The
longer I spend in Australia the harder it is to spot the differences because I
get used to things and before I know it they are familiar to me. Still, a few
things have been obvious recently. Here is part 4 of my Aussie Way series.
EFTPOS
Electronic
Funds Transfer at Point of Sale technology is essentially the ability to pay
for something with a card rather than cash. It’s a credit card machine. This in
itself is not new to me, other than the name, I have not been living under a
rock for the last few years! However, when you pay with a card in Australia you
are asked to choose between accounts, cheque, savings or credit. I feel very
virtuous saying savings, but it is really just your current account. In the UK
you are not asked to differentiate, the money is either there or it isn’t.
Americanisms
Despite
Australia historically being more connected to Britain than America there are
lots of Americanisms around. One obvious one is that businesses often
market themselves with phone numbers displayed as words. ‘1300 Evergreen’ is
one I saw recently, for example. Most Australian towns are very young, compared
to European towns anyway, so the architecture is all fairly square. There are
of course some beautiful buildings, but for the most part Australia is the land
of square high streets. One very cool feature is an overhang at the front of
shops. It is a useful shelter when it is hot and also when it is pouring with
rain!
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| Kalgoorlie shopfronts |
Keeping
cool
Buildings
are designed to keep the Australian sun out. For large parts of the year this
is a very worthwhile exercise, but living on the south coast of WA, we have a
significant winter where night time temperatures hover between 3 and 8 degrees
centigrade for four months of the year, which to my mind is cold enough to warrant
some central heating and double glazing, and yet most of the buildings have
neither. They are all designed to be cool (or just plain cold!)
 |
| Sunfried clothes pegs do not last long |
The Sun
Australia is a lot sunnier most of the time than Europe. The
average winter day here beats the socks off one in Europe. The sun is a lot
stronger here too, so from a young age Australians are encouraged to always wear a hat and to befriend the suncream early. I have got into the habit of hanging the laundry out
inside out because otherwise clothes fade and lose their colour. I keep buying
clothes pegs too as the sun makes them brittle and they frequently snap in two.
I wasn’t expecting that.
