cultural differences

here are three things that have really stood out to me as being different between australia and ireland. don't get your hopes up for a massive insight into the differences - they are all pretty mundane

 

number 3: (notice that i'm going to go backwards to build suspense)...no smoking inside any public places, including public houses, known simply as pubs by most people. this rule is great for non smokers like myself. i love it - i can go out at night, wake up the next morning and be able to wear my clothes again. and that's a real lifesaver when you have as few clothes as i do and dislike washing them as much as i do. the only problem with this rule is that it leads to all the smokers gathering around the entry/exit to every building so whenever you walk into/out of a place (such as pub or supermarket etc) you have to hold your breath to avoid the nicotine clouds hovering there.

 

number 2: there is government surcharge on plastic bags. whenever you go to any shop, not just supermarkets, and you get a plastic bag you have to pay an extra 15 euro cents. that's about 23 australian cents. i reckon it's a great idea because it cuts down on the amount of plastic bags people use. although it can suck sometimes when you go to the supermarket and forget to bring any other bag and are too tight to spend 15 cents (like myself) so end up cramming as much as you can into your pockets and balancing the rest all the way home. luckily i only live a couple of minutes away from tescos (uk and irelands version of coles) so it's not too bad.

 

number 1: bread. and more specifically the packaging it comes in - over here the loaves of bread don't have the little plastic doo-dahs on the end of them. i don't know what they are called (maybe someone can help me out) but you all know what i mean, at least all aussies do - the little platic squares with a hole in the middle that keeps the plastic bag closed and the bread fresh. here they just come with a piece of sticky tape that you have to bend round on itself or they don't come with anything at all and you just have to fold the packing over to try and keep the bread fresh.

 

there you go, my three 'cultural' differences. in other news; i saw miami vice last night - what a crap movie, i fell asleep twice during it. i just checked my credit card balance and i owe visa $4,000. i thought it was about $1,500 so that was a nasty surprise. if only i'd known yesterday, i wouldn't have gone to the movies and i would have been spared 2 hours of miami vice.