Day 4, you would think that I would be used to which side of the car I needed to get into to be the passenger. Yeah, no. Juli is in constant fits of laughter with my lack of ability to remember. So, sitting in the front seat is completely weird. Not having a steering wheel in front of me and you know how people say “don’t get me started on” , well, I’m getting started on the road rules…
I don’t know if I would be confident enough to drive anywhere here without driving lessons in a custom built off the real road training facility with fake cars and humans coming the other way. The amount of times I’ve wanted to grip the dash and arm on the door when Juli appears to be driving into on coming traffic. There’s a part where the arrow is red, but you can turn on it and there’s like a dedicated lane thing. Their STOP signs are the same though, but sometimes they are only joshing and you don’t actually have to stop.
I have decided that the US Traffic Department are really about empowering drivers on the road, giving them the opportunity to make decisions at will. Where as in Australia, our traffic department all about control. Stop. You must stop. US; Stop if you think it’s a nice idea.
I also learned that they have the ability to stop any kind of petrol theft here in that you cannot get the bowser to work unless you pay for it first. So you get to go into the person and tell them how much you want to spend, hand over the cash or your card and then away you go. There is even methods built into the card to establish if its you using the card by putting in the zip code of where you live so that the machine knows you haven’t stolen the card if you want to pay at the actual bowser. This is something Australia should adopt – and especially Ipswich because they seem to make all the news stories about petrol theft when media group in Australia wants to do a story on it.
What have I learned today. Colorado in their Summer is divine. Anyone in Queensland would handle the weather here. The sun, the breeze the amazing blue sky. I’m so excited to go outside without sunscreen on and know I’m not going to fry in 3.4 minutes. Everyone here is really friendly and have such amazing manners. Except when they are driving and then there are no please or thank you gestures apparent. There’s quite a few of the Soccer gestures that resemble “what do you want from me”, you know shoulders shrugged, arms extended head tilted to the left in question and “which kinda cheese do you want on your pizza for christ-sake”….. the one where the fingers are clenched at the mouth with the shoulders shrugged and the head tilted backwards in exasperation.
Went to this outlet mall today and went into a shop called Harry and David which has all these really yummy things in it – kinda like Maggie Beer. The woman serving us was British and she asked me where in Australia I was from and turns out her brother lives on the Northside of Brisbane. The world is a small place. I had that happen going through immigration in France once, the man who stamped my passport used to live in Chermside. Anyway, chocolate covered blueberries. That is all. (They will be entering Australia for consumption on the 21st of September…stay tuned.)
So you know how I mentioned that feminine hygiene products come in packs the size of small animals, well, their cans of drink do too. I now know why all movies coming out of America talk about dental plans, because the size of the cans, if consumed regularly would mean there are no teeth to speak of. A can of lemonade or something would come up to where the word Green Tea is right there.
The time difference finally did it’s thing today with me completely missing going to our first networking function in Denver. I was so excited to be out of Australia with all the election stuff, but spent all day wondering how everyone was feeling about it and as a consequence felt like I was in Saturday. Sigh.
I did however experience Barnes and Noble to buy some postcards and they have everything cool known to man. There is a rule about which door you go into and out of. Who knew. If I’m to send you anything in the post, expect a giant hand post-it saying Hi Y’all!! All the coolest calendar especially for MOMMY’s – Donny’s going to be so excited that I got him the calendar of his dreams.
Ok, so when I wake up with tomorrow’s exciting installment, Australia should have it’s new government for the next 3 years. I don’t think there’s been another time in my life where most, if not all of Australia was in fear of who was going to lead. Am I wrong, I can feel the fear over here?!
Until then, have a nice day now y’hear.
Amanda
Goddess of the Imperative