mybestkungfu's Diaryland Diary

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pizza boxes make good plates

Sydney: day 17

Oz Oddities:

1. instead of a lever to flush the toilet, there are TWO buttons.
the theory is that one button is for number 1, the other for number 2 ;)

2. there are several ways to get around Sydney. Monorail, Tram, City Rail (C-train/LRT),
Bus, and Ferry (tee hee). and there are different zones for EACH transport type.
it's a nightmare. we just get a green pass which gets us to 8 zones in the city and
most of the ferries. oh yeah, and this costs $40 bucks A WEEK.

3. groceries vary in cost depending on where you go. you can pay $4.50 for a 2L of coke at 711.
or $2.00 for the same thing at Coles. (incidentally, fruits and veggies are horrifically expensive -
$15/kg for grapes!!!).
the two things that ARE cheap however, are: alcohol and lollies (chocolate/candies).

2. NO TIPPING! when we took a cab to hostel in Glebe Point - the hostel reimbursed us
for the amount and michael said 'the cab cost 12 dollars - including tip'.
and the barefoot guy behind the counter laughs, 'tip? this is Australia! - we don't tip!'.
KICKASS. i still tip in restaurants 'cause of the guilt factor, but for the bars forget it.
$3.80 for a schooner (3/4 of a pint) of Strongbow and smasho-la.
AND they have BYO restaurants where you can bring your own wine or whatever alcoholic beverage
you desire...

5. If you want to get Diabetes, live here. There are so many types of chocolates, it's insane.
and it's not even weird Australian/Mongolian chocolates, it's Cadbury and Nestle.

6. Speech differences:
chocolate covered SULTANAS = chocolate covered RAISINS.
if you don't want your pizza with peppers, you say 'No CAPS, please' (peppers = capsicums).
'D'ja want Sauce?' (Do you want ketchup or mustard?).
a lot of people don't understand 'Ketchup' it's 'Tomatoe sauce'.
and no, not 'Tom-ay-toe', it's gotta be 'Tom-ah-toe'.

7. people drive/walk on the left side of the road. I have been almost run over many times
because i'm looking in the wrong direction. and this is scary because
bus drivers drive the same down narrow residential areas as they do in the main streets.
and i keep running into people on the sidewalks too. but then this is nothing new.

8. the emergency number used to be 000 but now you can dial 911. a few years
back there was an american made show telling kids what to do in an emergency and
then all these kids were dialing 911 - and back then it was for Pizza Hut.

9. Donuts = YEAST RINGS!! (no joke)

10. every once in a while you'll see someone walking around barefoot. it's alright when it's
stores by the beach - but downtown - or around the neighbourhood it's weird.

6:34 p.m. - Oct. 29, 2004

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