A Few Questions for Southside

[Keith]

I'll start off with a few basic questions for our resident Aussie. <p>1. Do the toilets flush backwards? ( I guess they would actually be forward to you), I have heard toilets in the southern hemisphere flush clockwise. Any truth to this?<p>2. Do Australians drink Fosters beer? or is that just crap they send to the yanks?<p>3. Do you even have Outback Steakhouses in Australia? If not, that is a pretty cruel joke huh?<p>4. Is Steve Irwin considered &quot;cool&quot; there? Or is he considered an raving idiot that caters to Americans?<p>5. Australians for the most part are considered pretty cool here. How do Australians think of Americans? Be honest.<p>Now for some serious questions. <p>What is the cost of living in Australia? For example what does fuel cost? What does a nice dinner out cost? What does housing cost? What are the popular cars there? Where you are at, what is the weather like? How hot, how cold?<p>

 

[Barkleymut]

Thats funny, I was thinking about asking him the same thing about Fosters beer.

 

[southside]

LOL! <br>1) It's not something I think about much.<br>And not knowing how toilets flush in the U.S.<br>it is hard to say.<br>2)NO!!! Australians DO NOT drink Fosters beer. It is revolting.We drink VB,XXXX,Tooheys but NOT Fosters.Only sell it<br>to you guys.<br>3) Never heard of Outback Steakhouses.It is<br>a cruel joke. We do however have Mcdonalds,<br>KFC,Hungry Jacks,ect.<br>4) Yes,Steve Irwin is a completed loony who<br>only caters for tourists.As a rule the <br>average Aussie does not piss off crocodiles<br>for fun.<br>5) Americans are considered cool here.I have<br>found Americans to be very polite and well<br>mannered.Although the American way of life is<br>rather different than here and would be quite<br>a culture shock for most.The odd part about<br>Americans is that they seldom swear whereas<br>every second word you hear around here is<br>fu#@ and sh*#.(Yes I'm guilty too) <p>Australian dollar = 59.63 U.S. cent now.<br>Diesel is 79.9 cents per litre (AUD)<br>or about $3.59 AUD per gallon. (metric here)<br>We rent a 3 bedroom house in a nice suburb<br>for $160.00 per week.(AUD) You can buy a <br>decent house for $150k.<br>The most popular cars are the Ford Falcon<br>and the Holden Commodore.Cars here seem to be<br>a lot smaller than yours.A family car here <br>would almost be a compact there. A dinner out<br>could be from $3.50 to $150.00 depending<br>on how nice a place you go.<br>I am in a suburb called Beenleigh which is on<br>the far southern suburbs of Brisbane.<br>Brisbane is the capital city of the state of<br>Queensland. Weather depends on where you live. It can range from -5 degrees celsius to<br>45 degrees celsius. (45deg c = 95-100 F)<br>Most U.S. mowers aren't available here yet.<br>We mainly have tractor type ride ons like mine (Kubota T1760),although Walker and <br>Toro are getting popular. Most mowing jobs<br>require catching (bagging) as mulching is<br>not real popular.Ah what else?<br>Trucks: mostly cabover designs like mine<br>(International ACCO and Mitsubishi Canter)<br>F series Fords and Chevs ect. not real big<br>here except for the towing industry.<p>I hope this answers at least some of your questions. My e-mail is:<br>southside@widsor.net.au if you have any<br>more questions.<br>p.s. If you come over here,don't ask for <br>Fosters,as people will laugh at you. <p><br>Karl<p>

 

[GrassMaster]

Hello Keith & SouthSide:<p>Thanks for the post, it's off topic but I enjoyed the hell out of it!<p>No joke, Outback Steakhouses are big time over here. The one where I live at always has a 45 min. wait at the least, they give you a beeper so you can go do what you want too, til they beep you. If you hang around by the time you get seated you will be loaded.<p>A good Prime rib is about $18.95, their bread & salad is out of this world. I talked to the manager about a year ago & he said the place averages about 10 to 12 million a year in sales.<p>My mother wants me to go with her to Australia before she leaves this world.<p>Hey, tell me more about the Ford falcons, they are rare over here. Do you know of any good truthful web sites that have info about your country?<p>I'm curious there is a scene in one of the Crocdile Dundees movies where it shows the moon & it looks so big. Is that real?<p>Again, I enjoyed the post very much! <p>----------<br>GrassMaster - Home: www.lawnservicing.com<br>My Start Up Page www.lawnservicing.com/startup/

 

[southside]

Grassmaster, you would'nt have the current <br>series Falcon over there.They are an Aussie <br>car only.The standard base model weighs <br>1400 kg or 3136 pounds and has a 4 litre<br>efi 6cyl motor which puts out 200hp there <br>are more powerful versions though.<br>Good site to check out is www.ford.com.au<br>I'm not real sure about tourist sites though.<br>I'll have a look around.Yes,the moon is that<br>big. On a clear night out in the bush you<br>can even see satelites real clear.Sad part<br>about Outback Steakhouses is that it is nothing like what Australia is about. People<br>here do not go up to strangers and say<br>&quot;G'day sport,how about we throw a shrimp on<br>the barbie&quot;.If I said that here I would<br>probably get hit.Kangaroos do not hop down the streets.If they did they would be roadkill or be shot for pet food.Koalas are<br>not friendly and cuddly in the wild they<br>can be quite aggressive.Avoid Sydney it is a<br>smelly polluted hole.Brisbane is nice,Melbourne is a wet depressing toilet.<br>Tasmania is nice.The Northern Territory<br>(where crocodile dundee was shot) it very<br>hot. Most of all Australia is big.<br>Drive from Sydney to Brisbane is 12-14 hours.<br>I would love to come to the states for a <br>working holiday sometime.When time permits.<br>Any one got a job for a experienced <br>operator on mowers and bush hogs? <p>Karl<br>

 

[DMC300]

I COULD PUT YOU TO WORK MOWING RIGHT-OF-WAYS,BUT WOULDN'T YOU BE MOWING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD??OR IS THAT THE ENGLISHMEN I'M THINKIN ABOUT!!LOL<p>----------<br>DON<br>LIANNES' MOWING

 

[southside]

DMC300, all cars,trucks,ect. are right hand drive.We drive on the left side of the road.<br>It would be very entertaining for me to drive<br>in the states.<p>Karl<p>

 

[Keith]

Karl, thanks for the replies. So the slogan for Fosters in Australia would be &quot;Fosters...Australian for $h!#&quot;<p>As for swearing Americans, you might be shocked. I have to turn off my casual language when I work as not to offend the customer. But when I get home it comes right back on. <p>I think you would do quite well bush hogging here in Florida. It is hard to find anyone reliable here. Everytime I time I look for someone to do bush hog work, they have taken off and closed shop.<p>Your weather sounds much like ours, at least the tempertures. It is about 93-96F, with 98-100 a couple of times in the summer and a low of 25-29F once or twice in the winter, but usually upper 40's-low 50's or so. And contrary to popular belief it is not hot here all the time, picture this, it actually can snow here, just not very often. I actually have a picture of my Mustang with snow on it 25 miles north of Orlando. When the seabreeze does what it is supposed to in the Summer we get rain pretty regularly and the air doesn't become too calm.<br>

 

[Toroguy]

Keith,<br>The water does drain opposite the northern hemisphere once your south of the equator. Rumor has it that Navy sailors tried to drain water directly at the equator, the water didnt spiral at all, went straight down.<p>Have you been watching the Simpsons also?

 

[yardsmith]

hey mate!<br>I went to bible college in New York & had Aussie's for roomates- a laugh a minute.<br>A few were from Queensland, & some from Melbourne. Showed us pictures of his right-handed Holden Commodore doing burnouts. What a sight! Magazines, too with double & triple trailered semis with Kangaroo catchers on the front for crossing the outback-cool!<br>Also versed us in culture, such as passing the serviette's, Vegemite (yeech), & the like. Hope to go there someday.<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>