Nirvana

It’s a rare week when I don’t hear a passenger exclaim how Australia is such a wonderful country. Whilst this observation is often from tourists marvelling at Aussies relaxed nature and idyllic lifestyle, the same sentiment is freely heard from overseas born residents. For them this is nirvana. 

Last night I carried an academic of Pakistani heritage home to the Eastern Suburbs. He’d been to dinner with friends at a Japanese restaurant and raved about the multitude of culinary choices in Sydney. When I inquired if he’d ever consider returning to his homeland, he scoffed at the thought.

Indeed, at this time of year with such beautiful weather and extended daylight you could be forgiven for thinking that everyone wants to live in Australia. But you’d be wrong...

Prior to driving taxis I managed a backpacker hostel in Far North Queensland for nine months. Each morning when checking-out guests I posed the same question to each party: ‘Would you like to live in Australia?’ Surprisingly, amongst thousands of guests from a wide variety of countries, two nationalities consistently rejected the idea. Guess who..? (Answer tomorrow)

Anyway, after dropping the enraptured academic, I stopped outside the dreaded Coogee Bay Hotel, figuring that a Wednesday night was a much safer proposition than later in the week. Just on 10pm as the night rate kicked in I jagged a monster job to Cabramatta, in south west Sydney. There is a God.

The passenger was a naturally charming lawyer who sat up front and proved a thoroughly engaging conversationalist. Which was perfect, I told him, for the last time I carried Vietnamese-born passengers from the Coogee Bay Hotel to Cabramatta, one of them threatened to shoot me.

Sure, it was drunken bravado but at the time I was terrified and drove like a mad man, hoping a cop would pull us over and save me. Yet so impressed were they at the time taken to reach home that they tipped generously and requested my phone number for future work! Funny guys.

Comments

[Steve at the Pub]

French & Israelis?

[Meerkat]

French & Americans

[Stefano]

French & Saunders? ;-)

[Tom]

Has to be the poms and probably the frogs. For some reason they think we're racist against them...

[Andy]

Nah - I reckon its Poms and Yanks

Poms because theyd have nothing to whinge about, and yanks because the only country with 'real Freedom' is their own...

[Louise]

kiwis and poms.

[Dan]

Dutch and Victorians

[Gerri Patrick]

Yanks and ? - brain freezes.

[Frank Smith]

It's not the poms your morons! They love Australia. I say Americans are a posibility, maybe Canadians as well.

[Brian]

I’d say Canadians for one, they are intimidated by the Aussie openness and casual approach to life, plus there are not many places to play ice hockey. Having trouble with the second.
Have a nice day.

[Sensate]

Americans and Japanese. What'd I win?

[PQ]

Germans and French.
Israelis as the trifecta.

[Peter Deane]

Canadians - they love their own country too much despite the cold.

Irish - too much of a culture shock.

I reckon definitely not New Zealanders, as there are something like 600,000 of them over here anyway, and from what I've heard from my Pommy friends, the weather sux over there and they'd flee to anywhere to be shod of it.

Geez, Adrian, this one is a good firestarter!

[adrian]

Yes, it's a hottie, Peter. Might wait until this arvo to announce who wins the first cab off the rank.

[Romany]

Fire starter, barbecue stopper - you've stirred up something here, Adrian. For me, Canadians are way out in front of the rest of the field.

[Matt]

Germans and Americans

[adrian]

The winner is Steve @ The Pub, first cab off the rank. Well done.

[Roscoe]

Huh, French & Israelis?

What about Texans?

[PQ]

Dammit! Two legs in the trifecta.

[Peter Deane]

You get Israelis in FNQ? Blimey!

[MikeFitz]

The French? Well that might have been true a couple of decades ago when they were testing nuclear weapons and blowing up GreenPeace ships down in this hemisphere. But I think there's been a few changes of government and some water under the bridge since those days.

A few years back #2Son was in Lyon presenting a paper at a conference and he asked a local for directions. The local replied, "You are American. Wait till I finish my cigarette."

#2Son: "Non. Je suis Australien." Whereupon the local immediately threw his cigarette on the ground, stubbed it out and gave excellent directions in perfect English.

#2Son: "You stubbed out your cigarette because I'm Australian. Thankyou."

Local: "It's a good thing you didn't say you were English... or I would have stubbed out my cigarette ON YOU."

[Jeb]

Definitely thinking kiwis!