of recognisable meat and light puff pastry - its cheaper as well.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

They need to add arrogant but very delusional braggarts, but don't ask them to try and repeat that back - too many syllables for them.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Either you didn't look very hard or just not where you live? Great pies available that aren't 'cardboard and mince' but not commercial varieties though.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Oh yes, I think that is a given :lol:

Re: The things Australia does best
 

This one is the best of the list..

Avoidance of bureaucracy

:rofl:

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Reading these threads I often wonder if people have ever been to any other countries! I honestly don't think Australia is close to doing any of these things best!


Pedestrian safety
No Northern Europe is best on this and UK has some of the best engineered roads and safest roads in the western world...fact
Australia is quite backward on roadbuilding.

Customer service
What can i say

Coles v Tesco!
Woolworths v Asda!
Myer v Hohn Lewis!
Target v H&M!
Harris Scarfe v M&S!

We see where we're going! Uk is winning hands down so far...

Sausage rolls
Australian Sausages taste like horsemeat. Revolting. Your going to be bigging up the delights of fritz and Dagwood dogs next...

Avoidance of bureaucracy
Thats the most laughable statement ever. What a ludricously innacurate statement!

Friendly rivalries
Eh!

Avoidance of chaos
Never been to Scandinavia or switzerland then...

Sporting events
Missed the London Olympics and Germany world Cup then

Coffee
Anywhere in middle, east or southern europe or New York or my regular in Putney outdoes anything I slurped in Melbourne...

Camaraderie
Nah Australia one big network of cliques the UK wins hands down...

The weather
Thats a personal point of view. I think Spain and Italy do better weather. Far less extreme...

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I'm really really hoping that the story was VERY tongue in cheek :D

Re: The things Australia does best
 

there is some truth to this though.

google "The World Bank's Doing Business report says Australia is second easiest place to start a business"

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Sausage rolls
Australian Sausages taste like horsemeat. Revolting. Your going to be bigging up the delights of fritz and Dagwood dogs next...

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Dagwood Dog!!! Oh My GOD only in my worst nightmares......:sick:

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Yeah they don't do the best sausage rolls although I've had a really nice pork sausage roll in North Sydney train station. Pie face ones aren't too bad with a bit of ketchup even if they are not pork.

Australia does customer service very well. Now, before you laugh, telecoms companies are usually rubbish as they are world wide. But generally speaking, when you walk into a shop, you get a genuine friendly greeting. There are exceptions.

Applying for your drivers licence and walking out the door with your new licence. That impressed me very much. Being able to change the address on your licence for free an unlimited amount of times, even if its just be a sticker on the back.

Australians do 'sickies' better than anyone. I'll soon be an Aussie and looking forward to pulling the sickies very soon :p. Saying that, the company I'm in now don't seem to do it much and they are mostly Aussie.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Also, pub food. I don't think I've been to a pub in Sydney yet who didn't do a decent burger.

I read the original post as things that Australia does best, amongst all the things Australia does. I then read the article and see the author was referencing things Australia does better than other countries. It's something that any one of us could write about our home country compared to where we've been. To be taken with a pinch of salt I think.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I know it's a part of the national folklore...but I've never really agreed with this.

In the UK I could self certify SEVEN consecutive business days.

Here...it's always been:

2 consecutive days - need a medical cert.
Sickie on a Monday - need a medical cert.
Sickie on a Friday - need a medical cert.
Sickie adjacent to a public holiday - need a medical cert.

I had a look at my leave requests recently and realised that my sickies were almost always on Tuesdays! :D

But having a long weekend via a sickie means, making a dr appointment, paying $65, going to Medicare to get $32 back etc...! Hassle!

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I think thats unusual but maybe it's not. From my experience, a sickie can happen on any day of the week without a doctors note.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

If that's the article I read a few days ago - note that the author is also quite negative about Australia - and says what many say here.

It's relative folks -that's what you have to remember.
He was talking about red tapes in countries like India etc.

His point was that it ain't a bad place.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I've never needed a note - that's for sure! In fact most mgrs I work for barely record them.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I've had 3 (edit: 4 actually!) employers all with the same policy.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Here's how to do it properly!

http://www.jimmeruk.com/Jim-Reports/...-your-job.html

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Interesting about the ones after a weekend etc. I can see where they are coming from...

With kids, I find I get sick on Mondays.. because if my kids get sick at school, I seem to get it over the weekend!

Re: The things Australia does best
 

offense
racism
mediocrity
:scarper:

Re: The things Australia does best
 

So you've tried all sausages in Australia? If you bother to look you'll find sausages better than any in blighty but they aren't in supermarkets obviously. Try organic pork from old English breeds that have died out in England for a start. Too many others to mention. Generalisations like yours are common here but they really don't achieve anything.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Of course they are common here, they are the kind of comment you'd expect from us expats. If you don't like them, don't read the threads that are likely to contain them.


I've spent several years trying different sausages in Australia, I now don't bother. I avoid sausages over there and only eat them when I'm back here at home where I can find good ones at a reasonable price, in every supermarket.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I don't lnow about some of those:
Customer service - bad here, bad in the UK
Pies - again, crap in the UK and Australia. NZ is the place for great pies
Red tape - rampant in both countries but probably slightly more so here
Coffee - I don't get coffee culture. AUD4/GBPeso 2 for something that costs 10c to make. Wankers

Re: The things Australia does best
 

I only buy pork sausages. Never beef - this steers me in the right direction.
Most supermarkets stock speciality sausages that taste ok.

Can't compare with English ones - I don't remember what they taste like - but I do remember being served ones which my old dear said were full of stuffing....

Re: The things Australia does best
 

If you want decent sausages, go to a butcher and not a supermarket - in the UK or Australia. Sausages are generally poor in both countries - Spain, Germany, Italy, SA lead the way

Re: The things Australia does best
 

My experience of red tape here, in general, has been better than the UK. Just received my police check. Only did it Tuesday:thumbsup: CRB in the UK took approx 3 weeks iirc

Driving licence etc on the spot, no problems with Medicare, a couple of claims were processed automatically.

Centrelink:unsure: think the wording they use could be better. But once explained it seems ok

Re: The things Australia does best
 

There is no question that there is redtape here - when it comes to planning, 'elfin safety etc but I have always found that day to day things, and not so day to day (road licensing, passports, tax) run very smoothly here.

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Obviously not looking at suitable purveyors

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Does that mean you've tried ALL the sausages in Blighty?

Re: The things Australia does best
 

If you read my post again you may notice the English pig breed are no longer so the answer is in the affirmative. Nice try, but you'll need to up your game

Re: The things Australia does best
 

Sickies here are easier than anywhere I've ever worked before. Even when the boss knows someone is faking (not me I should add, I've actually been sick!) everyone acts all concerned and like we really believe the person was ill. It's almost funny until of course one spanner takes the piss and ruins it for everyone. At my brothers work, people announce in advance when they're going to be off sick...and it's fine apparently!

Re: The things Australia does best
 

But you'd still need to try ALL the sausages to know that they are better than the ones from the no longer available pig breeds surely?

Re: The things Australia does best
 

i dont remember the last time i had a sickie. i usually only do it when theres a sudden weather change or when i have very bad diarrhea.