Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

As you all know, we flew to Sydney, Australia, to start this cruise and most of the travelers are Australians or Kiwi’s. ( we don’t get to NZ until the end). We’re even paying for everything in Australian dollars. FYI, when we got on the boat, the exchange rate was one Aussie dollar to 65 cents American. So every time I spend a $, I tell Roscoe I’m really only spending 2/3 of that yeah, right….he says. Anyway, back from this tangent onto Australians. They’re everywhere on this boat and so far we’ve only met one curmudgeon. Australians that we’ve met are friendly, speak to you without prompting, and generally seem to be kind and intelligent people. I‘ve learned that they don’t believe in tipping and don’t understand America’s tipping policy. When I explained about servers being paid less than minimum wage but being taxed on the full amount, they were aghast. I’ve noticed on the ship that no one tips a bar server for bringing drinks 🥤🍹 or food. I asked them what they do about the automatic tipping charge on board and they said they go down and have it removed from their bill! Who knew? But I read this Quote today in Louise Penny’s newsletter and thought I’d share it with you!

" Every country is like a particular type of person. America is like a belligerent, adolescent boy; Canada is like an intelligent, 35-year-old woman. Australia is like Jack Nicholson. It comes right up to you and laughs very hard in your face in a highly threatening and engaging manner. "

- Douglas Adams

Have a great day and I’ll tell you on Tuesday how we spent the 4th of July