A question for my overseas viewers

[alias_sqbr]

Reading TV Tropes to fill in the time until Cam comes home and we can go shopping, I came across this:

Australians as a nation are, for the most part, utterly mad about almost all forms of sports (but especially the ones they're really good at, such as cricket and Australian Rules Football). Here's a fun exercise; watch any Australian commercial TV news broadcast and make note of how many of the stories relate to sport in some way. Bet it's over half. Of course, if you happen to live in Australia and aren't particularly interested in sport, it makes an otherwise wonderful country somewhat less wonderful to live in. It doesn't help that when they lose something that they normally win (as happened a couple of years ago, when England unexpectedly won the Cricket Test Series), they can be pretty bad losers.

That doesn't happen in other countries? You guys's news is actually mostly news? You don't have national holidays based around horse races? o.O

Comments

[out-fox.livejournal.com]

You don't have national holidays based around horse races?

Trying to explain this at the highly international call centre I work at was so odd.

Q: So, you celebrate horses?
A: Not really. We'll be having a long lunch to bet on them since we've had to work today though.
Q: So, you celebrate betting? You have gambling holidays?
A: Uh, no. I think we just celebrate anything that lets us not actually work when at work.
Q: So why horses then? Is gambling at work even legal here?
A: If you keep questioning the mystery of our national horse god Phar Lap, you can't have any of this alcoholic punch to "enhance" gambling at your workstation. It's lotto or data entry, take your pick.

[alias_sqbr]

Ha, it totally is a betting holiday :D

I have a bit of a thing against gambling and the pressure to be involved in tipping etc at my work (for the government!) is pretty intense. Still, if I can get a long catered lunch and the chance to wear a silly hat out of it I'm not complaining...

[utopos.livejournal.com]

Dammit...you linked to TVTropes.

Do you know how many hours of my life I've lost to editing that wiki?

*needs to find adult-proof site-blocking software*

[alias_sqbr]

Bwahaha :D

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Yeah our news is mostly news, and our TV is currently mostly reality TV and procedurals ;).

BTW, I thought it was Sri Lanka that was best at Cricket.

[alias_sqbr]

our TV is currently mostly reality TV and procedurals ;)

Ours too (probably the same ones for the most part)

And your breakfast cereal is mostly marshmallows :D (Seriously, I spent a week in America and apart from the freakishly polite serving serving staff and things like sales tax and the currency, this was the thing that was the most alien. Oh, and all the spooky deciduous trees)

BTW, I thought it was Sri Lanka that was best at Cricket.

Don't ask me, I've made it a lifetime goal to understand as little about sport as possible (I am pretty sure we're better than England, and being an ex-colony and all that this is what matters)

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Deciduous trees are spooky? You must have been there in the fall (aka autumn). I like the colors :).

Maybe most of the ones in the store have marshmallows, but when I eat cereal it's one of the healthy ones in the health food section, or it's oatmeal :).

The serving staff is polite because they want a good tip. Actually, what is tipping custom in Australia? Here waiters don't get paid a full wage as tipping is expected to be part of their wages (and they don't report it all to taxes). Standard tipping is 15%. I usually give 20% unless the person sucks. Also we tip bartenders, like maybe $1 a drink or something like that, that's usually at your discretion.

You don't have sales tax? Like something like VAT (which is waaaay higher than sales tax)? That's pretty cool. Your income tax must be a lot higher or something.

[alias_sqbr]

It was early spring, so all the trees were completely denuded. We have deciduous trees here, but enough evergreens around that it's not so grey (and in general it's pretty sunny(*)). Also I think I'd only seen that type of tree before in images of "Scary/cold winter scenes" made by americans :)

Maybe most of the ones in the store have marshmallows, but when I eat cereal it's one of the healthy ones in the health food section, or it's oatmeal :)

Oh, of course, same way that australia is a country is obsessed with sport but I personally ignore it as much as posible. And while they don't usually contain marshmallows the main cereals here are still higher in sugar than I'd like. It was just surreal walking down the aisle and trying to find anything I wouldn't classify primarily as confectionary :D

I will add that it is perhaps unfair to judge your entire country by the outskirts of Columbus Ohio...(plus a few days in Chicago)

We do have tipping here, but it's entirely optional if you happen to think the server did a good job (and is mostly only done with wait staff), to make up for it service staff are afaict paid a LOT more. It took me a while to realise I needed to tip whoever cleaned my room at the motel or they wouldn't do it properly! We also have a goods and sales tax, but it's added automatically in advance so the price on the menu etc is the price you actually pay.

(*)It is, for example, very early spring here, and it's a clear day with bright sunshine, and the view out my window is entirely green with pine trees, gum trees, and palms, as well as a lush if weed filled garden :) I can't see a single leafless tree. See for example this photo I found via google (only it's currently a much sunnier day)