Driving in Oz

Well, old habits are hard to break.

Aaron has been working in Sydney this week so I have been driving the car quite a bit taking our son to school and running errands and such. We lease a car and we usually drive a small little car that is easy to maneuver around, but that car has some kind of engine problem so it is in the shop to get a new engine, so we are driving a truck. The Aussies would call it a "ute" as in a utility vehicle, but we (and all other Texans) would call it a truck, and it is maroon, a color I love. (Go Aggies!) Trucks are big, Aussie cars are small (in general) because the streets are skinny...trucks are a little more "junk in the trunk" type vehicle so there are plenty of times that I just take up the whole side of the street, not to mention the entire parking place.

However...remember that little thing about driving on the other side of the street and the steering wheel being on the other side...oh, and did I mention this truck is a standard? So, not only do I have to remember to drive on the left side of the street, I have to shift with my left hand. The way we remember what side to drive on is that the driver of the car should always be in the middle of the street...I think that phrase a lot as I make turns and such. On top of it all, we live in an area that goes from mountains to beach...so what does that mean? Lots and lots of inclines, hills, mountains, curves, and turns...and it is a standard? I am doing good to remember to drive on the left, much less to shift! But anyway, I have actually acclimated to it quite easily and can't complain. I am grateful to have the truck and I think I can drive it just fine, albeit a little slow at times.

So, here is where you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Twice within the last two days I have gone out to the truck, unlocked it, and gotten into the car on the left side. It is not until I am sitting in the passenger seat that I realize I am missing a steering wheel and then I have to get out and walk around and get in the driver side and look like "I meant to do that." At least I only turn the windshield wipers on every once in a while now instead of every time I mean to turn on the turn signal. I mean, who sat there and decided....we will make this car the same, but move the steering wheel to the other side and just for kicks, let's switch the blinker and the wipers...that will surprise them! (I am not amused.)

Another thing about driving in Oz is that most road around here are two lanes going each way...however, the outside lane is only a lane if no one is parked there, so if someone parks there (in front of the building), then it becomes a parking lane and not a driving lane. So, you can be driving along and all the sudden, there is a parked car in front of you, so you have to be ready to change lanes. Also, if you are in the middle lane and you want to turn and the person behind you wants to go straight, then it is fine for them to just go around you...which is fine as long as there is no one in the other lane and no one decided to park in the other lane.

The other thing you have to watch for is pedestrians. Since many people walk and take the bus, they are very careful to have safe passage for the pedestrians...which is nice. So, when the light in front of you turns green and you want to make a left hand turn from the left lane (remember you are driving on the other side of the road), you have to make sure you don't have a green light with a red arrow, because the pedestrians may be crossing at that time and you are supposed to stay put. Since I am usually more of a pedestrian than a driver, I am all for watching out for the peds!

So much to think about...sometimes when I get home from driving all day while running errands, I just want to lay down and take a nap because I try to be really aware and careful and do everything the Aussie way...it sometimes wears me out.

However, with all that being said, we still love it here. The weather is getting a little cooler and by June and July we will be heading into Winter, which should be quite a change from Texas. I also have started making a list of things I need to buy while I am in the states in July. Things like...Mrs. Dash--can't find anything like it here...shoes--the cheapest shoes I found at Payless Shoe Source the other day were $59.00 Sandals...yes, sandals! Hot sauce--many of the things they tag as "spicy" are really not spicy at all, and green chilis---you know the little can for like $2 at the grocery store in the Mexican food section that contain those wonderful little green bits of green chilis that you put in sour cream chicken enchiladas or green sauce or whatever...they just don't exist here and their fresh chilis just aren't as good. I guess it has something to do with being nowhere near Mexico. I also would like to eat a banana or two while in the states...because of the flooding up in Queensland and Brisbane, the bananas are $14 a kilo, which is about $7 a pound...so, I miss those $0.99 a pound bananas that you can get at HEB.

And of course, I miss my family and friends. Thank goodness for social media that keep us connected...you me, and the good old blog....and facebook...and email...and the internet...I love my technology!

Cheers!

Heather

Not meaning to offend!

We have had some funny conversations while we are here in Oz, mainly due to words that we commonly use can be offensive to Aussies and vice versa. It is good that we can laugh about it, because it has been quite the education learning what is offensive and what is not.

I went to a girls night dinner the other night and we had one British, 3 Americans and 4 Aussies around the table and the subject came up of words and meanings...so here we go...

While in the US, the curse words damn, hell, and sh#t are considered offensive to some, they are not considered curse words at all to the Aussies. They did clarify that it can depend on how they are said, like bloody hell would be considered a curse word/phrase but bloody depends on the context...where I believe in England it is considered a curse word. Case and point, we were at church the other day and the Sunday School Teacher was talking about something with the lesson and said "What the Hell does that mean?". Aaron and I thought it was hilarious, no one else even blinked an eye!

Crap is a bad curse word in England...not so in Oz or the US.

Fanny or Fannie is not a curse word in the US, in fact it is a name...however in Oz, it is the name they use for a female's body part and can be offensive...you just don't use it in every day talk...so when my husband mentioned he needed to go get his fanny pack to his friend the other day, you can understand why his friend was totally dumbfounded! Here they can it a bum bag. I can see why the Aussies think it is hilarious that the government housing program, Fannie May, has that name!

My husband was helping out on a renovation project the other day and was using caulk or gap filler as they call it here. He said to the other guy there, I need to go get some more caulk, and the guy thought he said cock and was again, totally offended....and yet it is hilarious...it is called GAP FILLER here...lesson learned!

There are other differences as well, like where the Americans would say "I learned how to play the piano today." The Aussies would say "I learnt how to play the piano today." Which most US people would think is a back woods way to say it but it is just the way they spell it here in Oz. There are also words that have a 'z' in them in the US and an 's' here, like analyse and organisation. My spell check tends to drive me a little crazy at times with these subtle differences.

So, the moral of the story is to laugh it off and try to explain when people have that deer in the headlights look after you say something that you think is totally innocent!

I have learnt a lot!

Heather

Yes, we have an outhouse!

The outhouse...

Yes, we have an outhouse!

From what I hear, it is not uncommon for houses around here to have these. I guess, back in the day, these were the outhouses for the house, which would make sense, but when modern plumbing came along, they added a bathroom to the house and plumbed the outhouse too! I refer to this as Aaron's room, I told him he could decorate it however he wanted. He has always said the bathroom is his favorite room in the house...now he has his very own, just right outside the kitchen door and across the patio...totally separate from the rest of the house!

The sink in the outhouse...

The inside of the outhouse...

It is actually a very nice bathroom...it is just....weird! But hey, if the bathroom inside the house is occupied, at least we have a backup!

Our dryer (below)...it is very economical! Our back yard is terraced (because we are on a mountain), and the clothes line is on the second level and this picture is taken from my back door. The building you see right beneath is a storage unit for all our yard things...okay, so maybe it is empty right now, but that is okay, I am sure we will get yard things! People here hardly have dryers, they use clothes lines. I really haven't minded it very much. My clothes smell wonderful and it is economical. It is a bummer when it rains, but we have an indoor "clothes horse" that we use for rainy days. Now, if I was gone 9 hours a day at work, I think it would be really hard to get your laundry done!

Our back yard, a few steps up from the patio.... this is the second level. The clothes line is to the right, that black thing is a compost bin.

The backyard is a great area for a barbeque...and Aussies take their "barbies" very seriously. they are social occasions where people visit and enjoy each other. I still think of a "Texas Style Barbeque" when I here I am invited to a barbie, but then I remember that that just means they are grilling it outside!

I have a fabulous camera, however, I have been really frustrated to find that my American Sony camera doesn't work with Aussie batteries. It just needs AA batteries, but they do not work in my camera. I was lucky enough to find a stash of American AA batteries in my laptop bag for my mouse, so I have been able to take some better pictures than just with my iphone. I will try to go around town and take some more pictures while these batteries last. Luckily, my prof is in the states and stopped at a Walgreens and got me some more batteries! Yea for world travellers!

S0... more pictures and adventures to come. Tonight I am going with my girlfriends out to a restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. I am not sure what kind of restaurant it is, but who cares? It is a girls night of fun and frivolity!

Wishing you all a very happy Wednesday! Mine is coming to an end and in the US, it is just beginning!

Cheers!

Settling in

Happy Saturday!

Well, we have moved since my last post and are settling into our new house. It is far smaller than I am used to but I really like it...it is far less to clean! It is just a 2 bedroom house but it has a great backyard and the location is ideal. We are just a short walk down the hill (or actually mountain) to our favorite square of shops with the butcher, baker, candle shop, deli, produce market, barber, Chinese place, fish and chips place, and pizza place. All Locally owned and operated. It is nice to go to places where you walk in and they know you by name. We love it. Plus, across the street from the shops is the local mall which contains the other grocery stores, the bread store, K Mart, and everything else.

This morning, I ventured down the hill to pick up a few things at the mall, like floor cleaner for my wood floors. Of course, I ended up buying more than I had planned and this is what I looked like when I came back...loaded to the gills with bags and stuff! I at least got in some exercise before I came home and ate a piece of Texas Sheet Cake that I made yesterday...which was divine. (Recipe here if you are interested http://thebeautifulbasics.blogspot.com/2011/03/texas-sheet-cake.html)

Aussies are very conscience of the sun and skin cancer, so they wear hats a lot. It is a good thing! I don't really know why the sun seems stronger down here, but it does. Someone told me it is because the hole in the ozone is right above Australia, so the UV rays are stronger. I really don't know the true scientific reason, but I think it is smart to wear a hat and protect yourself from the sun when there is a prevalent concern for skin cancer.

As a side note, we have now just entered the Autumn season here, which is actually cooler than the summer! In Texas they seem to be very similar at times but it has been cooler here. Today the high was 84 F and the low is around 69 F, I think.

One thing we have noticed is that there are people here from all over the world...literally. We went to our friends house last night and they made real Italian pizzas for us because the husband is Italian. They were so great and the company was fabulous. His wife is Aussie, but her mother is British...there are lots of Brits here...its a regular melting pot.

Earlier in the week we went to the pizza shop down in the square and I got the lasagna...I love lasagna! However, I was surprised to see how it came out...

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, those are French fries! Or, chips as they call them here. The meal was good, the owners were friendly and warm, and we had a great time, I just couldn't believe I had chips on my plate with lasagna!

And next we had Aaron's pizza, it is called the Nonni pizza and it has just about everything you can think of on it...artichoke hearts, ham, pancetta, Italian sausage, some other sausage that looked like a sliced hot dog, onions,anchovies, roasted red peppers (which they call capsicum), dollops of Bolognese sauce, cheese, pineapple, mushrooms...and probably 6 or 7 other things I have forgotten, it was just piled on with all sorts of stuff. He said it was good...not as good as our friend Ang made last night, but still good!

I am thankful for the emails and notes I have received from some of you who are enjoying our chronicle of our adventures here in Oz. It is different here in Oz, some people have said it is similar to the US back in the 1950s and in some ways I agree, and I actually think that is a good thing, it is a compliment. People are friendly and Aussies take time to spend time with family and friends. They don't live to work like many Americans do, I think they enjoy life more and we are learning to do the same.

Until next time...be good!

Heather

I saw the sign

To quote an 80s song "I saw the sign". One thing that I have noticed are the signs in Oz. While Aussies and Americans both speak English, there are some distinctly different ways of expressing ourselves. I have found some of the signs to be confusing, some humorous,some familiar and some just plain strange. I thought I would share in my latest findings....

This is a speed limit sign with the school zone hours, no big deal except the speed is in kilometers and not miles and I am still adjusting to how fast 40 kilometers really is? Just FYI, 40 KPH is almost 25 miles per hour.

Below you will find the Aussie version of Burger King. My understanding is that it is the same company as Burger King in the USA but when they first came to Oz, someone sued them and said they were THE Burger King, so they had to change their name and they chose Hungry Jacks. We ate at Hungry Jacks and had a whopper and I can say that it was just like the whoppers at home. I spoke to someone not long ago who works in quality control at Burger King and he said the whopper should be the exact same wherever you have it in the world, and he was right! (at least in this instance)
This one isn't really a sign but I thought it was funny. This is a funeral home and tombstone "store" (not sure what to call that) but I thought it was funny that they have a sculpture of a guy carving a tombstone out in front.
This sign is for a roundabout. These are everywhere here and are very similar to the ones you might find in Paris. They have these at places where in the US we would have a 4 way stop. It is actually quite efficient and traffic seems to flow much better. It does take some getting used to, but we like them and it is supposed to cause less emissions because cars are not having to stop and idle at the stop sign, plus, if no one else is there, you just continue through without stopping, where in the US you are supposed to stop at a stop sign even when no one is there. (Not that everyone does, but you are supposed to)

This sign was found in a bathroom in Adelaide. This tells us of an unsafe way to use the toilet. Evidently some Asians who are used to just having a hole in the ground and crouching over it, have a hard time figuring out toilets...thus this sign is needed...

This is a sign that I don't get. Not sure how well you can see if, but the lettering above the window says "Legal Service Center" and then....see the next picture for what it says on the window....

So, the sign above says LEGAL and the window seems to be using the letters in legal to spell out some of the services, except it is spelled LEAGLE. Confused? Me too!

Now this is one that we saw on Saturday when we went shopping for appliances down in Warrawong... look closely at what exactly Coastline does for their business...Construction and....erection?

....I didn't even know you could specialize in that...this is definitely not a sign you would see in the US because it would cause way too many accidents from people laughing. I guess they have something to fall back on when times get hard.

This sign is on the seats in the front of the bus. They want you to vacate those seats in case a disabled person, elderly, or a pregnant women needs the seat. I love how the people are pictured in the pictogram...a one legged person, a little old lady with a purse and a cane, and a women who is either pregnant or perhaps has just eaten too many donuts.

I am sure there will be more signs to come...stay tuned!

Heather