Australian Pizza, Trains, Toilets, Cash and The Date

Last night I stumbled on a "ma and pa" pizza shop. I ordered an "Americana" pizza. It had ham and onions on it. The ham was shredded as if it had been run along a cheese grater and was practically the same texture as the onions. After putting the sauce on the crust they put nearly an inch of ham and onion shreds on the pizza, then they add a think layer of cheese that becomes browned and crusted. The cheese doesn't even make contact with the crust except for at the edges. The result is an almost sandwich like pizza experience. Oh yeah, and the large was the size of an American small.

I have been riding the train to work, you can tell that the train system is really meant for locals. There really are no signs or anything telling you which train goes where you are going. I find myself asking locals which train goes to Warabrook in order to get on the right one, and you'd think it was the train on a certain platform, that is never consistent either. The ride is nice. I am rather surprised to see the graffiti on the walls in the train track areas. It looks like it was lifted directly from Los Angeles suburbs.

Toilets here tend to have two separate flush buttons. One does a half flush the other does a full flush. I have not had the courage to ask anybody yet but I am assuming this is for when you have differing levels of need. :) I guess if you do a number 1 you use handle number one, a number 2 would call for handle number 2. Most public toilets seem to have walls that have no cracks where people can see through, they are very private with higher doors etc. Also, they mostly seem to have an indicator that changes on the door to tell people that the stall is occupied. I wish we had that.

The paper money is not made of paper here. It is made of plastic, Nearly all of the cash seems absolutely pristine. It lasts forever and even if you fold it it takes it's original shape again after a short time. The smallest note is a 5 dollar bill, they have coins for everything smaller and there is no penny coin, everything is charged to the nearest 5 cents. this makes it very easy to deal with the change. The 2 dollar coin is about the size of 3 dimes if they were glued together. The one dollar coin is the size of two quarters if they were glued together. there are no quarters but they have 20 cent coins and 5 cent coins and none of the sizes make any sense at all.

The system for writing a date here is different from the US. I knew this coming here as many other countries use the same system. I think I prefer this format now that I am used to it.