Aussies XXXXV

[sh_wulff]

[quote name='Ser Stubby' post='1613110' date='Dec 9 2008, 11.17']Banana benders are all troppo.[/quote]

I'll drink to that ;)

[Stubby]

[url="http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24779947-948,00.html"]And for the booby prize....[/url]

See, now this is an important Aussie story...

;)

[Adelle Tully]

Oh dear....inflatable boobs. They can just have some of mine...have more than a little excess I'd like to get rid of.

I was asking about the Brisbane location because I'm living in that area and was hoping we could get a group together to hang out or whatever they called it around here.

My day was another one of observations both yesterday and today. I spent a majority of the day in the hospital having a bad reaction to some sort of insect bite. I went to the GP first, thinking I could avoid the hospital, but he'd never seen anything like it and sent me there anways. At the hospital I was "seen" right away. And by "seen" I mean they handed me a peice of paper, took me out of the waiting room and stuck me in a corridor where no one acknowledged my existance for over two hours while my feet turned purple, but neck swelled up and I vomitted and what not the entire time. The hospital was not packed, but it was a bit busy (I had been there before with a broken leg and saw it when it was busy). Finally a nurse asked me how long I had been there (she had just come on shift). I looked at my cell phone and saw it had been over 2 hours and no one had even viewed my chart.

So then it took 3 people to find a vein to stick an IV in (this would be because I have hard to find veins and of no fault of the people trying) and they tried my feet, arms, wrists and were about to move onto my jugular when the head doctor saved me by finding one in my hand, only accessible by a tiny butterfly needle.

I continued to sit in the corridor in the chair for another hour before they decided to give me a bed and then wheeled me into the corridor so they could use the rooms for people with broken fingers and small cuts. There I was largely ignored with absolutely nothing to do and no one to talk to for another several hours until they finally decided to allow my husband in to see me (which was odd since everyone else had family with them and I obviously wasn't serious enough to deserve a room). Oh well, at least it was free?

I'm beginning to see why American health care costs so much....cable television, rooms, doctors and nurses that acknowledge your existance...you know the normal type things. But I shouldn't be complaining as it wouldn't have cost me a dime to die in their corridor if a single nurse hadn't come on duty. Next time I'm heading to the private hospital. I don't care how much it costs and I guess I'll end up coughing up the money for private health insurance anyways as my kids will need braces and we need dental covered.

Then I got to go to my kids' school play, 15 minutes out of the hospital. Needless to say I was already grumpy and when I saw they were serving parents endless alcohol, I was more than a little annoyed. However, it was when the kids started performing and the parents were too busy having their loud, jolly, drunk conversations to shut the hell up so the rest of us could see our children perform, that I really got angry. So I very loudly commented on how I'd never seen a group of parents so misbehaved that they couldn't set an example for their children on respect for others at a show. This shut them up for about 2 seconds. Then they started again. My kids performed, I didn't get to see them over the 6ft tall guys moshpitting to Christmas music in front of me and I couldn't even hear the tune of my daughter's solo over the drunken roar of idiotic parents. My children will never again perform for that school. I'll put them in private lessons where *hopefully* people can have the respect towards my children and myself consistant of a person beyond 1 st grade.

Oh and today I found out that when you make an appointment to have your car serviced, you're just telling them when you'll be showing up. This has no effect on them working on your car in a timely fashion.

[GoN]

What astounds me most about Australians is how laid back, patient, and tolerant they are. :)

[Hereward]

:owned:

[Jeor]

Heh, Brady, our family's a bit like that too. My brother's the rebel, and I was the stay-at-home nerd. We're basically polar opposites of each other. During uni, he constantly moved out and then moved back in whenever he ran out of money (which was rather frequently). I stayed at home throughout uni, worked full-time each summer, and only moved out when I finished and had a full-time job. Mind you, I've had it fairly comfortable because I now have a permanent job in a well-paying independent school, while my brother's been switching them every few months.

Now I've just got to figure out a good time to buy an apartment. I'm renting a nice place right now, pretty cheap, share with a friend, close to work (very low travel costs), so it doesn't feel like I should have any urgency to buy. But I suppose if I'm going to eventually buy, the next 12 months is probably going to be a good time for property. I'll have to keep an eye out.

Adele,

For what it's worth, my experiences with public hospitals have been pretty good. Despite having my own private health insurance, I think the two times I've had emergencies I've always gone to a public hospital. From what I've heard public hospitals are meant to be better with emergencies, while private hospitals are better with surgery (eg I went to one to get my wisdom teeth out), since those are the things that they're most used to dealing with respectively. As far as my own personal experiences go, that's been pretty accurate.

[Stubby]

[quote name='Ghost of Nymeria' post='1614512' date='Dec 10 2008, 20.43']What astounds me most about Australians is how laid back, patient, and tolerant they are. :)[/quote]

Most of us are Practicing Apathists.

[Xray the Enforcer]

[quote name='Ser Stubby' post='1614551' date='Dec 10 2008, 07.50']Most of us are Practicing Apathists.[/quote]

and when that fails, you always have your aluminium-assed wombats. give it a paddle, send it happily on its way, and refresh yourself with a frosty beer. win-win-win.

[Chaldanya]

[quote name='Ghost of Nymeria' post='1614512' date='Dec 10 2008, 11.43']What astounds me most about Australians is how laid back, patient, and tolerant they are. :)[/quote]

I don't believe I've told you how much I love you recently. You fucking rawk!

N

ps Adelle: Is there anything you like about Australia??

[delete this account pls]

Quick pole (ETA; I mean poll, talk about a Freudian slip) - what do you do for Xmas dinner? Seafood, BBQ, or the traditional baked dinner with turkey? Also, which meal is the Big One, lunch or dinner?

We used to do a baked turkey with all the trimmings for dinner but we'll probably just do a barbie this year because it's going to be a fairly quiet day. First Xmas without any grandparents, which is a little bit sad. I wish we could could do seafood, but theres of the family don't like fish or prawns. Because they're wierd.

[quote name='Ser Stubby' post='1614330' date='Dec 10 2008, 17.05'][url="http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24779947-948,00.html"]And for the booby prize....[/url]

See, now this is an important Aussie story...[/quote]


"You'd think the Chinese economy was in enough trouble without misplacing 130,000 pairs of boobs.'' That's almost sigworthy I think.

[brook]

for us its a massive cold lunch. Lots of seafood, ham and salads. Depending on numbers we'll sometimes do a BBQ as well, this year theres not going to be enough people here at lunchtime to bother.

Dinner is just leftovers from lunch for whoever actually feels like eating - usually only the kids because everyone else is still too stuffed from a huge lunch and a full days snacking.

[Stubby]

[quote name='Brady' post='1615166' date='Dec 11 2008, 06.37']Quick pole (ETA; I mean poll, talk about a Freudian slip) - what do you do for Xmas dinner? Seafood, BBQ, or the traditional baked dinner with turkey? Also, which meal is the Big One, lunch or dinner?[/quote]

We usually have Mum over for breakfast. She lives by herself since we lost Dad and its a way for her to still have a xmas morning. Menu is pastries, muffins and a big pot of coffee.

Lunch is the big one. Depends where we are as to what we get. Laoise's folks do a pretty traditional feed but my brother does 1400 different shades of seafood. Mmmm crayfish....

[Skyrazer]

[quote name='Brady' post='1615166' date='Dec 11 2008, 08.37']Quick pole (ETA; I mean poll, talk about a Freudian slip) - what do you do for Xmas dinner? Seafood, BBQ, or the traditional baked dinner with turkey? Also, which meal is the Big One, lunch or dinner?[/quote]
BBQ with a few of the neighbours and various other close family friends (we alternate between the friends each year). It is usually always for dinner, however, being the introverted lazy apathetic atheist that I am, I'd much rather be sitting on my ass eating lamb chops, sculling soft drink and bumming out on computer games without all these people around me talking about shit I don't give a rat's ass about....

[Horza]

Atheist branch is all salads and cold meats and chilled white wine, Catholic branch = roasts and seafood and torrents of beer.

[Ouroboros]

BBQ usually, but we aren't doing anything this year. Might go to church, but that's about it. No presents, maybe a quiet dinner. No one in the family has money to spend this Christmas, and the Aunt we usually spend Christmas with is on Chemotherapy so we can't see her any time soon, don't want to risk getting her sick. She's got breast cancer. The rest all live out in Woop-Woop, so no seeing them.

Yeah, not a very merry Christmas this year.

[arya_underfoot]

[quote name='Jeor' post='1614532' date='Dec 10 2008, 23.17']Adele,

For what it's worth, my experiences with public hospitals have been pretty good. Despite having my own private health insurance, I think the two times I've had emergencies I've always gone to a public hospital. From what I've heard public hospitals are meant to be better with emergencies, while private hospitals are better with surgery (eg I went to one to get my wisdom teeth out), since those are the things that they're most used to dealing with respectively. As far as my own personal experiences go, that's been pretty accurate.[/quote]

you have that right. you'd have to be crazy to go to a private hospital for an emergency. public hospital emergency departments cop a lot of criticism, but if you front up with a true emergency presentation, regardless of how full the ED is, your treatment will be prioritized. of course this means that people with less urgent problems get bypassed, and most of the gripe you hear is from these people.

for elective surgery however, if you can afford it, private is the way to go. there's no waiting time, you rarely get bumped by an emergency or a bed shortage, you almost always get a single room, better food, and its a nicer quieter environment to recover from surgery.

[delete this account pls]

[quote name='Ouroboros' post='1615799' date='Dec 11 2008, 19.03']BBQ usually, but we aren't doing anything this year. Might go to church, but that's about it. No presents, maybe a quiet dinner. No one in the family has money to spend this Christmas, and the Aunt we usually spend Christmas with is on Chemotherapy so we can't see her any time soon, don't want to risk getting her sick. She's got breast cancer. The rest all live out in Woop-Woop, so no seeing them.

Yeah, not a very merry Christmas this year.[/quote]

Sorry to hear that, best wishes for your aunt.

[Stubby]

[quote name='Brady' post='1615814' date='Dec 11 2008, 17.43']Sorry to hear that, best wishes for your aunt.[/quote]

Likewise, Ouroboros.

[Skyrazer]

" I'm not afraid of any man ... but this ain't no man."

Pssht, we all know what the best quote from Predator is. You should have a picture of Arnie with said quote. If you don't know what that quote is....well start feeling sorry for yourself...

[Adelle Tully]

Yes, there are things I like about Australia. Mainly that my husband is here (which I'm generally thankful for). I like that healthy food is cheaper than junk food (it's the other way for the most part in the US) and that there's more walking. I'm (most of the time) happy to see Australians trying to help the environment. I LOVE southbank and the fact there are free things for the kids to do during the school holidays. I like the fact that it's much easier to build good credit here than in the US.

Most of my bitching comes from the fact that I've had a very hard 6 months + of living here. Adjustments always take time. I don't think I met someone who wasn't a complete terd until I had been here about 3 months and then it ended up he was from Poland and visiting for a week. Since then I've met people that are tolerable but have yet to meet someone I'd actually want to hang out with outside of work/kids school. I think once I get more used to AU, I'll be happier about it (hopefully).

I saw my boss act like a boss for the first time yesterday. Usually he makes me fire the people that are out of line. But yesterday he stood his ground against a really obnoxious lady. I was actually proud of him. It didn't help that afterwards he came to me and complained about how he had been too mean when she had yelled and swore at him in the middle of the office in front of everyone with people on the phone with customers...(sighs)