Signs of Australia

People in Australia talk fast. They also just come right out and say what they mean. In the US, we would say "Pick up after your dog". (as if he left his toys on the living room floor or something). Not so circumspect in Australia.
You never see signs like this in America. Of course, we don't have a rampant wallaby, kangaroo and wombat problem. Wombats look like a someone mated a pig with a pug. They are supposed to be the densest animal in the planet (not meaning stupid) and they move fairly slow. If you hit one in a bingle, you are for sure going to be seeing a panel beater.
No - petrol is not 135.9 Australian Dollars per litre, even though that is what the sign says. This was as low as it got while we were there. It is $1.35.9 per litre, or $5.14 per gallon ($5.71/gal. at the current exchange rate). If you put it on your charge card, you can add 2-3% for a foreign transaction charge. Brooke's car (a Kia 7 passenger van with a really powerful engine) was pretty good at just sipping the fuel. When we left, it was at $1.59.9 per litre (you do the math)
Australia is famous for "brekkies" or breakfast. Burger King is called Hungry Jacks in Australia and is good for brekkies, though we never went to one. Half the items on the food menus are not recognizable to someone from Utah. They had meat pies with "mushy peas" on top. Unfortunately, that is exactly what it sounds like. A school lunch might include a Vegemite sandwich (or sandwhich as they spell it) and some bikkies. We bought some lollies to bring back home.
There are quite a few places where you cannot abseil. On the set, we noticed special places on the floor that must be kept open for the electricians and others that work in the upper rigging to abseil down in the event of an emergency. I would never even think of taking the scout troop abseiling.
Most restaurants offer take away. They have these incredible re-useable plastic containers if you want something to go. It goes along with their environmental ethic they seem to be particularly proud of, notwithstanding the inscription I saw scrawled on the back of a truck " You can take your carbon tax and stick it where the sun don't shine". I guess not everyone is an environmentalist there.
Reminiscent of our trip to London, they drive on the wrong (left) side of the road. As a pedestrian, you have to be very careful. Sydney is just as crowded as London. There are lots of narrow streets. The street by Mikey's school is so narrow two cars cannot pass. If a car comes the other way, someone has to back up. Steve got me approved to drive there. If you drive in Sydney, driving occupies all of your resident brainpower. You cannot sightsee or carry on a conversation. Any lapse of attention and you can find yourself turning left into oncoming traffic.* At first, it freaked me out to look over at the car in the lane next to me - and see nobody in the driver's seat.
Oops! No sign here
I would never think of reversing in to any parking spots in Australia. Brooke marveled that I backed into a spot in the parking garage
I never did figure out what a EFTPOS was. It seems nobody has them, though.

It seems that every important building (and some not so important) was dedicated by some member of Britain's royal family. Who would have thought that would happen? I suppose the Queen has to do things like that to keep her subjects content.


Who would ever think of using the word "rubbish" as a verb. Nobody knew what I was talking about when I asked where the trashcan was. Most surprising of all was not the Australian accent. It was frightening that I had no idea what so many words meant. "G'day mate, how ya goin" threw me off more than once. Of course, they looked at me weird when I responded "Howdy!"

Dictionary
bingle - car accident
panel beater - body shop
petrol - gasoline
eftpos - ?
take away - take out
abseil, abseiling - rappel, rappelling
bikkies - biscuits, or cookies
lollies- candy
Vegemite - obscenely disgusting fermented yeast spread


* Thank heavens I only did that once!