weird things aussies do

The Aussie

Here is a oldie but a goodie.

Having the $1 coin bigger than the $2 coin, always found that odd.
Reason was the $1 coin came about 5 years earlier than the $2 coin but still...

Dubnobass

Midi glasses...

hussey

Dubnobass wrote: »

Midi glasses...

Midi, schmiddy, schooner, Pint
Then Adelaide have something completely different

Popinjay

hussey wrote: »

Midi, schmiddy, schooner, Pint
Then Adelaide have something completely different

Just in case nobody was confused enough: http://beerbrewguru.com/beer-brew-news/beer-size-guide-to-australian-beer-measurements/

markymark21

I dunno if this is an Aussie thing, but the amount of people who ring up our restaurant and say "Hi I'm just ringing to see if I need to call to make a booking"

..well your on the phone to me now so ye might as well make the booking?!

fasttalkerchat

markymark21 wrote: »

I dunno if this is an Aussie thing, but the amount of people who ring up our restaurant and say "Hi I'm just ringing to see if I need to call to make a booking"

..well your on the phone to me now so ye might as well make the booking?!

I do this. I prefer not to make a booking if I can't be sure what time I'll arrive.

lg123

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I do this. I prefer not to make a booking if I can't be sure what time I'll arrive.

Me too, it's not weird.

woolymammoth

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I do this. I prefer not to make a booking if I can't be sure what time I'll arrive.

then, wouldn't it be just calling to see if you need to make a booking, rather than calling to see if you need to call to make a booking?

Old_-_School

I couldn't believe it when I was in Australia a few years ago to see a newspaper report with the story that Australia had overtaken the USA as the most obese country in the world.
How can a country with such great weather, sports facilities and 95% of the population less than an hour from the beach be the most obese country in the world?
It might seem off-topic but being the most obese country in the world is a very weird thing for all the Aussies to do!

JM Skipton

Old_-_School wrote: »

I couldn't believe it when I was in Australia a few years ago to see a newspaper report with the story that Australia had overtaken the USA as the most obese country in the world.
How can a country with such great weather, sports facilities and 95% of the population less than an hour from the beach be the most obese country in the world?
It might seem off-topic but being the most obese country in the world is a very weird thing for all the Aussies to do!

Probably makes sense, when you travel through say various country Victoria towns and see how many fast food outlets there are, disproportionate for the size of certain towns. Advertising fast food on TV and sporting events is also massive, look at KFC and cricket for instance. I have to say I was shocked with the number of obese people in country Victorian towns

woolymammoth

speaking of the beach, i always find it a little weird that people here tend to gather, a little like a heard, at one point on a very long and otherwise empty beach!

jackbhoy

Old_-_School wrote: »

I couldn't believe it when I was in Australia a few years ago to see a newspaper report with the story that Australia had overtaken the USA as the most obese country in the world.
How can a country with such great weather, sports facilities and 95% of the population less than an hour from the beach be the most obese country in the world?

Well it's not, at least not in any real statistics I have seen. Looking at WHO stats, which is generally the best source for this kind of data, Australia is still well behind the US. In fact, there are a fair few countries ahead of Australia based on WHO site.

It's also worth remembering that BMI is used as obesity indicator in most of these surveys, which is probably why New Zealand and practically all of the Pacific Islands figure among top nations for obesity, Polynesians are naturally much bigger built the average Paddy so they will have a high BMI by default. Using BMI practically the whole All Blacks team and closer to home guys like Brian O'Driscoll, would rank as dangerously obese!

I'm not saying for a minute Australia doesn't have an obesity problem but think it has been overstated on here. I have seen a number of posters talk about it being worst in world but have never seen any stats to back up this claim. Happy to eat my words if someone can link to reputable source to prove the claim though...

JM Skipton

jackbhoy wrote: »

Well it's not, at least not in any real statistics I have seen. Looking at WHO stats, which is generally the best source for this kind of data, Australia is still well behind the US. In fact, there are a fair few countries ahead of Australia based on WHO site.

It's also worth remembering that BMI is used as obesity indicator in most of these surveys, which is probably why New Zealand and practically all of the Pacific Islands figure among top nations for obesity, Polynesians are naturally much bigger built the average Paddy so they will have a high BMI by default. Using BMI practically the whole All Blacks team and closer to home guys like Brian O'Driscoll, would rank as dangerously obese!

I'm not saying for a minute Australia doesn't have an obesity problem but think it has been overstated on here. I have seen a number of posters talk about it being worst in world but have never seen any stats to back up this claim. Happy to eat my words if someone can link to reputable source to prove the claim though...

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity

Sorry meant to say they are behind the states but as the Aussies would say themselves their position is not too Flash

rightyabe

woolymammoth wrote: »

speaking of the beach, i always find it a little weird that people here tend to gather, a little like a heard, at one point on a very long and otherwise empty beach!

Staying within the safety flags maybe?

Old_-_School

jackbhoy wrote: »

Well it's not, at least not in any real statistics I have seen. Looking at WHO stats, which is generally the best source for this kind of data, Australia is still well behind the US. In fact, there are a fair few countries ahead of Australia based on WHO site.

It's also worth remembering that BMI is used as obesity indicator in most of these surveys, which is probably why New Zealand and practically all of the Pacific Islands figure among top nations for obesity, Polynesians are naturally much bigger built the average Paddy so they will have a high BMI by default. Using BMI practically the whole All Blacks team and closer to home guys like Brian O'Driscoll, would rank as dangerously obese!

I'm not saying for a minute Australia doesn't have an obesity problem but think it has been overstated on here. I have seen a number of posters talk about it being worst in world but have never seen any stats to back up this claim. Happy to eat my words if someone can link to reputable source to prove the claim though...

This was the report that came out when I was in Australia that showed Australia to be no. 1:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/nine-million-aussies-too-fat/story-e6frg12c-1111116681002

fasttalkerchat

woolymammoth wrote: »

then, wouldn't it be just calling to see if you need to make a booking, rather than calling to see if you need to call to make a booking?

Ah I get you now!

The Aussie

Old_-_School wrote: »

This was the report that came out when I was in Australia that showed Australia to be no. 1:

So it's still not a "weird thing Aussies do", its a thing the Western World do.
I don't know what is so hard about this thread that makes it so hard to follow.

BTW with Ireland at 23% you are catching fast, if you couple into that, that the fat figures are skewed by all the fatties dying of during the Famine you might be world champions, MODS if the Famine line is a bit close to the bone (see what I did there, close to the Bone, see see, me cleaver me) feel free to edit. :pac:

woolymammoth

rightyabe wrote: »

Staying within the safety flags maybe?

Right[yabe]!

it's probably so ingrained then, that they continue to do it when the lifesavers aren't around...

The Aussie wrote: »

So it's still not a "weird thing Aussies do", its a thing the Western World do.
I don't know what is so hard about this thread that makes it so hard to follow.

BTW with Ireland at 23% you are catching fast, if you couple into that, that the fat figures are skewed by all the fatties dying of during the Famine you might be world champions, MODS if the Famine line is a bit close to the bone (see what I did there, close to the Bone, see see, me cleaver me) feel free to edit. :pac:

You're a large butchers knife?

You're probably not wrong there. There's really no way of ever really knowing how ireland would've turned out if we hadn't lost all those people. I've always felt that people back home are hugely more active when the sun comes out, and that if we had better weather more often, the country as a whole would be significantly healthier. Still, being fat is not a weird aussie thing.

are we running out of weirdness now?

Old_-_School

The Aussie wrote: »

So it's still not a "weird thing Aussies do", its a thing the Western World do.
I don't know what is so hard about this thread that makes it so hard to follow.

BTW with Ireland at 23% you are catching fast, if you couple into that, that the fat figures are skewed by all the fatties dying of during the Famine you might be world champions, MODS if the Famine line is a bit close to the bone (see what I did there, close to the Bone, see see, me cleaver me) feel free to edit. :pac:

A lot of the Irish fatties in the 19th century had to steal extra food to keep them going, and when they got caught they were sent to Australia, so that's skewing the Australian statistics as well. Only for that Australia would probably be one of the healthiest nations, on par with their fellow Asian countries like Japan and South Korea
As for tarring all the Westen world with the same brush, well the Scandanavian countries along with Switzerland, Austria and Italy aren't doing too badly.

hussey

Mod Right back on thread.

The Aussie

Old_-_School wrote: »

Edit:....................

woolymammoth wrote: »

it's probably so ingrained then, that they continue to do it when the lifesavers aren't around...

Safety in numbers, what happens if you get into difficulty while swimming by yourself?
One way of giving your family and friends a day out I suppose.

woolymammoth wrote: »

are we running out of weirdness now?

No not yet, it's a big place

jackbhoy

JM Skipton wrote: »

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity

Sorry meant to say they are behind the states but as the Aussies would say themselves their position is not too Flash

There's a pretty massive caveat in the fine print of that table:

"For Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, figures are based on health examinations, rather than self-reported information. Obesity estimates derived from health examinations are generally higher and more reliable than those coming from self-reports, because they preclude any misreporting of people's height and weight."

In other words, 3 countries have properly measured BMI, the rest are most likely way underestimated.

Most of the hype around this seems to be usual terrible standard of research/reporting by Aus media.

Slidey

Dont remember if this has been posted or not but their complete disregard for insulation, double glazing windows and putting tin roofs on million dollar houses is something I will always find strange

Pisco Sour

jackbhoy wrote: »

Well it's not, at least not in any real statistics I have seen. Looking at WHO stats, which is generally the best source for this kind of data, Australia is still well behind the US. In fact, there are a fair few countries ahead of Australia based on WHO site.

It's also worth remembering that BMI is used as obesity indicator in most of these surveys, which is probably why New Zealand and practically all of the Pacific Islands figure among top nations for obesity, Polynesians are naturally much bigger built the average Paddy so they will have a high BMI by default. Using BMI practically the whole All Blacks team and closer to home guys like Brian O'Driscoll, would rank as dangerously obese!

I'm not saying for a minute Australia doesn't have an obesity problem but think it has been overstated on here. I have seen a number of posters talk about it being worst in world but have never seen any stats to back up this claim. Happy to eat my words if someone can link to reputable source to prove the claim though...

BMI can be way off on an individual level for sure, but on a national level it's a pretty good reflection on the state of a country. Yes Brian O'Driscoll would rank as "obese" which is clearly not the case. But how many Aussies are overweight or obese because they are elite or semi elite sportspeople in excellent physical condition with high muscle and low body fat percentage? I see the enormously fat people constantly walking through the CBD and they certainly ain't athletes, but rather overweight/ obese no matter what way they try to swing it (big boned being the funniest excuse I hear).

hussey

Mod Last warning - drop the obese issue. It's not an Australian issue.
Feel free to create a Obese Australian thread, but not here.

woolymammoth

Slidey wrote: »

Dont remember if this has been posted or not but their complete disregard for insulation, double glazing windows and putting tin roofs on million dollar houses is something I will always find strange

especially in SA. It gets f*ckin baltic in Adelaide during the winter, then blistering in the summer. It makes absolutely no sense. Then, they'll complain about high power bills for the AC..

No6

Slidey wrote: »

Dont remember if this has been posted or not but their complete disregard for insulation, double glazing windows and putting tin roofs on million dollar houses is something I will always find strange

I work for a council assessing building permits so when I get an irate aussie giving out about having to put in insulation I just throw out my arms and tell we need this much at home so they head off feeling lucky!!:eek: Dont get me started on tin roofs and single glazing though!! we are in the energy dark ages here!!!

lg123

This has probably been mentioned before and I know this issue can be seen in other countries but I have seen Aussies do cricket!!

Even weirder, they have put it on tv?!?

Mellor

Slidey wrote: »

Dont remember if this has been posted or not but their complete disregard for insulation, double glazing windows and putting tin roofs on million dollar houses is something I will always find strange

Insulation wasn't as critical as in ireland. Sun protection was always far more important for energy saving here (something that we don't do). But they could do with catching up to the 21st century now.

I found corrugated roofs strange too though originally. But it was the best/only option in the 1800s, they didn't have slate available like we did. It became the vernacular style. It's part of a protected heritage and they are often forced to be in keeping with that style.

Slidey

It's so noisy compared to tiles though.

The estate im in is 75% tin, the rest us tiles. I know which I'd spring for. The attic is sweltering and the upstairs rooms suffer because of it. The house is only 3 months old and not a stitch of insulation anywhere. They fed the owner a line that she didn't need it as the tin was reflective painted stuff.


Sheepskin seat covers... What's that about??