Driving around with fog lights on is actually illegal in most western countries but it's not in Australia. Ergo when you're driving your Ford/Holden, the only way to look cool is to turn on the fog lights. Four headlights looks better than two, doncha know?
It's questionable that the Australians that drive around with their foglights on actually know what they are. It's the 'moar lights!' switch right? Well, I thought it was a bit of a curiosity before, but unfortunately now I live down a country road in the mountains and walking home from the train is getting pretty old being dazzled by four sets of headlights at a time...
I'm guessing this is one I'm just going to have to suck up. Shades maybe?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Phones on Trains
Having shifted to doing an exclusively train-based commute, I have experienced first hand a set of peculiar Australian behavior which seemed worthy of necroing the Strange Australia blog. I refer to the use of mobile phones and portable electronics on trains.
On public transport in other countries such as in Europe, Asia and the United States, it's generally considered a little impolite to speak long and loud on your mobile phone on the train. No such stigma appears to be the case in Australia and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
I started off being annoyed, do these people imagine that I want to hear about their mundane work related issues? People do occasionally do this outside of Australia but they do at least throw a guilty glance around to see if anyone is scowling in their direction. Not so in Oz, they honestly don't give a damn. They don't even seem to moderate what's being discussed, my annoyance having been dialed down a bit by hearing actual interesting personal dramas and work related crisis - stuff which can liven up an otherwise dull journey.
It's not just making calls. Where else but Australia would you have people playing games on their smart phone with the game sound rammed up. Bling bling, blip blip blip hooraaaay! This might get a couple of glances but again, no effort to turn off the sound, use headphones or whatever. Personal stereos? Blaring out of woefully inadequately sealing earphones... not enough that you might enjoy whatever they're hearing, just staccato punctuated bursts of tinny static. Yay.
One time I even had someone whip out a laptop right next to me and start writing an email to some group about how poorly performing they were and summoning them to her office (Dr somebody, general manager of environmental community something) to account for themselves. This isn't in the realms of eavesdropping, you can see what's on their screen as easily as someone reading a newspaper next to you.
You might think this behavior is symptomatic of a culture where it's every man for himself, somewhat like you see on the London underground. Eg where people push to get on a train despite the fact everyone is trying to get off. Where the elderly can get happy slapped by a 12 year old while the entire carriage of be-suited adults stares at their shoes. Not so...
In fact you can and do get fined for putting feet on the seats, swearing, drinking, blocking the doors. General anti social behavior. I was once on a train and it stopped in the middle of a journey and the driver came down through the cars and gave some kid a full bollocking because he could see him vandalising the chairs. Anti social behavior is really not tolerated at all.
So what we see here is generally annoying personal space invading behavior just isn't considered something worth getting worked up over. The message is "deal with it" and I gotta say, strange as it is, I'm alright with it so long as people behave like human beings.
On public transport in other countries such as in Europe, Asia and the United States, it's generally considered a little impolite to speak long and loud on your mobile phone on the train. No such stigma appears to be the case in Australia and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
I started off being annoyed, do these people imagine that I want to hear about their mundane work related issues? People do occasionally do this outside of Australia but they do at least throw a guilty glance around to see if anyone is scowling in their direction. Not so in Oz, they honestly don't give a damn. They don't even seem to moderate what's being discussed, my annoyance having been dialed down a bit by hearing actual interesting personal dramas and work related crisis - stuff which can liven up an otherwise dull journey.
It's not just making calls. Where else but Australia would you have people playing games on their smart phone with the game sound rammed up. Bling bling, blip blip blip hooraaaay! This might get a couple of glances but again, no effort to turn off the sound, use headphones or whatever. Personal stereos? Blaring out of woefully inadequately sealing earphones... not enough that you might enjoy whatever they're hearing, just staccato punctuated bursts of tinny static. Yay.
One time I even had someone whip out a laptop right next to me and start writing an email to some group about how poorly performing they were and summoning them to her office (Dr somebody, general manager of environmental community something) to account for themselves. This isn't in the realms of eavesdropping, you can see what's on their screen as easily as someone reading a newspaper next to you.
You might think this behavior is symptomatic of a culture where it's every man for himself, somewhat like you see on the London underground. Eg where people push to get on a train despite the fact everyone is trying to get off. Where the elderly can get happy slapped by a 12 year old while the entire carriage of be-suited adults stares at their shoes. Not so...
In fact you can and do get fined for putting feet on the seats, swearing, drinking, blocking the doors. General anti social behavior. I was once on a train and it stopped in the middle of a journey and the driver came down through the cars and gave some kid a full bollocking because he could see him vandalising the chairs. Anti social behavior is really not tolerated at all.
So what we see here is generally annoying personal space invading behavior just isn't considered something worth getting worked up over. The message is "deal with it" and I gotta say, strange as it is, I'm alright with it so long as people behave like human beings.
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