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The air is clean. Really clean.
When stepping into the street in a keep-left country, the traffic is over your RIGHT shoulder.
The suites at the Sydney Four Seasons are really nice. It's not just that they are huge. And have a view of the harbour and Opera House. And are well lit. And serviced by a staff that takes pride in their result. And are furnished to flow nicely. Okay, maybe it is those things.
It's a harbour, not a harbor, because they say it is.
The word "key" (as in "the Florida Keys") is one of the few words pronounced by Australians the same as mericans pronounce it, but they spell it "quay." The word "key" as in "the thing you unlock with" is spelled the same but pronounced differently.
The Sydney Observatory has the oldest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. With it I saw the Jewel Box, a cluster of 90+ stars of various colors. The 4m focal length is pure-refractive - look ma, no mirrors! Just a 4m long tube. It's weird to think that it was there since before we harnessed electricity.
They are colors and not colours because I say they are.
Kangaroo does not taste like chicken. The locals compare it to venison, but I think it tastes more like rabbit. Crocodile tastes like chicken.
You aren't supposed to tip in Australia according to the tour guides, but the cafe areas targeted at the 20-somethings all have tip jars on the counter, so that may be in the process of renegotiation.
The feral camel populations are growing dangerously large and threatening indigenous species and the viability of some Aboriginal-controlled land. Public control methods may possibly be supplemented by a private enterprise to sell camel meat pies.
Burger King goes by the name "Hungry Jack's" in Australia. Some SPARFers (don't ask) in the 90s told me stories of making meat pies there, but when I saw the menu last week those were gone. They offer an Australian Whopper with beetroot and egg, but otherwise the menu is a subset of what you see in the States.
The USA is "the States" to Australian. The TV news coverage of the health insurance debate in the States is more detailed than the news reports in the States. The Australians view of the US is grounded in FDR and WWII, especially in the older generation. Sarah Palin is the current favoured example of "Where do the Americans get such stupid politicians?" Comments about the POTUS don't seem to include President Obama much, except implicitly in the phrase "Thank god you finally threw Bush out!" The Parliamentary mindset may make it a bit difficult to notice significance the term-limit ejection, but until 10% of Americans know what "preference voting" and "parliament" mean, I won't be judging.
The flying fox is a kind of bat, and is somewhat active during the day. The botanical gardens in Sydney are full of them. The gulls in NSW and Victoria are about half the size of the the smaller of the most common California gulls (the Lesser Western Gull). They have a pure white head, a brilliant red beak and legs, and black wingtips. The Crows have a white patch on the back of their necks, and white beaks. Owls fly around Sydney Harbour at night.
Restaurants close around 9pm in Sydney and Melbourne. The theatre lets out around 9:30pm. Therefore the phrase "dinner and a show" should be taken in that order. The Australian production of Wicked was a lot of fun. The Melbourne International Film Festival started just as we arrived. Seven theaters; a different movie each showing and location for two weeks. We saw two, and were pleasantly surprised by both.
The night tour of the Moonlit Sanctuary outside Melbourne was the highlight of the trip. If you go to Melbourne and do not avail yourself of this opportunity, there is something wrong with you. A gray kangaroo will hold your wrist in both its forepaws if you have food. If a wallaby is a small kangaroo, a betong is a tiny kangaroo. They hiss at each other like cats, especially when there is food. A Frogmouth is a kind of bird; it doesn't hurt when it bites your hand. Wombats are more like small bears than big dogs. Koalas are tree wombats. This is much clearer when you see them together. Gliders are like flying cats. There is much much more to see here, so YOU SHOULD GO. Really.
There was a recent story allegedly about racial violence in a foreign student slum housing area touted in the enthic-Indian press that turned out to be grossly inaccurate factually. The assailants weren't white, and the target of the mugging was a reporter for a competing paper who is lambasting the original report. The racist comments from the white people responding to the above take a lot of unpacking and I'm still processing, so I'll need to leave that for another post.
Federation Square, near the Yarra River, has a huge television open to the public. It shows Aussie rules football on weekend nights. The Melbourne Cricket Grounds was packed full of around 100k people to watch the game live. Since about 20% of all Australians live in the Melbourne area, there are several teams which all have the MCG as their "home" pitch (i.e. field). The supporters (i.e. fans) of each team sit intermingled and tease each other, but with no hint of the European soccer-hooligan violence.
Aussie rules players are just like I imagined them in SPARF. They even make the kinds of stupid plays when they get pressured. If you have to ask about this one, it's too long to explain. Sorry.
The Australian victory at World Series of Poker has led to poker rooms popping up in all the casinos. They only play no-limit. The no-tip rule is in force here, so if you throw a tip-chip to the dealer out of habit, they will be confused and wonder what you are trying to do. All the casinos are non-smoking and have visible clocks.
The Star Casino in Sydney has a terrible poker room. You need to go to the cage each time you buy chips. The dealers deal from a shoe and are slow, often needing help to determine who won the hand ("does the kicker play?"), and the players are just as confused. The time charge is $5 per hour, *plus* they rake 10% up to $6 from each pot. I would not play there again unless someone else told me they had gotten their act together.
The Crown Casino in Melbourne is much better run. The dealers loft the cards and most are accurate. They know the rules, but sometimes have challenges controlling the action. To be fair, the players there are a bit harder to control, since they still seem to be reading from a movie script rather than a rules book. The only game with a reliable quorum is no-limit holdem. Even with the insane rake there is a lot of money to be made until the locals figure out how to play well.
Restaurant prices are higher than in the states, probably to compensate for the no-tipping so they can actually pay their people. The waiter politeness protocol requires you to ask for the check or they will let you sit at the table forever undisturbed.
When stepping into the street in a keep-left country, the traffic is over your RIGHT shoulder.
The suites at the Sydney Four Seasons are really nice. It's not just that they are huge. And have a view of the harbour and Opera House. And are well lit. And serviced by a staff that takes pride in their result. And are furnished to flow nicely. Okay, maybe it is those things.
It's a harbour, not a harbor, because they say it is.
The word "key" (as in "the Florida Keys") is one of the few words pronounced by Australians the same as mericans pronounce it, but they spell it "quay." The word "key" as in "the thing you unlock with" is spelled the same but pronounced differently.
The Sydney Observatory has the oldest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. With it I saw the Jewel Box, a cluster of 90+ stars of various colors. The 4m focal length is pure-refractive - look ma, no mirrors! Just a 4m long tube. It's weird to think that it was there since before we harnessed electricity.
They are colors and not colours because I say they are.
Kangaroo does not taste like chicken. The locals compare it to venison, but I think it tastes more like rabbit. Crocodile tastes like chicken.
You aren't supposed to tip in Australia according to the tour guides, but the cafe areas targeted at the 20-somethings all have tip jars on the counter, so that may be in the process of renegotiation.
The feral camel populations are growing dangerously large and threatening indigenous species and the viability of some Aboriginal-controlled land. Public control methods may possibly be supplemented by a private enterprise to sell camel meat pies.
Burger King goes by the name "Hungry Jack's" in Australia. Some SPARFers (don't ask) in the 90s told me stories of making meat pies there, but when I saw the menu last week those were gone. They offer an Australian Whopper with beetroot and egg, but otherwise the menu is a subset of what you see in the States.
The USA is "the States" to Australian. The TV news coverage of the health insurance debate in the States is more detailed than the news reports in the States. The Australians view of the US is grounded in FDR and WWII, especially in the older generation. Sarah Palin is the current favoured example of "Where do the Americans get such stupid politicians?" Comments about the POTUS don't seem to include President Obama much, except implicitly in the phrase "Thank god you finally threw Bush out!" The Parliamentary mindset may make it a bit difficult to notice significance the term-limit ejection, but until 10% of Americans know what "preference voting" and "parliament" mean, I won't be judging.
The flying fox is a kind of bat, and is somewhat active during the day. The botanical gardens in Sydney are full of them. The gulls in NSW and Victoria are about half the size of the the smaller of the most common California gulls (the Lesser Western Gull). They have a pure white head, a brilliant red beak and legs, and black wingtips. The Crows have a white patch on the back of their necks, and white beaks. Owls fly around Sydney Harbour at night.
Restaurants close around 9pm in Sydney and Melbourne. The theatre lets out around 9:30pm. Therefore the phrase "dinner and a show" should be taken in that order. The Australian production of Wicked was a lot of fun. The Melbourne International Film Festival started just as we arrived. Seven theaters; a different movie each showing and location for two weeks. We saw two, and were pleasantly surprised by both.
The night tour of the Moonlit Sanctuary outside Melbourne was the highlight of the trip. If you go to Melbourne and do not avail yourself of this opportunity, there is something wrong with you. A gray kangaroo will hold your wrist in both its forepaws if you have food. If a wallaby is a small kangaroo, a betong is a tiny kangaroo. They hiss at each other like cats, especially when there is food. A Frogmouth is a kind of bird; it doesn't hurt when it bites your hand. Wombats are more like small bears than big dogs. Koalas are tree wombats. This is much clearer when you see them together. Gliders are like flying cats. There is much much more to see here, so YOU SHOULD GO. Really.
There was a recent story allegedly about racial violence in a foreign student slum housing area touted in the enthic-Indian press that turned out to be grossly inaccurate factually. The assailants weren't white, and the target of the mugging was a reporter for a competing paper who is lambasting the original report. The racist comments from the white people responding to the above take a lot of unpacking and I'm still processing, so I'll need to leave that for another post.
Federation Square, near the Yarra River, has a huge television open to the public. It shows Aussie rules football on weekend nights. The Melbourne Cricket Grounds was packed full of around 100k people to watch the game live. Since about 20% of all Australians live in the Melbourne area, there are several teams which all have the MCG as their "home" pitch (i.e. field). The supporters (i.e. fans) of each team sit intermingled and tease each other, but with no hint of the European soccer-hooligan violence.
Aussie rules players are just like I imagined them in SPARF. They even make the kinds of stupid plays when they get pressured. If you have to ask about this one, it's too long to explain. Sorry.
The Australian victory at World Series of Poker has led to poker rooms popping up in all the casinos. They only play no-limit. The no-tip rule is in force here, so if you throw a tip-chip to the dealer out of habit, they will be confused and wonder what you are trying to do. All the casinos are non-smoking and have visible clocks.
The Star Casino in Sydney has a terrible poker room. You need to go to the cage each time you buy chips. The dealers deal from a shoe and are slow, often needing help to determine who won the hand ("does the kicker play?"), and the players are just as confused. The time charge is $5 per hour, *plus* they rake 10% up to $6 from each pot. I would not play there again unless someone else told me they had gotten their act together.
The Crown Casino in Melbourne is much better run. The dealers loft the cards and most are accurate. They know the rules, but sometimes have challenges controlling the action. To be fair, the players there are a bit harder to control, since they still seem to be reading from a movie script rather than a rules book. The only game with a reliable quorum is no-limit holdem. Even with the insane rake there is a lot of money to be made until the locals figure out how to play well.
Restaurant prices are higher than in the states, probably to compensate for the no-tipping so they can actually pay their people. The waiter politeness protocol requires you to ask for the check or they will let you sit at the table forever undisturbed.
