www.that1guy.com
G'day
I started making an "Opposite list" on my first tour of Australia.
That was last march. I'm back in Oz right now and I'm making more southern
hemisphere "opposite" discoveries every day. It's really starting
to mess with my head. So I figured it's time to publish my findings thus far.
I'll continue to update this list as I learn of new opposites...
Opposite list - They start obvious and get more obscure, read on:
* Hemispheres (global positioning)
The North American continent and the Australian continent are Practically situated
on opposite ends of the earth. North to South, and East to West.
*Seasons are totally opposite: Winter in North America is Summer in Australia-
Summer in North America is Winter in Australia, and so on...
*Water circles the opposite way down sinks, drains, and toilets. Clockwise
in North America, Counter-Clockwise in Australia. Not just a myth. I just flushed
the toilet again and there it is.
*This is the one that kills me. In most northern hemisphere hotels and
motels, dialing "0" gets you the front desk, and "9" gets
you an outside line. Well guess what? On the hotel phones down here, "9"
gets you the front desk, and "0" connects you to the outside line.
I swear I'm not kidding!
*Light and power switches. Get ready for this one. In Australia,
DOWN is "On" and UP is "off"
*Even MORE interesting, people eat with there forks in their left hand
and knives in their right. No joke. I've seen it in at least 10
different restaurants already. This leads me to believe that most folks
down here actually may be "left handed"? Except for those few
"north-paws" or right handed folks. I've tried to talk to some
folks down here about this theory of mine, but they either laugh at me, or
get really angry.
*This one just might take the cake. Back in the states, we have "Radio
Shack" electronic stores. Right? In these stores, the Radio
Shack made brand is called "Tandy". Right? Well get this.
In Australia, "Tandy" is the STORE, and "Radio Shack" is
the BRAND of the products found at the Tandy store. Look it up. I ain't kidding
* a lot of the venues and pubs down here are called "hotels".
But you can't stay at them (we tried). Their not really "hotels".
This really threw us at first. If it's called a "motel", then it's
not a pub or a venue, but an actual motel.
*Car - here we go
*Of course they drive on the opposite side of the road
here. (That's right, wake up!)
*So all of the road rules are exactly opposite of what
happens on the roads in the northern hemisphere. It's really something.
*Then there is the car itself. A mirror exact opposite
in every detail. Check it out:
*Steering wheel on the right, or
"other" side
*Turn signal on the right side of
the steering wheel
*Windshield wipers, on the
left of the wheel.(So every time I try and signal to turn, I accidently keep
turning on the windshield wipers.. No one in the car continually laughs at this
but me)
*transmission on the left side.
*Radio (yes even the radio) power/volume
knob on right and the radio dial on the left
*The heater dials and knobs reversed.
*So down here, because the
drivers side is on the right, my right arm gets all the sun, which is a good
reason to spend at least half of the year here. Being that the seasons
are opposite, I can get two summers each year, one in each hemisphere, and one
for each arm. You know, so things stay even...
Now here is something interesting that we noticed up in Byron Bay concerning
perpendicular parking: This is real strange. For the record, I'm
not sure which way I like better. They both have their dangers:
*In Australia - perpendicular parking slants with traffic like so:
(Byron Bay - in front of Snap Cafe)
This makes it super easy to leave, but hard and dangerous to park (driver must
back up into the traffic behind to park)
* In the USA – The cars slant the other way, or towards traffic.
(Walnut Creek in front of Peet's Coffee)
See? In the northern hemisphere, we get to pull right in from the front - So
it's easy to park, but hard and dangerous to leave (driver must back up into
traffic behind to get out)
Like I said, I don't think that one way is better than the other. But we can
all agree that they are totally Opposite. Then we agree...
Aussie slang as it relates to American slang (it's opposite):
Oz - How you going?
US - How you doing?
Oz - No Worries
US - It's alright
Oz - You're alright.
US - Don't worry
And my favorite
US - You da' man
Oz - You're a legend
Here is one last interesting fact. It has nothing to do with the opposite
stuff. They don't say "shrimp" down here. It's ALWAYS "prawn".
ALWAYS.
So where in the devil did this "throw another shrimp on the barbie"
stuff come from? Is this a media fabrication? No one here has been able to
answer this question for me. Again I ask, but no one seems to know what the
hell I'm talking about. Apparently, Paul Hogan (crocodile dundee) lives in
Byron Bay. Once I back into my parking spot, I'm going to track him down and
make HIM answer my question. After all, he started all of this. Who was he
really working for?
If any of you good folks have made any more Hemispherical opposite discoveries,
please email them my way. I'd be very
interested in investigating these concepts further, then publishing them here,
taking full credit of course. After all, it's a big strange world. Together,
lets find out how opposite we all really are...
Cheers
That 1 Guy
BACK TO NEWS AND DATES