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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think the Ozzies are mad (washing question)

206 replies

beautyspot · 13/03/2011 03:28

Living in Oz and renting. Our beautiful and expensive flat comes with a cold fill only washing machine!

(OliPolly's recent thread re washing her smalls by hand made me think about this)

My neighbour was in the other day and shocked to see me filling the washing machine with hot water from the shower (carrying buckets!). Most of the people I know here are happy to wash in cold water and says it protects their clothes and the environment. I say it can never clean clothes properly.

Am I being unreasonable to think that a cold water wash can never clean properly? My neighbours here think so.

OP posts:
Morloth · 14/03/2011 08:00

I say feral or bogan but it did used to be westy in Sydney.

I am a westie, grew up split between Cobar and Mount Druitt! That's pretty feral.

This means I can't help but snigger when someone wears ugg boots outside.

onlion · 14/03/2011 08:18

Im a Brisbane gal

withagoat · 14/03/2011 08:19

It's nice to see discriminnatorylanguage is alive and well in ALL parts of oz

onlion · 14/03/2011 08:34

mmm similar to scouser, geordie, woolyback......

withagoat · 14/03/2011 08:35

It's not though is it? Thats a regional descriptor

onlion · 14/03/2011 08:36

scally as well

onlion · 14/03/2011 08:36

and the ever fanous british chav

withagoat · 14/03/2011 08:39

Yes don't approve ofnthat either.

Morloth · 14/03/2011 08:49

It's OK in Oz though withagoat no whineyarses remember.

gotobedsleepyhead · 14/03/2011 09:27

I am a 'pommy' - and that is not always meant kindly. I try not to be a whinging pom though

withagoat · 14/03/2011 09:41

no whineyarses?

Bubbaluv · 14/03/2011 10:47

I don't think we've got any more nasty terms than anywhere else really? Pikey, Chav, Eurotrash etc spring to mind immediately from the UK. Trailer trash, red neck etc in the US.
I think Australians do, however, have an strange talent for using potentially offensive terms in an affectionate way. Tis the perverse sense of humour thing.

Morloth · 14/03/2011 11:18

Correct, no whineyarses, nothing worse than a whinger.

I wear feral westy with pride, got my flannies and my ugg slippers for putting the bins out.

I call the DSs ferals at least once a day, because they are.

And when I see a shiney HSV ute with floodies my first thought is 'mmmmm nice'.

Are you Australian withagoat do you know anything about the 'discriminatory' terms you are complaining about?

When I say bogan it is with affection.

withagoat · 14/03/2011 11:23

Like you might say nigger with affection?

gotobedsleepyhead · 14/03/2011 11:27

No withagoat it is not the same thing at all. Bogan is like the Aussie version of Chav. It's got nothing to do with skin colour. Australians can certainly be very racist, same as in the uk, but 'bogan, bevan, feral' aren't racist terms.

withagoat · 14/03/2011 11:29

You seem to think chav is ok though. That's what I don't get. ANC objecting to discrimination makes you a whinger!

Morloth · 14/03/2011 11:31

No, but a black person might.

All Australians are a bit bogan, it is tied up with who we are.

I will assume from that comment that you are indeed not an Aussie and therefore can't actually grasp the cultural affection bogans are viewed with by the majority.

I am not black so would not presume to try to appropriate a word that has been used to hurt and oppress people. I am however a bogans feral westy yuppie so will use those terms as much as I like.

Comparing the wore bogan to nigger makes you look bloody stupid.

Morloth · 14/03/2011 11:34

I don't think bogan is like chav exactly, but my full extent of knowledge about chav and chav come from Mumsnet so am not going to comment.

You don't get discriminated against for being a bit of a bogan, you get the pies taken out of you by your mates. And yes complaining about that makes you a whinger.

Morloth · 14/03/2011 11:35

piss taken not pies though that could also happen if you whinged too much.

gotobedsleepyhead · 14/03/2011 11:38

Chav isn't racist is it?
Morloth, the day I become a bit bogan will be a happy day for me! Like you said, all Aussies are a bit bogan - it's not really offensive I don't think.

HipHopopotomus · 14/03/2011 11:45

"We are not dead" Grin

Gosh I'm pining for a top loader now (chucking those extra bits in after was has started indeed), not to mention a wash house!!! A front loader in the kitchen is all very well & good but it's only because there's no space here in the UK. I puzzled for years how it was impossible to do a 'cold' wash here (I'm from NZ) - it's only in the last few years they've been advertising "washes at 30 degrees" here.

(Bogan is not quite the same as chav, but culturally speaking they are probably on par with each other -speaking as one who has a foot in each hemisphere - no wonder I'm suffering with pelvic girdle pain!!)

Morloth · 14/03/2011 11:47

gotobed I am revelling in being home and being surrounded once again by people who just don't seek too worry about shit again.

Going pig shooting at Easter I can't think of a more bogan activity actually, there will be beer as well so loud drunk people on a ute in the bush, with guns.

Excellent.

gotobedsleepyhead · 14/03/2011 11:53

Morloth Grin you ARE a bogan!! (I love it)

Morloth · 14/03/2011 11:58

I am, but a posh one so will probably take coronas and not let those ferals anywhere near my shiny new CRV which is going to get me the crap ripped out of me anyway.

I wonder if I should tell the vast majority of my family that they are being discriminated against? I don't think they noticed.

tryingtoleave · 14/03/2011 11:59

I get the impression that chavs are more aspirational than bogans? I used to say westy when i was a north shore girl in Sydney but now I'm in Canberra I say bogan.