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Words/things I learned watching BBAU from the US

kxk said:
Do you know you travel for a whole day and all you see is wheat bins in SA, and a fridge at the front gate of the farm.
Very boring some of it, how old are your kids?

I love long distance driving, and endless stretches of wide open horizons like WA, but it has some boring parts.
I love all the natural parts, the real Nullarbor feels like you can fly off into outer space at night
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Done the Nullabor and it's not that interesting. It used to be tougher, hardly anywhere to stop. Now there's only 100kms without a petrol station.
When you do the drive across, you will see people with their fingers on the top of the steering wheel and they lift their finger to signal hello as they pass you . It's the done thing - considered polite. Also, there are loads of giant fibre glass animals in outback towns
 
Poxy said:
I've been from LA thru Barstow (both mentioned in the song) to Las Vegas. Driving on the right hand side of the road by myself I might add.

Its just like a ride between cities in Australia, except the cities are a lot bigger. People in the US in general are friendly (except New York where even the waiters are too busy to deal with customers).

Odd things
- their coffee has "cream", which isn't cream
- liquid cheese
- big industrial scale of factories; cities & suburbs seem to go forever
- tipping, don't forget like I did.
- toilets flush in a weird way (water goes up & down)
- pickle obsession! They put pickles on just about everything, which explains why MacDonalds has them on burgers.
- pretzel, bagel & pizza obsession in New York
- cheap "all you can eat buffets" in casinos, where fat Americans pile huge amount of food & go back for more
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Don't know what you mean by liquid cheese. Maybe that's a California or Las Vegas thing. I don't recognize it. The original McDonald's hamburger had 3 small slices of dill pickle on it. There's been no change but other kinds of hamburgers they've come out with since then are different. Some have pickles, some don't. We don't have a Value Added Tax like Europe so yes, we tip servers. Some people drink their coffee with cream and sugar. Rather than have cream pitchers, most casual restaurants have cream or half & half in tiny single serving cups. Some people prefer a non-dairy creamer which can be a liquid or a fine powder. Don't know what you mean about toilets flushing differently. Although I've never been to Australia, I've lived all over this country as well as lived and traveled to probably 20 other countries. The toilets have all flushed the same way. I agree about buffets...it is mind-boggling how much some people eat.
 
Connoisseur said:
Motorcycle gangs. Think Sons of Anarchy.

They're everywhere in the news right now. I have no idea why, the scum love the attention they get.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...y-to-kill-police/story-e6frgczx-1226751085937
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Are all bikies scum? Here we have many motorcycle groups that are well respected and do good works in their communities. My husband rides with 3 groups. One, The Patriot Guard, goes to funerals of fallen soldiers to protect the family from crazy religious maniacs that try to picket and harass the families. Another group is former military men and women who go to the Veterans Hospitals to visit the old guys who have no one. They also go to their funerals. The third one is just a social group that enjoys riding in the Texas Hill Country. They wrap presents for kids at Christmas and have adopted miles of roadway. They keep those miles clean of trash. Are their any groups like that in Australia?
 
San Antonio said:
Are all bikies scum? Here we have many motorcycle groups that are well respected and do good works in their communities. My husband rides with 3 groups. One, The Patriot Guard, goes to funerals of fallen soldiers to protect the family from crazy religious maniacs that try to picket and harass the families. Another group is former military men and women who go to the Veterans Hospitals to visit the old guys who have no one. They also go to their funerals. The third one is just a social group that enjoys riding in the Texas Hill Country. They wrap presents for kids at Christmas and have adopted miles of roadway. They keep those miles clean of trash. Are their any groups like that in Australia?
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If there are who would know about them. In the media all you hear about are the outlaw motorcycle gangs. Any crime that might be connected to one of these groups is blown way out proportion.

What the QLD government is doing is absolutely crazy right wing bullshit. 0.6% of crimes in Qld are committed by "Bikes".
 
San Antonio said:
Don't know what you mean by liquid cheese. Maybe that's a California or Las Vegas thing. I don't recognize it.
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I was thinking [MENTION=2181]Poxy[/MENTION] meant this when referring to liquid cheese:

easy-cheese.jpg
 
Inigo Montoya said:
If there are who would know about them. In the media all you hear about are the outlaw motorcycle gangs. Any crime that might be connected to one of these groups is blown way out proportion.

What the QLD government is doing is absolutely crazy right wing bullshit. 0.6% of crimes in Qld are committed by "Bikes".
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We've got us some really clever bikes here in Australia. :p
 
Inigo Montoya said:
If there are who would know about them. In the media all you hear about are the outlaw motorcycle gangs. Any crime that might be connected to one of these groups is blown way out proportion.

What the QLD government is doing is absolutely crazy right wing bullshit. 0.6% of crimes in Qld are committed by "Bikes".
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Well they do pretty much own the amphetamine trade all around Australia, from Tassie to WA.
I knew a guy who used to build them secret hidey holes - he was a carpenter, he built them a whole fake façade they could ride through & hide behind.
He was always moaning he couldn't exactly advertise this specialty he developed.

They haven't been caught but everybody knows they run a lot of drug trade.

Re good bikies
God Squad - are they still around?
Dykes on bikes

Some group does Christmas pressie for kids this time of year - is that Harley riders?

There are plenty of decent social biking groups.
 
San Antonio said:
Are all bikies scum? Here we have many motorcycle groups that are well respected and do good works in their communities. My husband rides with 3 groups. One, The Patriot Guard, goes to funerals of fallen soldiers to protect the family from crazy religious maniacs that try to picket and harass the families. Another group is former military men and women who go to the Veterans Hospitals to visit the old guys who have no one. They also go to their funerals. The third one is just a social group that enjoys riding in the Texas Hill Country. They wrap presents for kids at Christmas and have adopted miles of roadway. They keep those miles clean of trash. Are their any groups like that in Australia?
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No not all members of Bike Clubs are scum.

Queensland premier Campbell Newman has recently introduced laws to "clean up the streets". These laws are very intrusive to the average person - You can be arrested just for wearing the colours of a known Club -and there are a lot of known Clubs!

Check this out....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptyyd32qxLw&feature=share
 
watermellie said:
In answer to my own question, yes youtube has a video of Australian toilet flushing.

My response: OMG that is a huge hole, and the power behind the water, amazing... no wonder our toilet's clog, it's not our huge shits, it's the tiny hole we expect them to go down.
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All newly installed toilets have to have a "half-flush' button.

Sounds silly, but it means people don't use as much water per flush
(Full flush is only for stubborn "excreta".....
http://blog.tiptheplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/the-nines-dual-flush-toilet.jpg
 
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