Random observations part 2

Well, there are a couple more things which puzzle this German living in beautiful Down Under to the extreme...

Shopping: there are some things that seriously puzzle me in Aussie supermarkets. There are quite a few farms around Albany and I reckon those people don't go to town every week to do their shopping, so I presume they do bulk shopping, yet it's rather difficult to do, at least it is rather difficult for me. Soda bottles or bubbly water bottles or juice containers are all single containers not boxed or packed in a six-pack or something. As we like drinking bubbly water mixed with juice, my shopping trolley often is half filled with 2l single bottles which you then have to manuver onto the cash desk belt thing where they either pack it in plastic bags or -if you're environment friendly- in reusable bags which you bought at a previous shopping trip and tend to break at the seams because the jolly bottles are too heavy for them.
Or take  beetroot tins.... we LOVE beetroot and eat it a lot so I always try to have a good supply of tins in our gigantic pantry (You never know, WW III might break out any time) yet often they aren't in a cardboard box on the shelves anymore so the other half of your trolley is filled up with corn or beetroot tins.
And then at the cash desks they don't seem to have an option of typing "12 x" and scan the item once, no they go blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb, blibb until all of my lovely tins are scanned and packed in your reusable textile bag
Why don't they sell bottles in crates???Or six packs???? And I always thought I was complicated.

Butter: okay, everyone here is so totally "salt-concious", salt is totally the "bady". I like salt, in moderation that is... yet the normal butter here is that salty , that this salt-lover here can't eat it... I just don't get it, what do you do with butter that tastes like an entire salt barrel???
And talking about butter... the expiry date of German butter is something within a month (if I remember correctly)... here it is several months... hmm, maybe all that salt preserves it so much the better.

Milk: Okay, they sell fresh milk in these lovely 2l or 3l plastic jugs with screw on lids. And I think that's a fantastic idea. You know, if your milk falls over it doesn't spill all over the car or your fridge... at least in theory. Unfortunately the reality looks slightly different: The screw on lids don't seal properly so if you're not careful driving home after shopping your reusable bag filled up with goodies falls over, the milk spills out and your car smell like vomit for the next couple months if you happen to not notice it straight away, which most likely you wouldn't because, well.. the LID IS STILL ON and connected to the little plastic ring which is suppose to seal the jolly thing.

Self-raising flour: Why do you need something stored in an extra container and taking up space which you can mix so easily yourself with baking powder and baking soda????

Mint flavoured peas... I'm just saying (why in the world would you want your peas to taste minty????)

Sockets: I love Aussie sockets... okay, I love PARTS of Australian sockets. I like that they have a little on/off switch right next to it...Unfortunately, my kid LOVE that switch too. Especially flicking it off while I'm vacuum cleaning and then run of laughing hysterically and I yell like some mad axe murderer for them to flick it back on again. Also, Aussie sockets are built differently than German once, the plug's pointy thingies are the only things that's actually inside the socket and the slightest pull or bump can pull the plug out of it's socket and even bent or break those pointy things. Whereas in a German socket parts of the plug additional to the pointy things gets embedded in the socket.

Kid's bike: You know, I'm into kid's bikes lately... it's so great that Ned can ride his own by himself now  (And he is happy to let anyone know who happened to ride past on the bike path next our house with their training wheels still on). But when I went shopping for one for him it came to my attention that all kid's bikes up to a 50cm frame (which would suit a 5-6 year old I think) are sold with training wheels but no side stand (I guess the training wheels keep the bike upride). So once you don't need the training wheels anymore or don't need it right from the beginning you basically teach your kid to throw his bike to the ground because there is no other option.

Baking paper: So, my sister in law and I had this funny incident in the kitchen the other day. She was baking a cake (an extremely delicious cake that is) and I was sitting, chatting and watching her. Well, she greased the cake pan, then she lined it with none sticky baking paper and then she greased the baking paper. My eyes grew bigger and bigger until they finally almost popped. I asked her why and she looked at me funny. Because everyone is doing it... even recipes ask for it at times... yet I just can't wrap my brain around that one: why do you "waste" all that extra fat on the pan and later on on your waist line if it works perfectly fine with just the baking paper alone....???? Search me... this puzzle keeps me awake at nights at times...

Shower curtains: Okay, I was looking for a shower curtain, for our shower obviously. The shower hasn't got a ledge or something at the bottom so I needed a curtain which would be long enough to reach from the curtain rod to the floor. I seriously looked all over Albany in any shop which might have the slightest possibility of selling shower curtains. Every single shower curtain I looked at was 180x180cm. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. Luckily, there is an IKEA in Perth, and it's only 5h drive to IKEA and they sell curtain with a different size: 200x180cm. Well, another reason to go shopping at IKEA.

Baby measurements: So, generally we have the metric system here Down Under. Everything is in meters, litres and kilos, even though the older generation still thinks in inches and ounces (Between 1970 and 1988 Australia changed from imperial to metric... just in case you were wondering)
Yet the weight of a newborn baby is announce in pounds and ounces. When I tell someone that my boys were around 3800g they ask me how much that is in pounds.. even though everything else is measured in grams and kilos... well, by now I remember to say that it's 8lb2'... gee, I hardly know how to write 8 pounds and 2 inches properly, hmmmmm

cheese:
Aussies love their cheddar cheese. So if you find yourself in the cheese aisle 3/4 of it is filled up with cheddar cheese, in all price ranges and fat contents... in the remaining 1/4 you might find the odd  Gouda or Mozarella or Parmesan. My favourite cheese is Maasdamer... and I was over the moon to actually find it (not in the common cheese aisle but in the deli section) and even though it is a Dutch cheese the package declares it to be a Swiss-style cheese. Cheddar in general doesn't really tickle my fancy at all, the only why I generally like it is once it's melted over my food... YET one particular cheddar breed threatens to overtake the lead in favourite cheese: pickled onion vintage cheddar cheese.. that one really got me and despite the fact that it is really crumbly like all cheddars and a pain to cut in precise pieces.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not nagging or complaining or anything... it's just things I see and they make me smile... or puzzle to the extreme :o)