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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2012 16:14:38 GMT -5
You don't know your butt (I'll clean it up here ;D) from a hole in the ground! If anything we pronounce it closer to Tex - ass (when talking to those who are not fortunate enough to live here). It also depends in which part of the state you live. City folk have a number of different accents while those in rural areas somtimes need an interpreter in order to be understood. People from out of state are tolerated only so long as they don't insult how we speak. Get my drift, JR???
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Post by boxcar on Dec 7, 2012 17:46:23 GMT -5
Now you have a quick introduction to Texicans.
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Post by stephanievelings on Dec 8, 2012 10:13:47 GMT -5
No we do not wear wooden shoes!! Haha, that was from a very long time ago. We have shoes just like yours! :-P I have had a conversation with my grandma today about South Africa. I'm getting more and more interested in different countries. Thanks for your advice by the way.
Indy, oh that's what you meant with new thread. Where can I find it? Sorry, new to this site.
John, will you please tell me something about life in Australia?
Take care, Stephanie
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Post by Swampy on Dec 8, 2012 10:34:12 GMT -5
Indy, oh that's what you meant with new thread. Where can I find it? Sorry, new to this site. Click on this link, Stephanie.
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Post by Sir John on Dec 8, 2012 14:45:54 GMT -5
Stephanie,
"John, will you please tell me something about life in Australia?"
Life in Australia? I am not sure just how much detail you want, but here goes. We are an English speaking country of about 22 million people with the vast majority concentrated near the east coast, and in particular the south east corner where about half of us live in 4 cities. The 6 capitol cities probably house about 80% of that 22 million. We do not have regional accents, so we all sound the same no matter what state we come from. We are a bit lazy with speech, and have a strong tendency to clip words short or alter their meaning. Pure English is rare, 'slang' very common.
About 80% of the island continent is desert or arid grazing land, much carrying about one cow per square Km, or 1 sheep per 100 acres (40 hectares). I flew from Melbourne to Darwin a year or so ago and had a window seat. We flew for over an hour across the desert (about 1000 km) and I did not see ONE house or other building. Nor did I see a sealed road.
We are a very 'outdoors' bunch that loves to spend time at the beach or out in the bush. long distance driving is very popular and I have taken our caravan over much of the continent logging up a couple of 100,000 Kms+ doing so. There is not much we have not seen.
Our climate is generally much warmer than Europe or America, with the "top half", north of the Tropic of Capricorn being tropical, and the rest being temperate. My city of Melbourne is a lovely one, but they put it 1000 miles too far south!
We are sport mad but we are going through a bad spell with sports we usually dominate not going well at the moment. We are usually in the top 5 at the Olympics, but not so this time.
Our economy is going OK compared to overseas but VERY badly compared to the past 2 decades in Australia. We are blessed with vast mineral wealth and agricultural capacity. We lead the world in many exports or near the top in many others.
Unemployment is about 5%, which is not good for our expectations. Inflation is supposedly at 2.5%, which like most countries is a fallacy.
We have more than our fair share of poisonous snakes and spiders, and crocodiles and sharks hit the headlines often.
our public services are probably as good as any in the world. Home ownership is at about 70%.
hope this helps.
John
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2012 17:57:28 GMT -5
And the people are friendly with foreigners as long as they (the foreigners) don't make too much asses of themselves! Don't ask me how I know. They also drive on the wrong side of the road.
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Post by Sir John on Dec 8, 2012 18:16:52 GMT -5
Denny,
Australians have a VERY bad reputation for bad behavior overseas. In particular drunken yobbos in their 20s or so.
It makes you cringe really to read the stories. We have a VERY strange, recent, 'tradition' of 'Schoolies' where 10s of 1000s of drunken school leavers of about 17 or 18 go to the major tourist spots and drink and **** themselves into oblivion.
The residents of Bali and Fiji etc are disgusted and outraged, but the dollars are paramount, not so our reputation.
SJ
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2012 22:51:31 GMT -5
Denny driving on the left and then going to the US or Europe for a while to drive on the right creates a sense of confusion, eg going to use the turn indicator and switching the wipers on.
My funny moment was in Marsailles, France where I arrived in a rental car late evening and I parked left hand drive car left side to the kerb. Next morning in peak hour I left the hotel and placed my bag in the trunk and noticed a woman driver waiting to park so I indicated to her that I was about to leave. I then walked around to the right side of the car, entered and put the seat belt on, realised, got out again and the look on her face was priceless.
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Dec 9, 2012 10:33:47 GMT -5
Denny driving on the left and then going to the US or Europe for a while to drive on the right creates a sense of confusion, eg going to use the turn indicator and switching the wipers on. My funny moment was in Marsailles, France where I arrived in a rental car late evening and I parked left hand drive car left side to the kerb. Next morning in peak hour I left the hotel and placed my bag in the trunk and noticed a woman driver waiting to park so I indicated to her that I was about to leave. I then walked around to the right side of the car, entered and put the seat belt on, realised, got out again and the look on her face was priceless. Thanks for my morning chuckle....the mental picture was priceless For me, walking in countries that drive on the left was more dangerous than driving. I couldn't stop looking the wrong way when stepping off the curb. Almost got wiped out a number of times. And another sidebar.... When I first got to Ethiopia, they drove on the left and I got used to it easily except for entering "roundabouts". After a period of time, the Ethiopians, for some reason, decided to switch to driving on the right. Some wag had it published in the daily paper that "Right hand driving will be in force on 1 June 1963 at midnight. To make the transition easier, a two week period will allow driving on either the right or left, but following that transition perion, driving on the left will be illegal."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2012 2:26:33 GMT -5
Jerry, there is an Irish joke about that I did better the same morning, driving out of Marseilles there is a motorway from the city up the hill to the main motorway, I was driving to Florence, Italy that day. In Australia and other right hand drive vehicle places we turn hard left into the left lane, the traffic lights changed green and I turned hard left into several lanes of oncoming traffic. A tourist bus driver kindly blocked three lanes so that I could turn the car around. I was so angry with myself because I have much experience driving left hand drive vehicles, but a late arrival at the hotel and a early start outside my normal time zone, and a busy business itinerary before I went on leave I think were the reasons for making that might have been fatal mistake.
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Post by Sir John on Dec 10, 2012 2:32:02 GMT -5
Jerry,
Just about the leading cause of accidental death of Australian tourists in the USA is of people stepping off the footpath into the path of a car coming from the left.
I nearly got zapped in the Presidio in SF. Only once!
SJ
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2012 4:40:26 GMT -5
Jerry, Just about the leading cause of accidental death of Australian tourists in the USA is of people stepping off the footpath into the path of a car coming from the left. I nearly got zapped in the Presidio in SF. Only once! SJ It is a problem for a programmed mind that normaly drives on the left. I was driving from West Covina LA to my host's son in law's holiday home at Pebble Beach, my mother and host's wife back seat of the Lincoln Town Car and me with son and one of host's daughters front bench seat. We stopped at a shopping centre and when leaving I was looking right and ready to go and the daughter said look left. Traffic stream I ignored.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2012 8:49:27 GMT -5
All right, I'll just tell one more idiot move I pulled, and it was recent and HERE at home.
I was coming from the local post office and had to make a left hand turn onto a divided road. I must not have been paying attention because I turned onto the ONCOMING traffic lane. Luckily it didn't have but one car coming at me and it started flashing the lights to let me know what I was doing. Since I was in my Jeep, I just climbed the median and got into the proper lane but boy did I feel foolish!
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Post by stephanievelings on Dec 10, 2012 13:52:38 GMT -5
Hey guys,
Wow you've written a whole book here. John thank you for your story about Australia, I love it! I see you guys are entertaining each other :-P I've had a very exciting day and am still bouncing. Therefore I find it hard to have a smart conversation haha. I'm gonna chill out. And will talk to you soon!
Take care :-D Stephanie
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Post by bluejay77 on Jan 8, 2013 5:16:24 GMT -5
Stephanie asked if anyone has been in a war.
Well I have been in a genuine clandestine situation, somewhere and for somebody -- it is a terminological question if you can call it a "war", but international intelligences ordinarily are under the mother country's Department of Defence.
Nice to have Stephanie here. I shall get her newest book.
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