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