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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:
HowsTheSerenity · 14/03/2011 12:01

I've been washing in cold water my entire life and never had a problem. Also never used the hose on 'my bits' either (but I could think of an advantage to doing that Wink ).

Oh and it is Aussies. And I am not offended by it. Also, I think the word bogan has taken over from bevan.

And for the QLD'ers, I am currently living in Beaudesert so I know allllll about bogans!!!!

Morloth, do you have multiple lights on the ute, lots of mud flaps, wrangler stickers etc on the ute? if so then you are a bushie not bogan Grin

tryingtoleave · 14/03/2011 12:03

Much more shaming to be called a north shore girl than a westy, btw.

tryingtoleave · 14/03/2011 12:05

Fwiw, my washer does cold, hot, warm and wool. I occasionally use a wool setting but otherwise wouldn't occur to me to use anything but cold. And I am not at all environmentally minded.

Morloth · 14/03/2011 12:09

Lots of lights but no mudflaps, the ute we will be taking is the paddock basher so has more holes than actual car.

tryingtoleave we were thinking about buying on the lower north shore because the commute from our house in the Druitt is so long, and I just couldn't do it, I would feel like a cultural traitor almost, we have settled on the Hills not too north and not too west, just the right blend of posh and feral.

tryingtoleave · 14/03/2011 12:18

Yup, the hills are pretty safe when it comes to teasing. I grew up in st Ives, which gave people a lot of material. I thought you were living near the beach, because you were talking about your ds doing little nippers? It made me feel a bit sad about being in Canberra.

Vintage65 · 14/03/2011 12:25

Lived in Aussie for 20 years, miss it.

When we came back to UK I spent ages trying to find a washing machine that had a cold programme - couldn't find one!

PfftTheMagicDragon · 14/03/2011 18:31

Loads of UK machines have cold fill only.

The machine heats the water, you know, OP. It still washes at 60, or 40, or 90 degrees.

Morloth · 14/03/2011 20:39

With the m2/lane cove tunnel it takes about 20 mins to get to Manly now, as long as you don't mind the tolls and don't catch military rd or the spit at a bad time.

On a good bus run DH can be at wynyard in 15! It has really opened the place up.

Bubbaluv · 14/03/2011 20:45

Bogan being compared to nigger - well that's just laughable! Goodness, some people just LOVE the idea that Australians are all racist, bigots. It's a very popular idea in the UK I found.
One of my friends who is Sri Lankan pointed out that he had never ever experienced direct racism until he moved from Sydney to London at the age of 32.

maddy68 · 14/03/2011 21:17

cold fill machines heat the water up inside!!!! they dont wash in cold water :)

elvisgirl · 15/03/2011 04:05

In my own experience I have seen more racism in Aus than UK - Aussie neighbours slagging off Aboriginals, DPs work colleagues (in a professional environment) calling Aboriginals "bongs", folk shouting at people in the street calling them the n-word, lebs and wogs (altho in fairness I believe wog is not seen as derogatory), swastikas in grafitti & as tattoos. I never personally encountered racism in the UK but rather heard of it in the news etc , despite going out with an Indian guy for years, so having seen & heard more in person here makes it seem worse to me. In reality of course there are misguided twunts everywhere!

Do agree bogan is not a racial term.

& from earlier in the thread I have picked up that maybe I should try washing at lower temps cos the Aussie laundry detergent works better at low temps. And another thing - isn't it strange that you can only buy the megapacks in places in BigW and KMart but not at the supermarkets with all the other laundry products? Does my head in!!

sleepywombat · 15/03/2011 04:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Morloth · 15/03/2011 04:45

Front loaders are much better with the possible exception of the missed sock issue.

I think all countries have racism, it sucks regardless of who is doing it, and it is vile. I have dropped people I thought were OK when they spouted racist shit, both here and in the UK. I think levels of racism probably vary between parts of Oz (as they do in the UK). Here in the Hills we have a very large Chinese community and we all seem to rub along quite nicely, DS's school is more racially mixed than the one in London, but the one in London had more nationalities.

I was amazed to find out how offensive 'Wog' was in the UK. Here it means Mediterranean and can and is used offensively but it is also used affectionately, as in 'Bloody Hell what a Wog Mansion' when referring to a large house complete with greek pillars in the suburbs. We also had Wogs out of Work as a play/TV show. And of course Acropolis Now (but I may be dating myself there). My Greek friends built themselves just such a wog mansion and refer to it as such. Culturally I was pretty gobsmacked by how similar Athens and Sydney were, we felt like we have flown home when we went to Athens and I think Melbourne has the largest Greek community outside of Athens, or has that changed now?

My friend who came to visit us did point out that it was nice to go out for the day with me and the boys and not have everyone assume she was the nanny, which is what oftened happen in London.

We have plenty of horrible racist words, but bogan is not one of them.

I think people (especially English people) like to write off Australia as having no culture or having a 'bastardised' English culture. It isn't true, we have a rich (though short in terms of European settlement) cultural history, we have dark parts which we should be (and in many cases are) ashamed of, but we also have a culture of looking after each other and taking people as you find them and not worrying too much about trivial stuff.

I am waffling...

Original poster
beautyspot · 15/03/2011 05:33

Morloth - I agree. You are waffling.

OP posts:
Morloth · 15/03/2011 06:02

Happens.

Bubbaluv · 15/03/2011 06:08

Wow Elvisgirl - where are you! Shock
I'm 34 and have never seen ANY of those things here or in the UK.
I do know some people from rural areas who have very negative attitudes to Aboriginals, but from what I can tell it's born from their own specific experiences and fear basically.
If you grow up in an area where it's not safe for you to walk down the street because of the crime/substance abuse etc from the local aboriginal community it's not surprising that you'd tend to form negative opinions. Now I'm not saying it's ok to generalise about Aboriginal people on the basis of those experiences, but I guess I see where it comes from in those cases.
I guess I would not see racism directed to Aboriginals because I pretty much never see Aboriginals! I would have to say I've met about 5 aboriginal people in my whole life! 2 mugged me, 1 is on of my good friend's DP, one 2 I went to uni with - yep that's about it.
Very poor groups with terrible drug/alcohol issues tend to attract negative attention in any country especially if they are obviously identifiable as many Aboriginal people are.
Also waffling. Not sure I even have a point.

onlion · 15/03/2011 06:39

As mentioned before, I was shocked at the racism when I arrived in UK. There is racism in every country, no-one has the corner on it Im afraid.

Morloth · 15/03/2011 06:45

It is a waffly sort of afternoon.

Original poster
beautyspot · 15/03/2011 06:45

Well my tuppence worth here, although this started as a thread about washing,is that we have lived in many countries, including the several countries in the UK. We have experienced the most racism in Australia, definately (not directly but through experiences) We also experienced an awful lot of "one-up-manship" here ie, people needing to buy designer clothes and jewellery. We find that very strange as really didn't expect that.

OP posts:
gotobedsleepyhead · 15/03/2011 06:51

I won't mention that certain brand of cheese that's available here then. I have to say if that is considered ok to be on the shelves in the supermarket I think there's something a bit wrong! (but I guess it doesn't mean the same thing here as in the uk).

I personally find many (not all) Australians that I have met are quite open in their racism, & it doesn't seem so hate filled as racism in the uk, but there's an attitude that this makes it ok, when I don't think it is.

Also waffling!

Original poster
beautyspot · 15/03/2011 06:52

COON cheese.

The only place, probably in the world, where this would be accepted.

OP posts:
savoycabbage · 15/03/2011 06:58

I agree with sleepy that it is more accepted here. More in everyday conversation - but not as hate filled.

My dh had banned coon cheese from our house...

ninedragons · 15/03/2011 07:05

You might as well stay where you are and waffle - some dickhead has dumped a load of gravel on the Harbour Bridge so traffic is at a standstill and nobody is going anywhere.

Morloth · 15/03/2011 07:07

Why is it named Coon? Does anyone know?

As an aside (cause I kind of agree with you about Coon cheese) do you also object to Maine Coon cats?

Where the hell are you people living where racism is a part of everyday conversation? Today I have chatted with the delivery guy, the butcher, the chip shop man, the chemist, the mums at school, the swimming staff/teachers at baby swimming and DS1's teacher and the checkout guy at the supermarket. At no point was there any racism involved.

savoycabbage · 15/03/2011 07:07

What! That is a nightmare, especially at 6pm.