What suprised you about Australia when you finally got here?

[arfishy]

I always considered myself well-travelled and well-informed.

Inexplicably I was shocked when I arrived in Australia and saw hills .

What surprised you?

[FluffyMummy123]

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[FluffyMummy123]

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[eidsvold]

flybuys

like tescos clubcard but can use it at a few places.

[MrsMattie]

I saw about 4 aborigines the whole time I was there and they were either homeless or busking for tourist trade. Even the lowliest jobs (chamber maids in hotel etc) were foreign labour. Aborigines seem to be invisible in Australian white society. I found it sad and disturbing.

[chloeb2002]

fly buys yes.... but by that point i was so confused that i just wanted to leave asap!
a plane in a shop.......
dd thinks that having your bags looked through is so the shop people can see what cool things you have bought! and normally stands there showing them all while i am sure several thieving gypsys run past due to her distraction!

[BlinkingNoraWotzThat]

I can't remember as I was only 5 at the time.
Hope to go again when I'm more grown up.

[oldwomanwholivedinashoe]

surprised that everything is just as it is on neighbours! the brids, the trees , the houses , the people!!!

[arfishy]

My houseplants don't die and are ENORMOUS. And spider plants growing wild under trees in the street.

At work we have 'how to deal with a terrorist phone call' pinned up in the toilets and at every desk. Now even when we were being routinely bombed by the IRA (and I worked above a prime target) everybody ignored them.

Yes, the bag searching. And the security guards at all of the schools - what's that about?

Are flybuys worth getting, or do you have to spend a zillion dollars to qualify for a $5 off voucher?

[eidsvold]

arfishy -what sort of school do you go to? we don't have security guards.

Funny - so many think neighbours has it spot on and as an aussie I used to think it painted an unrealistic picture of Australia.

[eidsvold]

arfisy - you can make it work wonders if you shop at all the right places. We usually managed a few vouchers from doing our grocery shopping at coles weekly, the odd kmart shop and our other shopping at target.

You can use it for travel -a s in get points for booking holidays and everything. I just plod along with it and use it for the odd voucher - usually one midyear and one end of year - only $50 but it all helps.

[FluffyMummy123]

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[ninedragons]

Shoplifters. They search you on the way out rather than the way in.

[arfishy]

I was a bit at the bag searching thing too. I'm used to it now. Despite the laid back beach thing they quite like rules I think. You don't ever, ever want to park where you shouldn't. You can't chance it like at home. They'll 'ave you in a second.

Eids - For the first time in 2.5 years I found a form to fill in for fly-buys. Now I can brandish it with pride at the checkout and be a proper local.

Well, with the schools thing, it's all of them around here (Eastern Suburbs of Sydney). I first noticed it with the Jewish schools and thought there maybe there had been a race/religious problem at some point, but then gradually started noticing that it's more widespread. I'm dying to get to the bottom of it. It's not like they're sink estate schools, most of them are private. All the people I've asked haven't known, and it's bugging me now as I drive past 10 of them to get to DD's school every morning.

[eidsvold]

COD there are lots of signs as you enter a store saying a condition of entry is that you will let them look in your bags on Ext. They are only the big bags - like backpacks, nappy bags etc. The women on the door do not touch anything - they really only do a cursory thing - my nappybag is usually so full of stuff that I could probably hide a something in the bottom of the bag and it not be seen.

I have not refused but got the ache once when dd2 was desperate for the loo so we stopped trying on shoes and were sprinting for the loo when this woman stood in front of me and asked to see in my bag - I positioned dd2 beside her as I explained we were running for the loo and prayed dd2's control would desert her - no such luck.

I have yet to refuse them to look. Sometimes they do it and other times not.

I used to think nothing of it - probably as I only had a handbag BUT now I have a little backpack or nappy bag it does grate at times.

[eidsvold]

arfishy if you have an NAB credit card - you get points on those spends and lots of other shops - check out the website - you really can get lots of points if you work at it.

As I said - I just do the usual - no more and do not go out of my way either.

[eidsvold]

I figure it is my usual shop so get a little something out of it - works for me.

[CountessDracula]

The men

[eidsvold]

why shudder?!?!?!

[CountessDracula]

not my cuppa tea

at all

(generalising here obv there were some nice ones)

[eidsvold]

funny CD - when I first go to the UK - I could not believe ( okay se corner) how conscious the men were about grooming - men who wore more hair product and grooming products than I did and they were all scrawny weeds - tall but seemed scrawny. I like my men to look like men iyswim.

Then went to Twickenham to see Aus play Eng rugby league and it was so nice to see lots of aussie blokes - in their drizabones and hats etc and they looked like aussie men - hard to explain - solid, tall, muscular etc.

I realise there are all types in Aus as in England but it just seemed less of the 'bloke' type and more of the metrosexual type of bloke when I first got to england.

[eidsvold]

obviously nothing said about personality here just looks.

Having said that I did marry a pom!

[DiscoDizzy]

The pissing down weather. We went one April for 3 weeks, the only sun we saw was on the 1st and last days, the remainder was absolute torrential weather... and cold, so very very cold

[CountessDracula]

oh no I am talking personality!