Not the real Australia

First off apologise as I am typing this on my phone while walking home from the gym. Gonna fat finger a few words for sure.

Anyway I had a conversation with a coworker today about how my blog was very Perth. Apparently her bf did a blind read and called that I live in Perth. It made me laugh because, while she didn't say it or even imply it strongly, the underlying current was that living in Perth and working in mining isn't experiencing "real Australia". Never mind that Perth is Aus' fourth largest city and mining is a very important industry to the area and country at large economically.

That being said I get it. I have said the same thing to people who visit NYC or Vegas only and form their opinion on the US based on that alone. Is it complete? No. Is it true to what they have experienced? Yes. I would however hope that people realize that they have only seen a very limited part of a bigass country in that case though, much as I try to temper my opinions on that fact that I spend limited time outside WA.

So I guess I should be more conscious of the fact that my observations are Perth centric. My experiences in this country will always be tempered by that. Oh and unnamed coworker if you're reading this feel honored you made it into my oh so amazing blog.

Dining out Down Under

So unsurprisingly I once again forgot this thing existed. But hey, I'm back now. I've been on a business trip to Brissy for training and now am in Melbourne for a friends birthday and to see more of the city so I've been eating out a lot. I figured I'd put together a small list of things that are different about eating in restaurants in the US and in Aus.

-When you order water you get a big bottle and small glasses. Usually the bottle is a repurposed wine or liquor bottle or something. I really like this.

-Round pricing. GST is included in the listed price and everything is rounded to usually a half dollar. Sometimes 20 cents

-Lack of table service. Unless you are at a very nice place you order at the bar or counter pay, for your food then take a very tacky looking number to your table and wait for your food. Even nice joints have little numbers on every table. Really makes eating out feel very tacky to me. As the Canadian geotech at work says "I just want a chesty barmaid to bring me my burger and beer at my table damnit. Is that too much to ask."

-No tipping, but you already knew that.

-Fries with everything. Even at really nice steak joints you will get fries with the majority of meals. Not a baked potato in sight.

-Chicken parmesan or as it is called here param is very common. Especially at bars. And again it is always served with fries.

-Not many places have bar stools. The bar is for people to come up and order drinks/food not to sit at as far as I can tell in this country.

-Tabs are handled incredibly inefficiently and no one really uses them. I have to turn over a CC or ID like in the states, but then there is usually a small form to fill out(phone number, addy, etc.) and you get a small numbered card that is your tab. Also the staff always makes opening a tab seem like some big deal and inconvenience.

So yeah overall restaurant culture and experience in Aus is similar to the States, but there are some sizable differences.