A faithful HandelBlog reader informed us that it is interesting to read about the little mundane differences Down Under. I agree! So I’m going to go with a whole post about things I’ve found strange or different.
I’ve been playing basketball two nights a week. In addition to the general wear and tear that puts on my old man body, the Australian version of basketball involves *a lot* of physical contact, most of it unnecessary. So, I’m taking a lot of ibuprofen on Tuesday and Friday mornings. We ran out of our nice big bottle of ibuprofen (AMERICA!), so I popped into the chemist (pharmacy) to pick up a new bottle of 500. The largest option available was 96. And they are blister packed. I figure at least 25% will end up on the floor as I try to get them out. The blister pack should be abolished.
Before we came here, I remember reading a post on Reddit about things that people found weird about the US. One of the main things was that in our bathrooms, the toilet stalls have gaps of space on the side of the doors and that makes people uncomfortable (I hardly noticed it). Well, I can confirm that no such gaps exist here. It is strange though, being so aware of stall privacy that they haven’t adopted the use of dividers between urinals. So pretty much no one uses the urinals. Also, there is a wide usage of the “urinal trough”, something you don’t see much of in the US.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I have now confirmed that you cannot turn left on a red 
light. As a pedestrian, this makes crossing streets much easier, as you don’t need to worry about the people with a red light trying to turn. Also, the pedestrians here for the most part are very observant of the “only start walking when the walk sign is on” and since the cars can’t turn on red, they get very angry with you if you start walking after the light is flashing. There is very little jaywalking here, even when no one is coming. Sara and I are definite exceptions to that rule.
There is a lot of camera enforcement of speed / red lights here, but I see very little active policing of traffic laws, perhaps the cameras are enough.
For a major city in a first world country, Melbourne seems to be a bit behind in the whole “Handicap Accessible” movement. Our building is 2 years old, yet you could not enter it if you were in a wheelchair. About half the trams are completely inaccessible (3 steps up to get in) and probably half the tram stops are inaccessible even if you are in an “accessible” tram. They are making progress on the trams / tram stops though. Also, there are the little plastic bubble things on the ground leading people to crosswalks and such – so maybe they are working on making it easy for the blind people first, then they’ll get to the people in wheelchairs.
People seem to be aggressively helpful here. At times it is a nice change of pace from the DC area where everyone seems to aggressively mind their own business. We’ve seen multiple instances of people going out of their way to help someone – which is nice. But then they also continue helping them once it is quite obvious they’ve gotten all the help they need. A quality example would be an nice lady with limited English skills on a tram that was trying to get somewhere. The first person explained that she could take the current tram to the end of the line and get on another tram right there and that would take her to the desired destination. (Great! Thanks!) Then another helpful gentleman chimes in saying that for a faster solution, get off here, walk 3 blocks, take a tram to another tram. (Um, Okay). The first person doubles down with yet another solution which causes the second person to miss their stop to explain why his is better. In the end, I’m not sure if the lady was grateful for the “assistance” or not.
Addresses seem needlessly complicated. If an apartment building is on two lots, say 17 and 19 Fake St, and you live in apartment 6, your address is 6/17-19 Fake St.
When you see injured people with crutches, they are using “forearm crutches” and not the “underarm crutches” I’m used to. Seems like something that should be standardized across the world if one is better than the other.
Cars with snorkels are everywhere. Not sure what percentage of people ever actually make deep water crossings here, but apparently it is a pretty popular accessory on forbies (4x4s).
I find their fire hoses (in office buildings) hilarious for some reason, and they are everywhere. Is a garden hose going to save me from a fire? Also, the fire department here is called the fire brigade.
To increase the HandelBlog sociaI media reach, I have created an instagram account. You can follow handelblog there to see the fascinating things I find on a day-to-day basis. You are welcome.