Are you think what I am thinking? Introducing a Bounce like product to Australia? The clothes lines will be coming down like panties on a 3 dollar hooker. We will make millions.
Yes, I’m afraid that was my first reaction too. 
Paying for electricity when the sun will do it for free, and ruining all your clothes into the bargain!
Well, sure, works for those of you with sun a large amount of the year, but in many parts of the US, we’ve got below freezing temperatures half the year.
It’s the small things that can surprise you. On returing a hire car in Canada, I got asked “Do you want to leave it on the credit card?”
Huh?
As far as I knew, the credit card had been debited (and had shown up on a statement) - I knew I was liable for damage or speeding or whatever…I just had no idea what the alternative was if I’d said ‘no’. I still have no idea.
It’s small things that make you realise you’re not at home…table service vs. standing up and ordering at a bar, is the kind of thing that’s so ingrained that the opposite can feel strange.
Heh. The only people who seem to like it are Australians in this thread.
Clothes don’t go crunchy if you hang them on the line 
I can’t stand to use a dryer on my clothes. And I also see using a dryer when you have a perfectly good washing line as one of those things lazy people do that I don’t.
And that doesn’t explain why someone would need/want a dryer in South Africa.
I love line-dried clothes. And towels. And sheets. (Especially sheets).
Unfortunately I
a.) Live in a city
b.) Have a crummy landlord who explicitly instructed me that not to string clothesline on the back porch because he doesn’t want the building to look like “a shanty town”.
c.) The weather’s all Coldy McNoSun 8 months of the year anyways.
I haven’t found the Australian sunshine to be exactly gentle on clothing, especially the dark ones. I have what was once a navy blue sweatshirt that’s now a lovely shade of pale lavender!
Let’s see, other things I’ve had trouble adapting to (although “trouble” might be exaggerating a bit ) :
No pay-at-the-pump gas stations where we live (which means I have to get my kid out of and into his carseat every time I need gas).
No drive-through ATMs.
No decent, affordable maternity clothes (Shagnasty, here’s your investment opportunity) - everything’s either $$$boutique$$$ or huge tank tops & black pants. That’s it.
Chilli sauce on everything!
Beets on hamburgers!
Barbecue sauce on pizza!
No central heat!
You Aussies are a strange lot 
.
Seriously, though, I’m pretty used to how things work here by now (and I’ve lost a bunch of weight, since I don’t like beets or barbecue sauce!), and there are a lot of things that I think are set up better here than in the U.S. (I particularly like how the malls have regular shops plus all the “necessity” shops like grocery stores, banks, Medicare offices, etc.). Oh, and roundabouts are good, too.
I thought of something else -
What’s up with a separate room for the toilet? On our main level, we have a bathroom that has a sink, a bathtub, and a shower. Right next to it is a little, tiny room with just a toilet (and I do mean tiny - you have to actually stand over the toilet in order to close the door). You have to walk out into the hallway to get to the toilet from the bathroom. It’s not like this everywhere, though. Upstairs, we have a normal bathroom that has a sink, shower and a toilet all in one room. The separate room thing seems like such a waste of space. The only conclusion I’ve been able to come to is it’s so we can make sure our guests wash their hands after using the toilet.
The separation is to allow one person to have a bath/shower and another to use the toilet at the same time.
I think I know how that would go - on returning your RENTAL ( ) car, if you had said that you didn’t want to leave it on the credit card, you would have been expected to pay cash or debit card for it. Basically, the amount would have been reserved by authorization on the credit card so the rental company would have known that they would get payment out of you one way or another, but they wouldn’t have actually processed the transaction with your credit card company until you returned the car and agreed to the credit card transaction. Does that make sense?
When I was a kid in Saskatchewan, my mom used to always dry clothes on the line, and they smelled so incredibly good. I think I will have a line out back some day again, for use in summer. If you don’t like them stiff from the line, you can always fluff them in the dryer for five minutes after they’re dry.
TellMeI’mNotCrazy, there is a new product in Canada that is a piece of fabric that is supposed to soften clothes naturally for something like 500 loads. I haven’t tried it yet, but I believe I will soon. Those would be easy to mail to you if you wanted to go that way.
Well, that, and out West where there’s lots and lots of dirt that can fly around when the wind kicks up, it’s kinda counterproductive. Hang clean clothes outside where a lot of dust can blow onto them?
I live in an apartment building, so I don’t have anywhere outside to hang them. I did hang them in my bathroom on the drying rack I had there before getting the dryer, but they don’t get the benefit of sunshine and fresh air.
No pay-at-the-pump gas stations where we live (which means I have to get my kid out of and into his carseat every time I need gas).
Same things here. Central heat was a really odd one for me. Granted it doesn’t get nearly as cold here as it did in the States, but I’d rather face 5 degree weather with heat than 32 degree weather without it. We also have the separate toilet room, although ours has a sink.
Sorry, I muffed that quote and should have omitted the “No pay at the pump” line, which was C3’s.
Girl, we gotta talk. Creme Soda is the bestest, yummiest thing in a glass bottle. 
And Scott, yes indeed, we have *Madam and Eve * in various publications, The Star newspaper being the most widespread.
Sorry, missed this, TMINC, I don’t understand the “pay at the pump” comment. Why would you need to take your kid out the carseat? Usually the pump attendant fills up, takes your money/card and brings the change/slip.
Oh, and it’s “petrol”, not “gas”. 
Ask for “gas” and you’re likely to be brought a bottle of LPG.
Sorry - as I tried to point out that was just a misquote and was originally written by **C3 **who is Australia.
Ahhhhh…
<<sound of penny dropping and rolling down the passage>>
::Note to self: Read ALL posts before making ass of badger::
<nitpick>Actually, he’s an American in Australia. We don’t call it gas either.</nitpick>
Yeah, I left out the keyword “in”. Or, I meant that he was a large landmass