Values: How much is that digeridoo in the window??
You mean I’m not playing Monopoly??
Take a look at this money and tell me what you would have thought. The bills are colorful, they are made from recycled plastic and have a see-thru pattern in the corner, the ATMs give out orange 50 dollar bills. (Thanks to www.thirteenmonths.com for the picture. The owners of this blog traveled through 29 countries in 13 months. Wow.)
Here’s a quiz. See if you can figure out how much these coins are worth by adding up the value of the two coins. The US coins are shown to give scale and do not figure into the totals. The values are: $4.00, $2.00, $1.00, $0.40, $0.20, $0.010. Answer at the end of the blog.
The prices here are kind of like the inflated prices in video games so you can't afford everything in the first hour and get bored. Gas (which is invariably called “petrol” here and is dispensed from a “bowser” but nobody knows who King Koopa is and can't see why that's funny) is around $5.60 a gallon. The bowser does not reclaim the fuel vapors like they do in the US and it's impossible to pump without smelling like gas. I reckon it costs about 18 cents a mile (my last 42 L tank (11.1 gallons) brought me 545 km (339 miles) for $62).
A liter of juice is about A$4, a dozen eggs at the grocery store costs A$6 and in a restaurant a couple of eggs and a cup of coffee runs an easy A$18. I bought a used book for A$20. New books with US$20 printed on the cover fetch A$40. And here’s the kicker, A$1 = US$1. Just a few years ago it was more like A$1 = US$0.60.
The greenback is as low as it’s been since 1980, and the Australian dollar is as high as it’s been since 1980 and the two are now EQUAL for the first time since 1982.
I paid $55 dollars for a haircut. $55. That was obviously before I realized this stuff was real. It was very ceremonious. I sat down in this chair and a very pretty girl asked me all kinds of questions about myself that have nothing to do with my hair for about 10 minutes. I don't think I realized she was on the clock yet. After getting to know each other, she ushered me into another room so that she could wash my hair despite the fact I had just gotten out of the shower. That was another good 15 minutes there. Then we talked about my hair and how I basically wanted her to do what Dan does which is drink a beer and cut my hair real quick, partly because Amanda is laughing at the intermediate stages and asks what he is doing to me and partly because either the Sox or Patriots are going to be on any second. We laughed about that for about 10 minutes and then she spent the final 10 minutes cutting my hair. She shows me the mirror, I tell her she did just as well as my brother does and offered to buy her a beer for her troubles just like I do for Dan. She laughed and demanded $55. Cab drivers and hairdressers know someone from out of town instantly. Kinda reminds me of the only time I spent more than $7 on sunglasses - it was more like $70 from Structure at the North Dartmouth Mall when I was working for The Magic of Lyn. I left them in the bank about 5 minutes after purchase without ever wearing them outside.
I did learn a lot about netball however. Netball is a game that every school girl in Australia plays. It's like basketball except you can't touch anybody, you can't run with the ball, and there is no backboard. They set up zones of play so there are legitimate excuses to not hustle back on D. I'm not doing it justice by linking to this video I'm sure, it took me a while to find a video that really captured the funny picture I had in my head while whatshername was stalling before cutting my hair. Once you've seen the first minute of this clip you've seen it all.
I’ve seen this coming in my ATM receipts. My first A$100 withdrawals were about US$85, lodging used to cost $880/week which is now $960/week. Even eating in most nights I spend about $400 a week on food, beer, and tourist stuff. When I started here that was about $320. Now it really is $400. It may look like Monopoly money, but it’s the real thing!
I’ve figured the unfunded $600 tax rebate I received probably cost me about $2400. Maybe it’s not such a great year to go to Europe for 6 weeks!?! So keep on printing money America but be sure to send some fresh notes to me!
Answers:
A. $4.00 the $2 coin is the same size as a 5 cent piece
B. $0.10
C. $1.00 the $0.50 coin is huge
D. $0.40
E. $2.00 the $1 coin is the same size as the 10 cent piece
F. $0.20
Also, every coin has the queen (Elizabeth II) on HEADS.
The 5 cent piece has echidna (spiny ant eater) for tails
The 10 cent piece has the Supurb Lyrebird on tails.
The 20 cent piece has a duck billed platypus on the tails side.
The 50 cent piece has the national coat of arms, a crest flanked by a kangaroo and an emu, the national animals. A friend of mine reckons that this is one of the few countries that eats both national animals. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey as US national animal before the bald eagle was chosen.
The $1 has various designs like our quarter.
The $2 has an elder Aboriginal man and the Southern Cross constellation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_Australian_dollar
Take a look at this money and tell me what you would have thought. The bills are colorful, they are made from recycled plastic and have a see-thru pattern in the corner, the ATMs give out orange 50 dollar bills. (Thanks to www.thirteenmonths.com for the picture. The owners of this blog traveled through 29 countries in 13 months. Wow.)Here’s a quiz. See if you can figure out how much these coins are worth by adding up the value of the two coins. The US coins are shown to give scale and do not figure into the totals. The values are: $4.00, $2.00, $1.00, $0.40, $0.20, $0.010. Answer at the end of the blog.
The prices here are kind of like the inflated prices in video games so you can't afford everything in the first hour and get bored. Gas (which is invariably called “petrol” here and is dispensed from a “bowser” but nobody knows who King Koopa is and can't see why that's funny) is around $5.60 a gallon. The bowser does not reclaim the fuel vapors like they do in the US and it's impossible to pump without smelling like gas. I reckon it costs about 18 cents a mile (my last 42 L tank (11.1 gallons) brought me 545 km (339 miles) for $62).
A liter of juice is about A$4, a dozen eggs at the grocery store costs A$6 and in a restaurant a couple of eggs and a cup of coffee runs an easy A$18. I bought a used book for A$20. New books with US$20 printed on the cover fetch A$40. And here’s the kicker, A$1 = US$1. Just a few years ago it was more like A$1 = US$0.60.The greenback is as low as it’s been since 1980, and the Australian dollar is as high as it’s been since 1980 and the two are now EQUAL for the first time since 1982.
I paid $55 dollars for a haircut. $55. That was obviously before I realized this stuff was real. It was very ceremonious. I sat down in this chair and a very pretty girl asked me all kinds of questions about myself that have nothing to do with my hair for about 10 minutes. I don't think I realized she was on the clock yet. After getting to know each other, she ushered me into another room so that she could wash my hair despite the fact I had just gotten out of the shower. That was another good 15 minutes there. Then we talked about my hair and how I basically wanted her to do what Dan does which is drink a beer and cut my hair real quick, partly because Amanda is laughing at the intermediate stages and asks what he is doing to me and partly because either the Sox or Patriots are going to be on any second. We laughed about that for about 10 minutes and then she spent the final 10 minutes cutting my hair. She shows me the mirror, I tell her she did just as well as my brother does and offered to buy her a beer for her troubles just like I do for Dan. She laughed and demanded $55. Cab drivers and hairdressers know someone from out of town instantly. Kinda reminds me of the only time I spent more than $7 on sunglasses - it was more like $70 from Structure at the North Dartmouth Mall when I was working for The Magic of Lyn. I left them in the bank about 5 minutes after purchase without ever wearing them outside.
I did learn a lot about netball however. Netball is a game that every school girl in Australia plays. It's like basketball except you can't touch anybody, you can't run with the ball, and there is no backboard. They set up zones of play so there are legitimate excuses to not hustle back on D. I'm not doing it justice by linking to this video I'm sure, it took me a while to find a video that really captured the funny picture I had in my head while whatshername was stalling before cutting my hair. Once you've seen the first minute of this clip you've seen it all.
I’ve seen this coming in my ATM receipts. My first A$100 withdrawals were about US$85, lodging used to cost $880/week which is now $960/week. Even eating in most nights I spend about $400 a week on food, beer, and tourist stuff. When I started here that was about $320. Now it really is $400. It may look like Monopoly money, but it’s the real thing!
I’ve figured the unfunded $600 tax rebate I received probably cost me about $2400. Maybe it’s not such a great year to go to Europe for 6 weeks!?! So keep on printing money America but be sure to send some fresh notes to me!
Answers:
A. $4.00 the $2 coin is the same size as a 5 cent pieceB. $0.10
C. $1.00 the $0.50 coin is huge
D. $0.40
E. $2.00 the $1 coin is the same size as the 10 cent piece
F. $0.20
Also, every coin has the queen (Elizabeth II) on HEADS.
The 5 cent piece has echidna (spiny ant eater) for tails
The 10 cent piece has the Supurb Lyrebird on tails.
The 20 cent piece has a duck billed platypus on the tails side.
The 50 cent piece has the national coat of arms, a crest flanked by a kangaroo and an emu, the national animals. A friend of mine reckons that this is one of the few countries that eats both national animals. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey as US national animal before the bald eagle was chosen.
The $1 has various designs like our quarter.
The $2 has an elder Aboriginal man and the Southern Cross constellation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_Australian_dollar
Comments
Australia and New Zealand have finished 1-2 in most of the world championships.
Along with korfball, netball grew out of a misunderstanding of how basketball was supposed to be played.
Amy - I found out they teach them to say that at school. They also teach home improvement contractors to say "I really didn't make any money working on your house."