Trivia

I have been to the United States many times before, and have even stayed in someone’s house and so saw a slightly different aspect to the country. However, living here makes you see things through different eyes.

Mail for example, and this is such a good idea. My daughter moved here several years ago. If she wanted to post a letter she went to the Post Office. It was only when she saw her husband put something that was to be posted in the mail box and then raise the red arm on the mailbox straight into the air that she asked what he was doing. It seems that if this red arm is raised, the mailman will collect the mail from the mailbox! Nick (her husband, my son in law) had grown up with this and so didn’t see anything special about it. What a fantastic idea. (The envelope must be stamped of course).

I have also been amazed about how much Spanish you here. Every time I visited I was aware of the growing influence of the language and saw more and more signs in Spanish, even as far north as Boston. However, living here I am stunned by it. On several occasions I have been in shops and have not heard a word of English spoken for quite some time.

I am constantly amazed at how big four by four trucks are. In Oz they would be called utes, in the UK pick ups, here they are called pick up trucks, four by fours or what ever, but they are invariably huge. I was aware of the Ford 150, which is big, but the 250 seems even bigger and the 350 makes a people mover look tiny. But other makes are just as big. I hate to think what mileage they get, or rather don’t get.

On that note, petrol here is about US$3.50 a gallon at the moment (i.e. standard non leaded). When I left Oz if was hovering around A$1.50 a litre. Given that 1 US gallon is approximately 3.8 litres, that translates to the US price of petrol (or gas as they call it here) being roughly A$1.14. per litre in Australia (using an exchange rate of A$0.95 per US$).

Put it the other way round, A$ 1.50 a litre in Australia translates to approximately US$5.40 per gallon here in the US. So Aussies are doing it tough. But have a thought for what my fellow Brits are paying.

The UK price is approximately GBP 1.13 per litre. Using a GBP/US$ exchange rate of 1.95 US$ to the GB Pound, that roughly translates to a price of US$8.40 a gallon. In Aussie, if you had to pay what the Brits pay (using an exchange rate of A$/GBP 2.04), you would be shelling out approximately A$2.30 per litre.

So petrol (gas) is relatively cheap here, but to give the Americans their due, it has risen very sharply. When my daughter arrived here two years ago, it was less than US$2.00 a gallon. Mind you, I have heard predictions of US$5.00 by the (northern) summer.