Snacks in Australia...

There are many different snacks here and instead of writing about them I'll just be snapping photos and posting them. The Burger Rings remind me of Wise Onion Rings. The Doritos are slightly different than the US version. You cannot go into a grocery store and buy nacho cheese, you can buy plenty of salsa but no queso.

Unemployed...

So, coming to Australia and not having to work for a bit seemed so nice. It is nice, but there's one thing I do miss about working.....the MONEY. If my husband brought home over $100k, we could easily afford me not working. I want to buy clothes, I have gained 20lbs since being here and really cannot afford to buy a whole new wardrobe. The summer is almost here, today will be 92F and all I can wear are some dresses that I have that are not fitted. Most of my shorts are tight, or just uncomfortable because it seems I've gained inches in my ass, my thighs, my belly and my boobs (they were big enough already). I feel I have no drive or motivation, it sucks, I have this laziness in me that could easily sit around and just do nothing, then I get angry at myself. Two things I hate most are having to do dishes and an unmade bed. For the bed, it's a joy to do, though a slight pain in the ass with a king, but T "helps" so it's rather fun. The sink here is on the smallish side and when I cook or bake it's a pain to wash things when the pans don't fit in the sink, plus the water is a little on the hard side and I've noticed spots on my glasses and utensils (hate). Having a job would put me in contact with people. I go through days without speaking to anyone verbally other than my husband, I do love him very much, but sometimes you just want to talk to another woman. Once or twice a week I call my mom on Skype, but really what I want is female chit chat, sharing recipes and things I used to do at MFS. I sooo don't miss that place and the silliness of many of their procedures and conduct, but I do miss the people I would speak with on a daily basis. I am determined to find a job and soon as I will have no money to buy my husband a Christmas present or to put gas in my car. I'm waiting for my mom to access my old computer and see if my resume is in there, I thought I had put it on a memory stick, but the only thing on it are photos, and that won't help me find a job here. I pray hard that we win the lotto, so I don't have to worry about working, but I need to get a job for my own sanity. If I don't get a job soon, there will be no money for our trip in July to New York and Croatia, and that would upset me greatly. :(

Transportation...

I finally have a GoCard. A GoCard is like NY's MetroCard, it's cheaper to travel with a GoCard then it is if you pay with cash. When you hop onto a bus or enter a train station, you tap your card upon entry and then also when you get off, as you pay the distance that you travel, or should I say within zones. When transferring between buses and/or trains you pay something less than $1.  You can set up the card to automatically top up when it gets to a certain balance. It expires after 20 years, so it's not a constant worry. Seniors have a red card, children (5-14 yr olds) have a yellow one. (These expire on the child's 15th birthday.) Blue ones are the general standard ones, and they also have Concession cards which are green. There are four different concession cards: Secondary schools students (full-time) - which is high school. Tertiary students (any education beyond high school). Pensioners - which is confusing to me as they have their own red cards. Defense force veterans. 

For my car I have a GoVia account which is like the EZPass, only thing is, you never have to slow down or stop to pay the toll, you keep driving at the regular speed of 60kmh which is about 40mph and it reads it. Then the speed inside the tunnel goes up to 80kmh which is about 50mph.  There is no bottlenecking like at the Tappan Zee Bridge or any other major crossings. There are many tunnels running through Brisbane, and it's really cool. They have this one called the Inner-City Bypass and it cuts through the city, and you don't have to pay to use it. There's an Airport Link tunnel that's just up the way from this place and it's great if you need to get to the airport as it cuts down travel time and avoids traffic congestion in the city. 

Annoyed...

In the 7 months I've been here, I've always thought my resume was somewhere amongst my paperwork or in one of my books down in the garage. It seems I was wrong. I even asked my mom if she could check my old room as I remember it being in a blue folder, but such a folder does not exist. I know it's on my hard-drive but I can't access it from here, so now I need to write up a resume from scratch from the beginning. How does one remember all the certified classes one took years ago regarding banking. I had my resume on Monster.com but they're saying they have no record (bs they deleted it) I know it was there as I had a few bites years ago. Twenty-two years in one company is a lot of years and it's a lot of things I did over those many years. I have to simplify and shorten my wordage as not to bore someone to tears. At least my starting point won't be too tiresome, being the receptionist at the radio station. 

My new car...

So back in New York, since 1997 I have always owned a Volkswagen Jetta, here in Australia the mid-model I can't afford. The model Jetta I had before here goes for almost $40,000. Funny, my dream car has always been a BMW 5 series, and in the US that was a price tag with the options I wanted just under $50k, not including tax and all the other bs involved with buying a car. Here a 5 series would cost over $100k, because of the luxury car tax, any car that costs over $57k is hit with another tax, the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Gas prices here are crazy, Americans boo-hoo about the cost of gas, when in actuality they have the cheapest gas prices in the world. Australia has it at about $5.62 a gallon as of yesterday, Europe pays even more, that's why most people own small 4 cylinder cars that are very fuel efficient. But I digress, we looked at a few cars, we looked at the Subaru XV which is gorgeous but out of my price range. The Nissan Dualis (Rogue in the US), I didn't like the feel of it. I liked the look of the Holden (Chevy) Cruze but the deal breaker in any of the cars we looked at was the availability of a sunroof, the Cruze doesn't have one factory installed and the guy suggested they have a guy. I put a stop to that the minute he even hinted at it, if it's not factory installed I don't want it. Honda's a pretty expensive here too, there's no such an Acura, but in actuality it's a Honda. For example, the Acura MDX here is the Honda MDX, go figure. I've always known that the two had the same engine, parts and other things. We even looked at the Ford Territory, but I'm not willing to pay $38k for an SUV, and do I really need one. 

So with much thought and consideration, we went for a test drive with a Toyota Corolla Conquest, and I loved driving it, it was fun and smooth even though it's on the other side of the road and I'm sitting in where to me should be the passenger seat. We sat down with the salesperson and we threw numbers around until both parties were satisfied, they asked what color I wanted, I said white, what's your second choice of color, I said white, and third, again white. I would not be happy in any other color. A few days later the salesperson called and said they've found a white one and it would take a few days, I was in no rush as my money was not in my account yet and my personalized plates hadn't arrived. I got nervous about getting the plates as we're going away for our one year anniversary and I wanted the car by then. I did purchase it on the 29th of September. So I called the PPQ (Personalized Plates of Queensland) on Wednesday and the lady said it was sent out today you should get it in day or two. Next day, around 9:30am the delivery dude showed up, I closed the muppet in the bathroom and signed for my plates. I then texted my husband and called the dealership so they could register my car and I could pick it up Friday at 5:15pm. 

Friday my husband came home early from work, he parked his car and we hopped on a bus into the city to go collect my car. When we got there I knew which one was mine, and I was very excited. We did the final paperwork and they handed over the keys and off we went for a drive. It's interesting driving on the other side, I still get confused when signaling as the signal is on the right instead of the left so I find myself hitting the windshield wipers by accident. It feels good being able to get up and go whenever I want and not have to rely on my husband to drive me everywhere, not that he minds. I love the fact that if I want to make something for dinner I can just get into my car and buy a few missing ingredients. The car is lovely but truth be told, I wish it was a Volkswagen Jetta, there are so many features I'm used to having and this car, although lovely does not have all the bells and whistles of the Jetta. But I cannot afford a Jetta here in Australia or the servicing costs of one. With my Corolla I have fixed price servicing for a time at $132 max. The things I miss and don't have with the Corolla are: key-less entry into the trunk, locking glove box, locking anything in the interior. I have a valet key, yay it means nothing when everything can be accessed from the interior at any time. I did buy a sun visor, as it does get pretty hot here in Queensland ( The Sunshine State) it's really cool, it's got pretty pink flowers on it. 

Loose Change Menu...

So McDonalds here, Maccas to the locals, has a loose change menu. $1 and $2 are gold coins, along with silver currency, .05, .10, .20 & .50. Tax is already included in the price so if something costs $2.00 the tax is already included in that $2. An ice cream cone costs thirty cents, ice cream is included with that price. For $3 you can get a double bacon cheeseburger. For $2 you can have a chicken sandwich, small fries $1, small soda $1. ten- pack chicken McBites $2. So for few loose coins you could have have a meal.

Sayings and such...

In Australia English is spoken but it's sometimes different than the English I'm used to. When saying the letter Z it's not pronounced zee here rather it's zed, H is said differently too it's pronounced haych. The word Quay is not pronounced kway it pronounced kee.  Tires are spelled tyres.  The hood of your car is a bonnet and the trunk is the boot. Indicators are your signals, blinkers.  A car park is a parking lot, a bowser is a  gas pump. Going to Shell you get petrol instead of gas. While driving you overtake someone going too slow. Bitumen is asphalt. A ute or utility is a pickup truck, but sometimes it's a car that has a flatbed in it, kind of like the El Caminos. Aluminum is spelled aluminium, and instead of being spoiled, you are spoilt. Your last name is your surname, and  the date is the day first, then the month and then the year, I find looking back something harder this way as the day is first, I'm used to this in a way since Croatia has always been that way, though they would put the month in Roman numerals so as not to confuse people. Today would be 21/IX/2012. Moms are called mum, if we have kids I am soo making my kids say MOM, mum to me means to be quiet.

Flavor, honor, favor and favorite are spelled flavour, honour, favour and favourite. A sweater here is called a jumper or a pullover, a tank top a singlet, flip flops are called thongs. We don't go to the movies, we go to the cinemas. Avocados are shortened to avos, and afternoons are called arvo. An espresso is either called an espresso or a short black, depending on the cafe you go to. Whole milk here is called full-cream milk.  Green, red, orange and yellow bell peppers are all called capsicums, though in some restaurants you will occasionally find the word pepper in reference to a bell pepper. Cookies here are biscuits or bikkies, though Oreo makes cookies not biscuits, so the word is recognized but not generally used. The lovely fluffy biscuits I'm used to in McDonald's for breakfast do not exist here. They have scones but they're so not like those biscuits. McDonald's here sells sausage McMuffins, the other day I accidentally ordered 2 sausage biscuits and when the girl looked at me like I had 10 heads I realized my oopsy and said McMuffin. A lolly is candy, plain flour is AP flour, whole meal bread is whole wheat bread, castor sugar is powdered sugar, a cantaloupe is a rockmelon,  a papaya is called a paw paw, spring onions are scallions, silver beet is Swiss chard, sultanas are like raisins but bigger, same taste. Jelly does not exist here, it's called jam and it's a thicker consistency then American jellies. French fries are called chips here, except of course in McDonald's. Cotton candy is called fairy floss here, ketchup is called tomato sauce, an appetizer is called an entree, the entree is called the main course, which has confused many an Australian when visiting the States. They think they're ordering an appetizer and they get the actual dinner. A can of tuna is called a tin of tuna. Sprinkles for ice cream are called hundreds of thousands. Chopped beef, veal, pork, lamb or whatever type of meat here is called minced meat. Some people call peanut butter peanut paste, either word is understood and used. Shrimp are called prawns. If you're buying a roasted chicken you're buying a roast chook. Liquor is called alcohol, and a liquor store is called a bottle shop. If you're going on a picnic instead of taking a cooler, you're taking an Esky. If you're going to have some Chinese take-out, here it's called take-away, which to me makes more sense, you buy it and you take it away from the place. Brekkie is what most people call breakfast. Chewing gum here is called a chewie. Coldie : a beer.

Two weeks is called a fortnight, reading romance novels I often read the word fortnight but never realized it meant 2 weeks. That reminds me here quite a few words we (Americans) use with the letter z like realize where here it's spelled with an s as realise. Walking down the sidewalk, footpath or pavement as it's said here, you might be on your way to the pharmacy, it's called the chemist shop here. If you need drugs here you need to use the word medicine as the word drug would be the illegal kind.  Going to get your hair done? You will sit your bum (butt) down in the chair and perhaps you want your bangs trimmed, they call them fringe here. Make sure you've made a booking for a table for lunch as they rarely call them reservations. Doing laundry? run out of clothespins when you go to the store you need to look for pegs for when you hang your clothes on the clothes hoist instead of a clothes line. A vacation is called a holiday, elementary school is called primary school, they have no distinction of years as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, they are called by the year, as a year 12 student would be a senior in high school. If you're fired, you are either made redundant or sacked. Garbage cans are called rubbish bins, a store is generally called a shop, a shopping cart is called a shopping trolley, a dumpster is called a skip. You don't check the box here, you tick the box. A flashlight is called a torch here, funny I hear the word torch I think a stick with a flame on it, the medieval way. If you need to call emergency don't dial 911 you need to call 000, that's triple zero. A closet is a wardrobe, a zip-code is called a postcode here, a mail-carrier is called a postie. Sunbathing here is called sun-baking. A baby carriage is called a pram, diapers are called nappys, babies are called bubs. When you complain, you whinge, I actually like that word. A dishtowel is called a tea-towel, a sandbox is called a sandpit, an eraser is called a rubber. If you line up for something here you form a queue, a shopping mall is called a shopping centre. A bulletin board is called a noticeboard, a wall plug is called a powerpoint. You can only get lotto tickets at the newsagency which closes at 6pm most days unless it's in the mall then it's open till 9pm on Thursday nights. But if you win say the $22 Million jackpot, that's what you win $22 Million, you don't get hit with taxes and all the BS with winning money in the US.  You cannot buy alcohol at the 7-11, or at your local deli, you can only get them at your local bottle shop.Though the legal drinking age here is 18 and they so need to make it 21 as the younger you start to drink the more chaos you cause.  Santa Claus is called Father Christmas here. A doona is a comforter as the one you place on your bed when it's cold.  If you own property you don't pay property taxes you pay rates, water is paid as water rates also. A living room here is called a lounge room and a couch/sofa is called a lounge and the Kitchen counters are called Kitchen benches, which is funny as I asked then what are those things in the park that we sit on called? They too are called benches. An apartment is called a flat or a unit, though I have seen the word apartment used. A roommate is called a flatmate. If you get into an elevator, you're getting into a lift. 

A bludger is a lazy person, someone that always relies on others to do things for them or get them stuff. A bogan is someone that has no care about their appearance spends his days slacking and drinking beer. Budgie-smugglers are basically Speedo's. A bull bar is a stout bar fixed to the front of a vehicle to protect it against hitting kangaroos (also roo bar). BYO : unlicensed restaurant where you have to Bring Your Own grog, also similar party or barbecue. Chuck a sickie : take the day off sick from work when you're perfectly healthy. Dingo's breakfast : a yawn, a leak and a good look round (i.e. no breakfast). Dole bludger : somebody on social assistance when unjustified. Drink with the flies : to drink alone. Dunny : outside lavatory. Fair dinkum : true, genuine.Freckle : anus. G'Day : hello! Galah : fool, silly person. Named after the bird of the same name because of its antics and the noise it makes. Gobsmacked : surprised, astounded. Good onya : good for you, well done. Hotel : often just a pub. Hottie : hot water bottle. Kindie : kindergarten . Lippy : lipstick. Lunch, who opened their? : OK, who farted? Maccas (pron. "mackers") : McDonald's (the hamburger place) Mate's rate, mate's discount : cheaper than usual for a "friend". Mozzie : mosquito. Muddy : mud crab (a great delicacy) Naughty, have a : have sex. No worries! : Expression of forgiveness or reassurance (No problem; forget about it; I can do it; Yes, I'll do it) Pash : a long passionate kiss; hence "pashing on". Piece of piss : easy task. Piss : beer. Hence "hit the piss", "sink some piss". Pokies : poker machines, fruit machines, gambling slot machines.Pom, pommy, pommie : an Englishman. Pommy shower : using deodorant instead of taking a shower. Pommy's towel, as dry as a : very dry - based on the canard that Poms bathe about once a month.  Prezzy : present, gift. Rego : vehicle registration. Rellie or relo : family relative. Rock up : to turn up, to arrive - "we rocked up at their house at 8pm". Root (verb and noun) : synonym for f*ck in nearly all its senses: "I feel rooted"; "this washing machine is rooted"; "(s)he's a good root". A very useful word in fairly polite company. Salvos, the : Salvation Army, bless them. Sanger : a sandwich. Servo : petrol station. Sickie : day off sick from work (chuck a sickie = take the day off sick from work when you're perfectly healthy!) Spag bol : spaghetti bolognese.Stickybeak : nosy person.Sunnies : sunglasses. Tee-up : to set up (an appointment)  Trackie daks/dacks : tracksuit pants.  Truckie : truck driver. True blue : patriotic.  Tucker : food. Uni : university. Vedgies : vegetables. Vee dub : Volkswagen. Vinnie's : St. Vincent De Paul's (charity thrift stores and hostels) White pointers : topless (female) sunbathers. Wog: person of Mediterranean origin. A milder insult than the same word in the UK and perhaps elsewhere. XXXX : pronounced Four X, brand of beer made in Queensland. Yabby : inland freshwater crayfish found in Australia. Yewy : u-turn in traffic ("chuck a yewy at the next traffic lights"). Funny we Americans say that too. 

These are some of the words I've come across in my almost 6 months here, though I had to do some research as there is no way I could possibly remember all of these sayings as many are slang.