wasn't belgium on a wendsday


Ron (from belgium)



"kangaroo16" schreef in bericht
...
On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:37:29 -0600, Janet Wilder
wrote in
:

We have just returned from our 3 week cruise-tour of Australia and New
Zealand. We found the people to be very friendly and helpful.

Excellent post, Janet! IMHO, both this group and
misc.immigration.australia+nz need more such feedback
from both tourists and successful migrants.

This group seems to get a bit more feedback than the immigration
group, actually. There we get a lot of posts from people who are
applying for a migrant visa, and when they get it, they let the
group know about their success.

After that, though, many seem to drop off the group, or even
off the face of the earth. We seem to get little or no feedback
about their first, and subsequent, impressions of Australia.

Perhaps they are too busy? When I migrated to Australia from
the U.S. decades ago, computers were rare enough, & the Internet
as we know it now, was a distant dream. I kept in touch with
family and friends by mail, but the net would have been far more
convenient.

We tasted
Vegamite (not as bad as it looks),

I can't say that am a great fan of Vegamite, although have tried
it. Australians who migrate to the US are often disappointed
that it isn't readily available there.

For readers who have never encountered it, the product is
probably very similar to English "Marmite". AFIK, both were
mainly developed as a vitamin supplement. The main ingredient
is "yeast cream", a by-product of yeast production.

Various strains of yeast are cultivated, then pressed into cakes.
The liquid exudates are known in the trade as "yeast cream".

So why is Vegamite black? It is coloured by carmel, usually
from burnt sugar. Why bother? Consumer acceptance, basically.
The colour of the yeast cream varies from white to a shade of
yellow. If the end product was marketed without the carmel, the
colour would vary depending on the species of yeast, and the
customers might get upset at the variation. The addition of
carmel makes it a uniform black. Salt is added as a
preservative. Various other flavors are added.

Unfortunately, the carmel also makes it a bit bitter, and the
end product is definitely an acquired taste.

ate quite a lot of yummy lamb
Can offer some info here as well. In the following quote,
"ovine" is derived from the scientific name for sheep,
which is "Ovis aries".

"What is lamb, hogget and mutton?

Lamb is the meat from the ovine that is less than one year old.
It has a mild flavour and low in internal and external fat.
Requires short cooking times

Hogget is the meat from the ovine that is one to two years old.
It has a more intense flavour than lamb, low to medium in
internal and external fat. Requires longer cooking times than
lamb and more suited to roasting, stewing and braising

Mutton is the meat from the ovine that is more than two years
old. It has a very strong flavour, is high in internal and
external fat. Requires extended cooking times and more suited to
curing, 2nd class roasting (slow and low heat), stewing and
braising. These cooking methods will render the excess fat which
may be spooned or scooped and discarded, they will also ensure
the meat is nice and tender."

http://www.hub-uk.com/tallytip01/tip0031.htm

If the meat comes from an animal less than a year old, it can
be legally sold or served as "lamb".

Unfortunately, in many states in the U.S.A. the regulations
are more lax, and what we would call "hogget" here is often
sold as "lamb" there.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons you were impressed by the
flavour of Australian or N.Z. lamb.

Farm animals are sold mainly by gross weight, so lamb meat costs
more per pound [or kilogramme] than hogget or mutton.

and got
to see some awesome scenery and lots of sheep and cows :-)

Australia has more sheep than humans. The human population
passed 21 million not all that long ago. Last time I checked,
about 100 million sheep.

Plenty of kangaroos around too. Perhaps 50 million or so.

In Australia we visited Ularu and did the Sounds of Silence dinner which
was a wonderful experience. I snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, too.

Assume that you found it interesting.:-) One of our greatest
tourist attractions.

One interesting thing I learned is that Australians don't drink that
awful Foster's beer. They just export it :-) If they made it here, I'd
export it, too.

Laughed at these lines, as totally agree with you. XXXX [a.k.a
"Fourex"] is a pretty good brew. All "Aussie" beer is generally
better than U.S. beer, of course, perhaps because most of it
contains more alcohol than the 3.2% "beer" in the USA. :-)

At least this was the standard percentage when I was last in the
U.S.A.

I did taste some of the local brews and found them to be
very nice. The wines of both countries were fabulous, but that goes
without saying.

Yep, we export a lot of it. Probably a lot more expensive there
than here.

-----------------
Wine price falls despite record high in exports

Tuesday, 09/01/2007

Australian wine exports set new records last year, but the price
per litre has continued to fall.

Exports grew by 8 per cent to 757 million litres and were worth 1
per cent more, at $2.82 billion.

The average price per litre fell 17 cents... [more at]

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/con...6/s1823722.htm

Sidney is a big city.
It certainly is that. Of course, Los Angeles is a pretty big
city too, but it isn't as pleasant a place to live, IMHO.

Readers can check
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/
or various links from this site such as
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/A...on/Default.asp
It has some interesting architecture, like the
opera house, but urban is urban, no matter where.

It was still under construction when I arrived. I had to ask a
passing Aussie what the hell it was. :-)

Yes, "urban" is "urban" but some cities are much better than
others. In 2002, Melbourne, Australia and Vancouver, B.C.,
Canada were tops.

Melbourne, Vancouver top city list

Friday, October 4, 2002 Posted: 2:38 PM EDT (1838 GMT)

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Melbourne and Vancouver are the best
cities in the world for expatriates to live in, according to a
survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Both Australia and Canada fared well in the survey, with the west
Australian city of Perth ranking third, and Sydney, Brisbane and
Adelaide tying in eighth place.

Toronto and Montreal also made the top 10, while Calgary was
16th. (Full list)

Links from the above site, but is:
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/e...ties/#fulllist

In Australia, Sydney, Hobart, & Brisbane rated #8. In the USA,
Honolulu, Hawaii rates as #21. / #28. Boston, Massachusetts./
#39. Houston, Texas.

A search would probably provide a more current list. As you
imply, though, urban areas are a bit of a drag, as have too high
a population density.

Wikapedia gives the population of the USA as 31 per square
kilometer. [by population/area/density] Ranks 144 on list.

298,212,900 9,629,091 31

Australia is a bit smaller than the continental US, but much
less crowded, especially once get out of the state capitals.
192 on the list.

21,050,000 7,682,300 2.6

Melbourne was a little
more interesting.

Will have to take your word for this. Never been there, let
alone lived there. Haven't been in Hobart, Tasmania either.
Have lived in others. [ Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin.] Have
passed through Brisbane.

My impression was that the financial institutions were
more grand than the churches, which led us to believe that money was
definitely more important to the founders of the city than religion. Or
perhaps money was their religion?

ROTFL! Not that Sydney is much better, though. Much more
"Americanised" than it was in the sixties!

The Olgas and Ularu are awe-inspiring. I have just managed to clean the
red earth stains from my white walking shoes. The laces are permanently
stained and will have to be trashed.

White walking shoes in Australia? :-) Elastic sided boots are
more practical.

We did a Liru walk with two
Aborigine gents and an interpretor and learned quite a bit from them
about how they managed to survive in the desert.

And they may have wondered how you manage to survive in the
U.S.A., especially if you live in a city...

We got to pet a live
koala and saw fields-full of kangaroo. They seem to adore the sports
fields as a habitat. We saw some crocs, too, not to mention tasting them
and "skippy" meat as well.

Congratulations for being an adventuresome traveler! Many
wouldn't. I've been here for decades, and consider kangaroo
equal,or better than beef. Lower fat content.

For the ultimate tourist food, were you offered, and did you
try a "wichetty grub". Bores into trees, can be fished out with
a twig or a bit of wire. Sort of like a large hairless
caterpillar.

Highly nutritious, lots of protein. Snap off the head before
eating.

More seriously, though, don't tell me you have actually tried
one. I've been here for decades, and I haven't.

Before I left the US, did try canned rattlesnake, though. Much
like chicken.

Our ship sailed through the fjords of the South Island of NZ and the
scenery was breath-taking.

It usually is in less populated countries, especially those along
the "Pacific ring of fire", with live volcanoes, lots of rugged
mountains, and so on. Australia is a much older continent, with
a lot less tectonic activity. Even a small earthquake makes the
news here.

It had rained for several days before we came
so we were treated to a myriad of waterfalls. We took the scenic train
in Dunedin through the gorge and I got the best souvenir ever on the
train. It's a little purse that is made of lambskin and looks like a
lamb's face. I had it on the ship and it was so unique that I was taped
with it for the DVD that the cruise line sells as a rememberence of the
voyage.

Sounds like you are a very discerning tourist! Am sure that
many visitors to Sydney take home a plastic or ceramic model of
the Sydney Opera House. On the bottom, it will probably say
"Made in China", though. :-)


We also went to Rotorua and the Maori village, the Gloworm caves at
Waitomo (awesome!) and did some touring around in Christchurch and
Wellington. Unfortunately the ship had a mechanical problem and we
couldn't put in at Napier. We were in Wellington on the open visit to
Parliament day so we took a tour of the government buildings. You Kiwis
who haven't been should go next year. The library is very pretty. The
"Beehive" in my opinion, was quite ugly.

I like your honesty! You don't worry about possibly offending
readers!


We looked at all the stuff that tourists are supposed to purchase but
I'm not fond of opals so there wasn't much in Oz to tempt me.

Not even the black opals? AFIK, only found in Australia. Solid
ones can be more valuable, weight by weight, than diamonds.

Even the cheaper ones, "doublets" and "triplets" with a thin
layer of black opal would be sure to attract attention even in
Texas. Had you bought an opal ring, you could walk around the
streets of your home town and wait for a comment on it. This
would give you a conversional opening to tell others about
your trip to Australia and N.Z. :-)

In NZ, the
woolens were lovely but very expensive. The thought of possum fur being
in some of the wool goods turned my stomach. To me possum is road kill.

Likewise, but most of the native animals in Australia are
marsupials. In the US, from memory, the opossum is the
only "native" marsupial.

The possums in N.Z. aren't really native, AFIK, probably came
from Australia. Here we have a lot of imported mammals, such as
dingos, rabbits, foxes, wild house cats, wild pigs, camels, and
so on.

Why foxes and rabbits? Well, an early English ["pommie"]
immigrant missed the pleasure of fox hunting in "Jolly old
England"

Someone else thought it would be a good idea to import rabbits.
No natural predators here, so they became a plague.

Camels? Were used for early exploration of Australia. Were
released into the wild when no longer required. As a
consequences, AFIK, Australia is the only country in the world
with herds of wild camels. One of our exports, actually.

Ugh! The other gift shop stuff was exactly the same in every place we
visited and it was too tourist-tacky to consider.

You obviously have good taste!

I did get post cards
of a kiwi and that wonderful tree fern. We did get to see live Kiwis on
one of our excursions to the center where they are raising them. I also
did the Antarctic place, but the Te Papa museum was the best. What a
treasure you Kiwis have in that museum!

Thanks to all of you for your hospitality. It was much appreciated and I
hope that any of you who are visiting way-the-heck-south Texas will
email me so that I can return the kindness.

Kia Ora and G'Day,

Janet


Far south Texas on the Rio Grande, perhaps? Ever met "Cath" who
is a frequent poster on misc.immigration.australia+nz. She
sometimes appears on this group.

Apparently a N.Z. migrant to Texas. Name that she posts under is
"Cath". Do a search on both groups if you want to contact her.

If you manage to do so, give her my regards. She often
criticizes me for what she perceives as my "long" posts, but
almost willing to bet that she will read this one to see if her
name is mentioned.

Obsessive/Compulsive personalities often do such things.

If she doesn't like my posts, she could choose not to read them,
or with a cheap program could "killfile" them.

I doubt that she does, though.

Anyway, if you ever do encounter her, give her my regards. :-)

Obsessive/compulsive types are a bit rare on Usenet groups,
actually.

Most Usenet users are pretty open-minded, and tend not to
criticize other posters.

Still, not worth discussing her.

Again, I praise you for an excellent post, and hope that other
travelers or migrants report their experiences.

Their is a subtle difference between "tourists" and "travelers".
You belong in the latter class, as far as I am concerned, as your
post indicates that you were not a mere "tourist".

What is a "tourist"? by one definition, one that takes an
around the world trip, looks at his calendar wris****ch, checks
his tour guide, and says to his wife or companions "This is
Thursday, we must be in Belgium"

If they stay in a well-known chain of international hotels, this
is possibly understandable. I don't have to name the chain,
except to mention that if I and my wife were staying in one, we
might have to look out the window to try to find out where we
were at the time.

Anyway, thanks again for your post. It impresses me, and I am
not that easily impressed.

"Gidday" to you as well, although Tuesday here, 4:13 PM. In
Houston, Texas, it is around 11:13 PM Monday.

Cheers!

Kangaroo16