Originally Posted by papilon

I have tried and yeah its good with some chips. But i would not want it if i was having Fish and chips, then tartare sauce, vinegar, salt is all thats required

Can you generally get good fish and chips in your neck of the woods? here in Melbourne they are generally very average which suprised me as i have had good ones before in other parts of Oz.

Originally Posted by bcworld

I used to get chips, cheese n gravy regularly at about 3am in London from a place on the corner of Tottenham Cr Rd and Oxford St...it burnt down unfortunately.

Originally Posted by bcworld

You should've seen the state of me in those days hen...come to think of it, I'm not much better now!

Originally Posted by ProudVIC

...and here I am, 60km from Melbourne, on an acre planted with mostly Northern Hemisphere deciduous plants and surrounded by hundreds of spectacular European style gardens with rare plants from all over the world. The soil is deep loam and on the mountain it's red volcanic soil. We have rhododendrons, camellias galore, almost every species of tree you can think of and all mixed in and surrounded by magnificent native forest.

In the forest the native bluebells (Whalenbergia) are just finishing flowering and we have species of mint, lobelias, violets, geraniums, pelargoniums, clematis, ferns and tree ferns, elderberry, daisies and daisy bushes (some that grow up to 8m tall), etc. etc. all native to the area, i.e. Australian plants. Yes, there are native Australian species of these plants, they are not just found in Europe and North America. Add to that all the fantastic species of Eucalyptus and Acacia we have in our forests and the ancient Gondwanan relic flora we have in SE Aus that's related to species in South America.

There's even a native species of forget me not that grows up here.

At the moment we are awaiting Autumn when all the deciduous trees planted in gardens, parkland and lining the streets put on a spectacular display of colour, not just here, but over large parts of Victoria. We put in some Dahlias here in Spring and they have been flowering for several weeks now and are only about a third out with heaps of buds yet to open. They won't be at their best until early April.

In winter, we may even get a couple of days with snow falling here and more further up the mountain.

But of course, Australia doesn't have seasons, Australia doesn't have nice gardens or plants. Australia is a desert wasteland, not just some of it but all of it apparently.

BTW, Eastern Australia has far more spectacular forests than anything in England. Denser, greener and taller, with a dinosaur age sort of feel to it with the towering tree ferns etc.. We have the world's tallest flowering plant (and one of the tallest plants in the world full stop) in Victoria with some stands growing just a few km away from me and large forests full of it as close as 40km from Melbourne CBD (in the Dandenongs).