What happened to all the hipsters? Would ‘chicken feet’ be under Animal emojis or Food? Are proms narrative dysfunctions? And other embarrassing silences.
The "baristas," the horror of fairy bread 😂🤣, the questionable italian food. The flavor-less produce, and, if you have kids, the never-ending "pass the parcel" nightmare of a party game that sent me to the bottle for consolation!! Oh, I miss Oz! Fifteen years is R-Adelaide, and it was absolutely the best time of my life. How lovely to hear your take... I was really disoriented when I arrived, too, but Oz is so damn laid back (even in Melbourne, I'd say) and that is good for the soul. Thank god for VPN's and not having to watch the ABC. Having said that, we use VPN's to watch AFL here in Paris... once you have kids there, it's hard to avoid it! 🤣 Good luck, mate. ❤️
Fifteen years here and then Paris? It sounds like a fantastic journey :) I will consider myself lucky, then, because I have never come across 'pass the parcel'!! phewwww
Great read 😀. I have visited Australia a few times now because I have family living there and whenever I've visited Melbourne, I've only enjoyed it immensely. It's definitely in the list of cities I would love to live and work for periods of my life. Except the time I had to drive in Melbourne and got flummoxed and panicky about the hook turns. Also the trams looks cute and quaint only from the outside. The last time I was in one, I briefly did not hold something and it took off with a bone rattling jerk. I literally fell on the lap of a nice lady who was sitting. My 4 year old nephew couldn't believe that a full blown adult could be doing this.
Oh trams are dangerous over here! Poor lady XD If I could put the sound of Melbourne in a box, it would definitely include 1) cars honking at a hook turn 2) trams dinging at a hook turn and 3) the takatakataka of zebra crossing which Billie Eilish included in 'bad boy' . Melbourne has the unique ability to make people feel welcome (and cold)
I love reading your articles. They always make me smile. I still remember my first time visiting Melbourne. The week prior it was hot and top of 30. When we got off the plane it was a chilly 16 and we had to buy Warner clothes in an op shop 😅
Exactly! I thought England was crazy because summer wasn't as warm and bright as summer in Italy, but Melbourne is a whole different story. To think that I almost didn't bring a jacket because I thought Australia was hot! ;) clearly I'm not the only one
You would get less use of your jacket in Brisbane, our winter probably lasts a few weeks and we absolutely don't have the crazy 4 seasons in a year weather that Melbourne has.
I have only heard lovely things about Brisbane and the weather seems to be the main one! I don't know why British colonialists decided it's okay to settle for poor weather.
Barbs, I love your humor! I lost count how many times I laughed out loud. What an underwhelming city center... that chicken parma looks like a frozen supermarket pizza from the photo... and those reviews!! 😄
I am glad this was enjoyable to read. I try my best to make it sound funny and not just me complaining. Australians are a weird breed when it comes to food. They have access to the most delicious exotic cuisines but there's only British beige food in their heart (meat pies, dim sims, parmas, fishos...)
Honestly, 'skimmy milk' sounds like a perfectly acceptable thing to say in Australia.
I was just discussing the other day how I love that Italian cities have a much less focused city center, there's bars and stuff throughout. Great! In the Netherlands the suburbs are totally dead, it's just people's houses and that's it.
Oh yeah I get what you mean about bars being all over. That's true. Melby is a bit the same, but I would love a city centre. Here the market is in one corner, the main square is down, the open shopping mall is on the other side, there are a bunch of train stations... Confusing!
Omg you always crack me up. 🤣🤣🤣 “We the Millennials, had just moved away from UGG boots and Juicy Couture velour tracksuits, yet, two things still held immense power over us: MAC cosmetics stores, and Starbucks. It’s no wonder, I saw those as synonyms of metropolitan civilisation…” and the Starbucks ordering and more! Also, I can still only find my way around a very specific section of Manchester and Leeds. I have no directional skills and need a GPS always!
Your photos are adorable! Beauty! Your description of chicken Parma is hilarious. Never thought of it that way! Of course, I haven’t seen this dish in England but it was an “Italian” restaurant staple in the US. 🤔
Just love seeing how foreigners view a different country 😂 now me being in Japan, I really resonated with how you found the street layouts illogical and confusing, finding it hard to get your bearings. In Japan, the roads and streets just feel like a big messy spider's web. You can get from A to B a thousand different ways, but in Australia, I'm use to far less options 🤣
The "baristas," the horror of fairy bread 😂🤣, the questionable italian food. The flavor-less produce, and, if you have kids, the never-ending "pass the parcel" nightmare of a party game that sent me to the bottle for consolation!! Oh, I miss Oz! Fifteen years is R-Adelaide, and it was absolutely the best time of my life. How lovely to hear your take... I was really disoriented when I arrived, too, but Oz is so damn laid back (even in Melbourne, I'd say) and that is good for the soul. Thank god for VPN's and not having to watch the ABC. Having said that, we use VPN's to watch AFL here in Paris... once you have kids there, it's hard to avoid it! 🤣 Good luck, mate. ❤️
Fifteen years here and then Paris? It sounds like a fantastic journey :) I will consider myself lucky, then, because I have never come across 'pass the parcel'!! phewwww
Great read 😀. I have visited Australia a few times now because I have family living there and whenever I've visited Melbourne, I've only enjoyed it immensely. It's definitely in the list of cities I would love to live and work for periods of my life. Except the time I had to drive in Melbourne and got flummoxed and panicky about the hook turns. Also the trams looks cute and quaint only from the outside. The last time I was in one, I briefly did not hold something and it took off with a bone rattling jerk. I literally fell on the lap of a nice lady who was sitting. My 4 year old nephew couldn't believe that a full blown adult could be doing this.
Oh trams are dangerous over here! Poor lady XD If I could put the sound of Melbourne in a box, it would definitely include 1) cars honking at a hook turn 2) trams dinging at a hook turn and 3) the takatakataka of zebra crossing which Billie Eilish included in 'bad boy' . Melbourne has the unique ability to make people feel welcome (and cold)
I love reading your articles. They always make me smile. I still remember my first time visiting Melbourne. The week prior it was hot and top of 30. When we got off the plane it was a chilly 16 and we had to buy Warner clothes in an op shop 😅
Exactly! I thought England was crazy because summer wasn't as warm and bright as summer in Italy, but Melbourne is a whole different story. To think that I almost didn't bring a jacket because I thought Australia was hot! ;) clearly I'm not the only one
You would get less use of your jacket in Brisbane, our winter probably lasts a few weeks and we absolutely don't have the crazy 4 seasons in a year weather that Melbourne has.
I have only heard lovely things about Brisbane and the weather seems to be the main one! I don't know why British colonialists decided it's okay to settle for poor weather.
Barbs, I love your humor! I lost count how many times I laughed out loud. What an underwhelming city center... that chicken parma looks like a frozen supermarket pizza from the photo... and those reviews!! 😄
I am glad this was enjoyable to read. I try my best to make it sound funny and not just me complaining. Australians are a weird breed when it comes to food. They have access to the most delicious exotic cuisines but there's only British beige food in their heart (meat pies, dim sims, parmas, fishos...)
Honestly, 'skimmy milk' sounds like a perfectly acceptable thing to say in Australia.
I was just discussing the other day how I love that Italian cities have a much less focused city center, there's bars and stuff throughout. Great! In the Netherlands the suburbs are totally dead, it's just people's houses and that's it.
Oh yeah I get what you mean about bars being all over. That's true. Melby is a bit the same, but I would love a city centre. Here the market is in one corner, the main square is down, the open shopping mall is on the other side, there are a bunch of train stations... Confusing!
These people had too much damn space to build their cities and it shows
Omg you always crack me up. 🤣🤣🤣 “We the Millennials, had just moved away from UGG boots and Juicy Couture velour tracksuits, yet, two things still held immense power over us: MAC cosmetics stores, and Starbucks. It’s no wonder, I saw those as synonyms of metropolitan civilisation…” and the Starbucks ordering and more! Also, I can still only find my way around a very specific section of Manchester and Leeds. I have no directional skills and need a GPS always!
I can only find my way around Manchester or Durham when I am drunk... I think it's a special skill.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Your photos are adorable! Beauty! Your description of chicken Parma is hilarious. Never thought of it that way! Of course, I haven’t seen this dish in England but it was an “Italian” restaurant staple in the US. 🤔
“Do all guys look like Thor and the guy from Hunger Games?” No? Damn! 🤦🏻♀️
Also that says a lot about the year those questions were asked !! ;)
🤣 I suppose you did move to be with your boyfriend so it was more just a curiosity! 🤔
Hah! It all sounds so familiar 😄
Growing up in Russia and having to go to school in -30 degrees, I can say that I've never been colder than inside New zealand houses in winter 🥶
This was absolutely hilarious 🤣🤣🤣 constant LOL reading 🤣🤣🤣
Haha I'm glad!! This is probably all too familiar to you ;)
Just love seeing how foreigners view a different country 😂 now me being in Japan, I really resonated with how you found the street layouts illogical and confusing, finding it hard to get your bearings. In Japan, the roads and streets just feel like a big messy spider's web. You can get from A to B a thousand different ways, but in Australia, I'm use to far less options 🤣
I love your description of chicken parma. I saw it alot in auzzie never ate it. Gross.
I guess I would try chicken parma flavoured Shapes but that's the extent of it.