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Words/things I learned watching BBAU from the US

watermellie said:
[MENTION=34449]Inigo Montoya[/MENTION] I wasn't going to respond to you because more than once you've come off very anti-american. Not sure if it's intentional, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just answer your question.

When I was a child and lived in CA where it was warm all the time we hung our clothes out to dry. Where I live now it is so moist my clothing would mold. I am not down to have my clothing strung all over my home, plus they might mold inside too if not careful. I've hung 'slightly damp' pants alone in the closet and had them go black spotted.

That's why I don't hang my clothes. Can't speak for the rest of the Americans in this forum.
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Not sure where you got the impression that I am anti-American. Maybe it was the selfish thing I wrote on the other page. I was saying that constitutional rights take priority over everything is selfish. Surly not everyone thinks that was. Maybe I phrased it in the wrong way. But Just so I know could you please point out any other times I have come off ant-American. Just so I know thanks :)

OK so when you say moist do you mean you live somewhere it rains alot and has a cooler climate or somewhere that is hot and moist like the tropics? Do most people who live in CA hang their clothes out. Because I remember an episode of wife swap ( I know not a good example those shows are cast with horrible stereotypes) but one family ( who lived in CA) was not happy when the new mum wanted to hang their clothes outside on the line and the dad said something like the air will make them dirty. I was like WTF when I heard that.

Thanks for answering!
 
Inigo Montoya said:
Not sure where you got the impression that I am anti-American. Maybe it was the selfish thing I wrote on the other page. I was saying that constitutional rights take priority over everything is selfish. Surly not everyone thinks that was. Maybe I phrased it in the wrong way. But Just so I know could you please point out any other times I have come off ant-American. Just so I know thanks :)

OK so when you say moist do you mean you live somewhere it rains alot and has a cooler climate or somewhere that is hot and moist like the tropics? Do most people who live in CA hang their clothes out. Because I remember an episode of wife swap ( I know not a good example those shows are cast with horrible stereotypes) but one family ( who lived in CA) was not happy when the new mum wanted to hang their clothes outside on the line and the dad said something like the air will make them dirty. I was like WTF when I heard that.

Thanks for answering!
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I really don't have the time or inclination to go through all your posts and find the instances that gave me this impression, Glad to know you're not intending to come off that way.

I live in a cool rainy climate at sea level near the ocean... If you've seen the Twilight movies (or even a trailer) .. think there, I'm very close to Forks, WA.

I don't know if people in CA still hang their clothes or not, I moved away in 1979. However I remember it being very dusty in parts.

You're welcome :)
 
In rural areas you see plenty of clothes lines. I grew up in a city suburb and we did not have a dryer but had a sunny back yard to hang our clothes. Of course, then you had to bring them in and iron everything. Those were the days before permanent press fabrics. Also the days of scratchy stiff towels. I like our fabric softener washed & dryer dried towels better. Many of our homeowners associations now have restrictions against clothes lines. In heavily populated areas, there is nowhere to put up a clothes line and most apartment buildings don't allow clothes lines on balconies. In poor sections in the northeast where people live in high apartment buildings, you see clothes lines hung from one building to the next. When I lived in Germany in a 6 story apartment building, the basement had one washer, no dryer. You were not allowed to have anything on your balcony so you had to lug your wet clothes all the way to the drying room on the top floor and hope there was space available. It was often cold and damp so it took clothes days to dry. Sometimes you just gave up and brought them back to your apartment and laid them out wherever you could find. Oh how I longed for a clothes dryer. We were thankful for radiator heating for those thick items in the winter. Back in America, I LOVED to have a dryer again. It's a luxury that I appreciate every time I use it. Hand washed delicate items or fabrics that can't go in the dryer still go outside, but everything else goes in the dryer.

As for driving, I doubt that many people even own cars in New York City. Everyone walks or takes the subway because everything is close. My daughter lives in Chicago and takes the train everywhere she can't walk to. Obviously in rural areas there are fewer places close by to walk to. We live in the 7th largest city in the US and even though it is built around several rings of highways, expanding the circle outwards every 10 years or so, a car is a necessity to travel to the airport 20 miles away across town or downtown 20 miles. In a village where everything is within a couple of miles, a car wouldn't be used as much. We do not shop daily like the Europeans but rather shop 2 times a month for our main groceries because most people get paid twice a month. You must have a car to bring a dozen huge bags home. In Europe you always brought your own bags to the grocery store. It's popular here now too. Developers continue to build vast housing subdivisions further away from the city center with few if any amenities. (But lots of restrictions in things like clotheslines so they can "preserve property values." Stupid. I wouldn't live in one.)
 
The clothesline thing is interesting.

It is obviously a cultural thing - Australians love clotheslines! Space and good weather encourages that attitude. Every house I've ever lived in has had a clothes dryer, and all suburban houses have a clothesline. (As per my name I'm in Melbourne, not the hottest part of Australia but rarely so cold/wet that clothes wont dry.) I think it is safe to say nearly all Australians do own a dryer, but many still use a clothesline too. In one house I lived in my housemates never used the clothesline ever. I prefer to use the sun. My tiny house has no clothesline (few inner city houses/apartment do) so I use a portable rack and a clotheshorse. My habit has always been to pull shirts out of the wash the second it ends and dry them on hangers to reduce wrinkles and save on ironing effort. T shirts hung over a rail of a clotheshorse when dry can be picked up by the fold, folded one more time, then put away. Out of a dryer all the clothes are one messy bundle.

I always use the dryer for all the towels - it is impractical for me to dry them in the sun and they come out scratchy dried that way. T shirts and socks and jocks I prefer to dry in the sun - I might be wrong but I feel the dryer wears them out quicker with the heat and rubbing - that can't help the elastic in clothes?

Naples in Italy is rampant with clothes hung across streets/lanes and on balconies.
 
From tonight's episode, stack.

Clothes lines don't work too well in Minneapolis for most of the year. When the weather is good, it's great, but we get a lot of strange weather coming from the Rocky Mountains & from Canada. The winters are pretty miserable here as well.
 
Yes! "Stack it." I guess it means to wipe out or take a tumble? I'm going to try to integrate that into conversation and see the reaction it gets.
 
Nyx said:
Yes! "Stack it." I guess it means to wipe out or take a tumble? I'm going to try to integrate that into conversation and see the reaction it gets.
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Yes, it is to crash. You could also say "I stacked it"

The u-ey I find interesting, I had an American mate here who called it "flippin a bitch" I loved that and have used it ever since.
Possums look cute but can be vicious, I have had one climb up me like a tree, trying to get the baked beans in my hand. There was no sleeping under the stars that night.

Do you guys say "crack the shits" for someone chucking a tantie?
 
mad said:
Yes, it is to crash. You could also say "I stacked it"

The u-ey I find interesting, I had an American mate here who called it "flippin a bitch" I loved that and have used it ever since.
Possums look cute but can be vicious, I have had one climb up me like a tree, trying to get the baked beans in my hand. There was no sleeping under the stars that night.

Do you guys say "crack the shits" for someone chucking a tantie?
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No, but then we don't say, "chucking a tantie" either. :) It would be "throwing a tantrum."
 
mad said:
Yes, it is to crash. You could also say "I stacked it"

The u-ey I find interesting, I had an American mate here who called it "flippin a bitch" I loved that and have used it ever since.
Possums look cute but can be vicious, I have had one climb up me like a tree, trying to get the baked beans in my hand. There was no sleeping under the stars that night.

Do you guys say "crack the shits" for someone chucking a tantie?
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I had to Google 'chucking a tantie' lol that's throwing a temper tantrum, right? Not heard "crack the shits" ,but we do have many phrases for people flipping out.

I haven't heard someone say "flip a bitch" since I was in high school. Thanks for the nostalgia!
 
LovelyCoconuts said:
I had to Google 'chucking a tantie' lol that's throwing a temper tantrum, right? Not heard "crack the shits" ,but we do have many phrases for people flipping out.

I haven't heard someone say "flip a bitch" since I was in high school. Thanks for the nostalgia!
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Lol, sorry for the confusion, there was talk earlier of tanties, so I assumed peeps would know what I meant.
I guess "crack the shits" goes along with "crack it" and "in the shits".
Had a good cackle at you guys talking about your tiny loo holes, we have a toilet like that in our new place, it's like a toddler size toilet...every shit results in a "reverse kanga"
 
San Antonio said:
As for driving, I doubt that many people even own cars in New York City. Everyone walks or takes the subway because everything is close. My daughter lives in Chicago and takes the train everywhere she can't walk to. Obviously in rural areas there are fewer places close by to walk to. We live in the 7th largest city in the US and even though it is built around several rings of highways, expanding the circle outwards every 10 years or so, a car is a necessity to travel to the airport 20 miles away across town or downtown 20 miles. In a village where everything is within a couple of miles, a car wouldn't be used as much. We do not shop daily like the Europeans but rather shop 2 times a month for our main groceries because most people get paid twice a month. You must have a car to bring a dozen huge bags home. In Europe you always brought your own bags to the grocery store. It's popular here now too. Developers continue to build vast housing subdivisions further away from the city center with few if any amenities. (But lots of restrictions in things like clotheslines so they can "preserve property values." Stupid. I wouldn't live in one.)
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That's very interesting. Do you live in the city or in the suburbs? In Minnesota, it really depends on where you live. My parents live in the suburbs and go to Costco about once or twice a month to load up on groceries. Living in Minneapolis, I walk to the store just about every day. Our city is split up into neighborhoods and our downtown is quite small in comparison to other urban areas. Our downtown buildings are also almost all connected by skyways, so if it's an especially brutal winter day, you don't need to walk outside. They're currently working on building the light rail to connect more of the cities. It currently runs through Minneapolis to the Mall of America & the airport and it will soon be able to go to Saint Paul (the capital) and Saint Cloud (about an hour north of the cities.) It's pretty easy not to have to drive here. Most people bike or drive scooters & motorcycles during the summer. Winter leaves us little option, but public transportation is gaining popularity.
 
"Have a stack" was totally the 'in' phrase for take a tumble when I was in late primary school c.1980.

I didn't think it was that common or popular today but I guess it is making a resurgence? Then again, Sonya is an oldie too.

In those days, we would refer to each other's houses as a "joint", as in "I'm going to Simon's joint". We'd also use the word "us", in place of "me", like Geordies still do.
 
Melbourne003000 said:
The clothesline thing is interesting.

It is obviously a cultural thing - Australians love clotheslines! Space and good weather encourages that attitude. Every house I've ever lived in has had a clothes dryer, and all suburban houses have a clothesline. (As per my name I'm in Melbourne, not the hottest part of Australia but rarely so cold/wet that clothes wont dry.) I think it is safe to say nearly all Australians do own a dryer, but many still use a clothesline too. In one house I lived in my housemates never used the clothesline ever. I prefer to use the sun. My tiny house has no clothesline (few inner city houses/apartment do) so I use a portable rack and a clotheshorse. My habit has always been to pull shirts out of the wash the second it ends and dry them on hangers to reduce wrinkles and save on ironing effort. T shirts hung over a rail of a clotheshorse when dry can be picked up by the fold, folded one more time, then put away. Out of a dryer all the clothes are one messy bundle.

I always use the dryer for all the towels - it is impractical for me to dry them in the sun and they come out scratchy dried that way. T shirts and socks and jocks I prefer to dry in the sun - I might be wrong but I feel the dryer wears them out quicker with the heat and rubbing - that can't help the elastic in clothes?

Naples in Italy is rampant with clothes hung across streets/lanes and on balconies.
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This.

There have been some really interesting articles written about this fresh air thing Aussies have.

I think every aussie dies a little bit each day if they don't have fresh air, an outdoor area, a barbie, a clothesline, and open windows.

I hate housework - except doing the washing. I love hanging it all out & spending that time outside, clothes smell lovely after sunshine & fresh air.
And I have a top out there now, bleaching a stain with the sun, it's almost gone after 2 days, best method of stain removal.

Perth is the best for washing, I lived in a country seaside town, by the time I had reached the end of the clothesline, the first items pegged were dry - if not securely pegged, sometimes they would fly all over town.

Clothes last longer

A lot of Aussie will not stay in a hotel where you cannot open windows, we are fresh air fiends - probably because our air is good
 
They had a gorgeous dog called Delilah last year, and a vet HM to look after her.
No Hms never get given the pets.

Previous BB on 10, they had a disaster with a dog one year, fools put somebody's family pet in, stressed I don't think it lasted 2 weeks?

10's first few series they had chickens to look after.

One year, I think series 5, they had lamas and other barnyard creatures - there is some very funny footage of HMs & lamas:)
 
kxk said:
This.

There have been some really interesting articles written about this fresh air thing Aussies have.

I think every aussie dies a little bit each day if they don't have fresh air, an outdoor area, a barbie, a clothesline, and open windows.

I hate housework - except doing the washing. I love hanging it all out & spending that time outside, clothes smell lovely after sunshine & fresh air.
And I have a top out there now, bleaching a stain with the sun, it's almost gone after 2 days, best method of stain removal.

Perth is the best for washing, I lived in a country seaside town, by the time I had reached the end of the clothesline, the first items pegged were dry - if not securely pegged, sometimes they would fly all over town.

Clothes last longer

A lot of Aussie will not stay in a hotel where you cannot open windows, we are fresh air fiends - probably because our air is good
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Oh, it is a thing - especially in WA. Housing spaces.

In Perth, everyone expects to live on a quarter acre block - which means we have an urban sprawl problem and massive infratrcuture costs. People are very split on high density housing - some peope are so against it and others want to make mondey from development, either because that's their business or they want to subdivide and sell off multiple dwellings to fund their retirement. They usually rip out tress to put more dwellings on a small spot too so there are newer suburbs with no shade, like heat sinkholes, and older suburbs that are leafy.

People attend protests against multiple storey residential sites and high density planning proposals.

It's funny when one goes overseas to a big city where people live in apartments with common walls and no backyard and have done for centuries. You may do that when you start your first job in Perth but the Australian dream is home ownership on a quarter acre block. Like - we think it's a human right or something and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of that.

I remembered a cpouple of other things about American culture as sold to Aussies - everyone lives in a multi-level house in a maple lined street, and you all drive wood panelled station wagons.

And what expression drives me up the wall..?

"Good job!"

No, being an investment banker, lawyer or professor is a good job. If someone performs well, you say "Well Done". Ha Ha
 
Regarding clotheslines vs dryers. There are several reasons I don't dry clothing on the line. Birds and squirrels leaving droppings on my clean clothes. Pollen on clothing, really impossible for anyone with allergies. I'm not in the south, but in the southern states the humidity is so high most of the year, clothes will not dry completely.
 
While the Commonwealth does have more than two billion people living in the affiliated countries, the vast majority of that population are not native English speakers.

Here is the breakdown of English speaking nations.

US (58.5%)
UK (15.8%)
Canada (4.7%)
Australia (4%)
Nigeria (1%)
Ireland (1%)
South Africa (1%)
New Zealand (0.9%)
Other (13.1%)

I don't think there is an issue about which version of English is dominant. The differences are very slight.
 
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