Im curious - what do foreigners living here NOT get about Australia?

[eidsvold]

just following on from not get about UK thread - curious to see Aus from another perspective.

Dh finds the idea of picking an ordinary child's name and then imagining the wackiest spelling you can just so your child can be different.

am sure there is more dh doesn't quite get but that is the first thing that came to mind.

oh he did say he could never ever get used to Christmas in summer...

not realyy qualifies to answer as never been to aus

but an aussie ex-colleague told me something alarming about the existence of a sausage you can buy that has an inner core of mustardy sauce

i won't tell you how she describes the look of it

i don't think i get the point - unless it's just to make a rudey sausage

must be a regional thing - never heard of it - sounds gross.

why do they all moan about the Queen to you when you go there?

I don't get Bondi beach

it is just like Bournemouth

i don't get bondi either - far nicer beaches elsewhere.

ooh yes

Hat Head I remember being rather lush

okay...

meat pies... what kind of meat?

fish and chips... is the fish really shark? vile, anyway, and why do the chips have that weird chicken salt stuff on them when you don't ask for it.

potato oysters... neither an oyster nor recognisably a potato.

i liked the no copper change thing but it did take me a while to understand about rounding the price up or down.

how there can be a brand of cheese called coons...

howards showers... a clothes shop?

why such an amazing country didn't recognise the contribution i wanted to make to it and beg me to stay and kicked me out when my travel visa was up...

eidsvold, I don't get some of the names full stop!

Will have a think, but off the cuff

The way that supermarkets don't sell alcohol

eidsvold, of course, Christmas in summer, how wired will this be! Kmart were outting out all the Christmas stuff and it felt so odd, not quite sure how my first one here will go!

oh yes - dh finds the coon cheeswe a little disturbing.

Fish is not shark - usually cod or flake/hake

potato oysters - is that a scallop - slice of potato covered in batter

no chicken salt here

haunted - we had fab salads, sea food , cold leg ham etc - dh loved it the first year - my mum insisted ona roast - oh goodness - almost 40 degrees and she has to have a roast!!!

Beetroot on all sandwiches, whats that all about? great big thick slices, yuk.

Manchester? Why is bedlinen called Manchester?

Why are the supermarkets so small?

There were a few other mysteries but you and bloss cleared them up for me (laybys, schooling etc)

scallop, yes that's it. bleh.

it was deffo some sort of shark thing when i was there, there was a cod shortage or somethign and restaurants couldn't get hold of anything else.

yes to the tiny supermarkets

and i remember a lot of grated carrot. any time any of my friends' mums made a sandwich, there it was.

this is funny. Am born and bred aussie and all of these things are NORMAL!!!!

Do you mean to say when I venture to the UK next year I won't get beetroot on my sandwich or chicken salt on my chips??? hmmmmmm

meat pies - with regards to meat - what you don't know - won't hurt you. Best meat pie every made is Cranstons in Rockhampton.

Think no alcohol in supermarkets is a good thing. They had to take methylated spirits and paint spray cans off of the shelves for good reason - imagine if they sold alcohol!!

Christmas in summer - we have roast dinner. Easiest way is to close up the house, make it dark and turn air conditioning on really high. Not forgetting the tradition of hitting the closest beach on boxing day with all of the leftovers and playing beach cricket. Love it.

Can we include NZ on this thread?

I don't think I will ever get used to Christmas in the summer ...

Don't get Cheerio sausages [vomit]

Or brightly coloured fizzy pop as the only drink available at school/kindy fundraising events

I am sure I will think of more ...

Middle aged men in short trousers and long socks, now that is just hilarious to brits, they look like overgrown school boys. Oh and wedding morning dress for men, very odd the few times I have seen it. Oh and school dresses for girls, I would never have been caught dead in one of those ugly check dresses.

Vegemite, like Marmite but somehow hugely inferior. Also the chocolate is yak, it's just not the same. Agree about the meat pies too.

Jimmy Barnes .... WHY!!!

I loved living in Oz, I was very happy for the whole time I lived there. I would love to go back but God alone knows when that might happen.

Agree with ghosty on the cheerio sausages, "little boys" (yuk). My ds1 loves them though .

Our kindy/school does not have fizzy drinks at events so can't comment on that one.

oh yes, there was some kind of violently coloured green squash that had NOTHING to do with nature and came in a bottle which you practically had to carry on your back... my friends loved it but it turned them giddy.

oh, and lollies. i was once sent out to buy 'ten bucks worth of lollies' by my friends. they were very disppointed when i came back with bags full of chupa-chups. lollies are not lollipops, it would seem, they are what we Scots call sweeties...

Cheerio sausages - enlightnment needed please!!!

So eidsvold...me wanting a traditional roast turkey over Christmas is a non starter then? We will be at IL on the actaul day (dh not having spent Christmas with them since 1990) and MIL is doing chicken on the weber & cold cuts and salad.....

Doing my food shopping in Woolworths

Drive through bottle shops (off-licences) in the middle of nowhere.

Keno, or actually the sheer scale of the gambling industry.

Those naff regional adverts..."woohooohooo, Murrurundi Quaaaaaliteeeeeee Fruits" etc

Australiapost

kokeshi, what don't you get about australiapost?

beetroot - YUM

oh yes - Manchester - dh does go on about that.... I think ( not sure if it is true) but it is to do with the mills being up north and perhaps that sort of stuff was imported a long time ago from Manchester?!?!? my theory anyway.

think it depends on the supermarket - wehave tiny convenience ones right up to large ones - but not the tesco - homewares through to clothes through to food sort of thing though. Probably because variety stores are linked to supermarkets - so usually K-mart and coles and woolies and big w with target somewhat better and then your department stores of Myers and Dj's.

Pies - our local bakery does the scrummiest pies.... yatala pies are fab - on the way to Gold Coast south of Brissy.

Dh thinks drive through bottle shops are fab!!! don't even get outta the car - the bloke puts the slab of beer in your boot for you It was funny seeing him go through one for the first time.

You have to love Cold Chisel to get Jimmy Barnes - saw him in concert and my ears were ringing for days.... but it was FAB!!!!

cheerios only edible hot with lashings of tomato sauce ......

anything else I can help with

what about Australia Post?!?!

eidsvold, dh is a mad Cold Chisel/Jimmy Barnes fan, from when he lived here (1972-1989)

Hear it ringing out in the car when he pulls in te drive! (OH, that's another thing...DRIVEWAYS we have one! (after years of road side parking)

Must say JB is growing on me. I like Midnight Oil too, but have for sometime & they are fab on concert!