Question Everyday Life in Other countires

So I've been re-reading A SImple Game. And on a reread the errors about Australia are really bothering me. So anyone interested in a Writeup on how things are different in Australia?

Though admittedly most of the problems in that story are to do with Geography, the progression of that story makes no sense to anyone who knows Sydney.

Actually, my impression as a fellow Sydneysider was that the writer did know Sydney, they just wished they didn't, i.e. It was someone who grew up in Australia but wished they had grown up elsewhere.

There was a few subtle details in the original Sara White story that showed the writer knew the places in Sydney they were writing about, not just looked up the names on a map. Also, the people felt 'Australian', not American or some other culture. There is ways Australians will think and act that is different because of what is 'normal' and expected behaviour, it's noticibly different if you know what to look for.

There are also a few New Zealand references that mean the writer could have been from New Zealand originally too.

well I know this is Dr bender's baby GOO story and the author is from Australia? So I guess and lean to what PS just posted!

The real standout for me that wasn't geographic was the reference to state police. Australia doesn't have local police departments. If you say the police, its taken as a given that you mean state police, seeing as they are the ones who do all the regular policing.


The geogrpahical problems where many, starting with how we got from Western Sydney to the City. Arguably we could be ath the NSW Coroners complex but that is nowhere near Hyde Park. Where Gary's foster parents could posibly live that is within sight of Hyde Park is also a problem. its a rather expensive area and dosn't have a lot of apartment buidlings, your more likely to find terraced houses. Also what bridge the described car accident could have possibly happend on. There are only two bridges in the CIty and they are both quite high, so much so that Sara should have been the only survivor of that car crash.

konzill wrote: The real standout for me that wasn't geographic was the reference to state police. Australia doesn't have local police departments. If you say the police, its taken as a given that you mean state police, seeing as they are the ones who do all the regular policing.


The geogrpahical problems where many, starting with how we got from Western Sydney to the City. Arguably we could be ath the NSW Coroners complex but that is nowhere near Hyde Park. Where Gary's foster parents could posibly live that is within sight of Hyde Park is also a problem. its a rather expensive area and dosn't have a lot of apartment buidlings, your more likely to find terraced houses. Also what bridge the described car accident could have possibly happend on. There are only two bridges in the CIty and they are both quite high, so much so that Sara should have been the only survivor of that car crash.

*Blink*

OK, I haven't re-read the story to get the details, but:

True the more normal mode of referring to Police in Australia would be just "Police" as there is only the state police forces, only people in boarder towns would ever deal with two different police forces and need to differentiate them, but since this is written for an American audience some change in terminology is acceptable (possibly because of feedback on the story by Americans).

There is a coroners court at Glebe and a State Morgue there too, Glebe is maybe 5 mins by bus from the centre of Sydney, you could probably jog it in at most 15 minutes.

Most of the apartment buildings in Sydney would have "sight" of Hyde Park, depending on how you define it. Hyde park is surrounded by older buildings with not much hight (maybe 4 floors). The 10, 20 floor apartment buildings a few streets away would have at least one side where the upper floors would have views into Hyde Park. Also, remember at one time the whole "Inner West" (Surrey Hills, Newtown, Redfern, etc.) and also places like Millers Point were all working class tenements and apartment buildings, as was Woolloomooloo just on the other side of the domain from Hyde Park, they are only just now moving out the last of the working class residents from these areas and selling off the government land to developers.

As far as the "bridge", I'll need to re-read the description in the story again to check, but there is a great many more then two bridges in Sydney. Off the top of my head there is the two large ones you refer to, ANZAC bridge and the Harbour Bridge, but there is also the elevated Western Distributor and Cahill Expressways, which can be considered "bridges", then there is the multiple bridges over the M1 from where it comes out of the Harbour Tunnel at the Botanical Gardens, all the way down ANZAC Parade where it is sunken below the road level and bridged at each intersection. There is also the Pyrmont and Glebe Island Swing Bridges (admittedly, both no longer carrying cars). None of there bridges is anymore then the hight of a truck.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Also, the people felt 'Australian', not American or some other culture. There is ways Australians will think and act that is different because of what is 'normal' and expected behaviour, it's noticibly different if you know what to look for..

That's because all the blood rushes to your head from hanging upside down down there.

Valentine wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Also, the people felt 'Australian', not American or some other culture. There is ways Australians will think and act that is different because of what is 'normal' and expected behaviour, it's noticibly different if you know what to look for..

That's because all the blood rushes to your head from hanging upside down down there.

Case in point, its difficult for us to even understand that people can't comprehend that gravity pulls to the centre of the earth, wherever you stand, nor that seasons are not hard and fast times, but vary depending where you are on the planet. These jokes don't mean anything to us, we'll just give you a blank look of incomprehension, the "WtF are you on about?" one.

of course the other thing, not related to A Simple Game, is how different the school system is.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

Valentine wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Also, the people felt 'Australian', not American or some other culture. There is ways Australians will think and act that is different because of what is 'normal' and expected behaviour, it's noticibly different if you know what to look for..

That's because all the blood rushes to your head from hanging upside down down there.

Case in point, its difficult for us to even understand that people can't comprehend that gravity pulls to the centre of the earth, wherever you stand, nor that seasons are not hard and fast times, but vary depending where you are on the planet. These jokes don't mean anything to us, we'll just give you a blank look of incomprehension, the "WtF are you on about?" one.

I've usually gotten a joke back when make a comment like that. Velcro on the shoes is a common answer to "how do you stick the ground when your upside down down there."

Besides the Earth is Flat, I saw it on Youtube.

And of course as an Australian its imperative you know the weight of a skateboarding rhino.

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/25/oz_tram...kateboarding_rhinos/

Astrodragon wrote: And of course as an Australian its imperative you know the weight of a skateboarding rhino.

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/25/oz_tram...kateboarding_rhinos/

I will need to remember this for the next Standard vs Metric discussion I get into.