VitalSpark

I hold both British and Australian citizenships, so I'm kind of an outsider in the UK, but also an insider. I was born in Tokyo, and raised in Sydney, but have lived in various parts of the UK for almost 20 years, and if you spoke to me you wouldn't detect even a trace of an Australian accent. I tend to support Australia in sports events, if only to be a contrarian when surrounded by Brits. (Though I don't really watch any sports events anyway... shock! Don't let the Australian embassy hear about that - they might revoke my citizenship!) Anyway, whether you consider me a fraud for replying to a thread for non-British people or not, I'll say what I have to say. All versions of that show suck. Dentistry is pretty much the only aspect of health which has been neglected by the NHS. Back in the 1940s when the NHS was formed, dentists held out and remained independent. There is some NHS funding for dentistry (e.g. for children), but not a lot. British people do take perfectly good care of their oral hygiene, brushing their teeth, etc. But cosmetic treatments such as braces are seen as an expensive luxury by most people. So we don't have artificially straight teeth. Most of the rest of Europe considers the UK to be incredibly right wing in comparison. Very true. This and the tea. You think that's a coincidence? My guess would be Dutch. Look at what happened in South-East Asia. The Dutch were really into empire building back then. The French got into the idea a little later. Plus Dampier had visited Australia twice before Cook had even been born. This is a cliche that dates from post-war rationing. Of the world's ten best restaurants (according to Restaurant magazine), two are in the UK. (There are two in the USA, three in Spain, and one each in Brazil, Denmark, and Italy. None in France? Quelle surprise! They eat snails - what do you expect?) Two of the world's top 10 celebrity chefs (judging by net worth, and by Google searches done for their names) are British. (Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay if you were wondering.) British food is not fancy, but it is very good. It is characterised by simple, unfussy cooking techniques applied to quality, locally produced ingredients. Britain has also adopted various ingredients and cooking styles from its empire building days, and made them their own. (Chicken tikka masala is arguably Britain's national dish.) George Washington was actually very keen on cricket. There is anecdotal evidence that he took part in games with the troops during the American revolution! The first ever international cricket event was a game played between the USA and Canada in 1844. Though the most hilarious international cricket event was England versus France in the 1900 Olympics. None of the other countries even sent a cricket team to the Olympics, and the French team was mostly composed of British ex-pats. So awesome that it even has a pony named after it.

Hmmm... the title of this thread (poly is the Greek prefix meaning many, combined with vision) gave me a new headcanon. Derpy's eyes point in different directions because she has a unique talent. She can focus them on two different things at once - like a chameleon can. Her general clumsiness and habit of crashing into stuff can be explained not through stupidity but because this gives her poor binocular vision, leading to difficulty in judging distances.

If moths like my bedside lamp so much, why don't they come out during the day? They'd frickin' love it!

Up until the last minute, New Zealand was poised to be part of Australia when Australia became independent from the UK. (So was Fiji!) And it looked like Western Australia was not going to be part of Australia. At the last minute, New Zealand and Fiji pulled out, each deciding to seek independence in their own right. And Western Australia was persuaded to join in.

I have both British and Australian citizenship, so I'm not really non-Australian, but I've lived in the UK for almost 20 years, which I think is enough time to give a perspective from the outside. Although Australia is full of deadly animals that will kill you as soon as look at you, the vast majority of Australians live in a handful of cities around the coast, so with the exception of a few spiders, will never encounter any of these deadly creatures unless they go to the zoo. (In Sydney pretty much the only animals you need to worry about are red back spiders and funnelwebs.) Australian politics has shifted worryingly to the right wing in the last 20 years. I left the country towards the end of a thirteen year stretch of Labor government (Hawke then Keating). Since then Australia has been dominated by the Liberal-National coalition, and even the Labor governments which have followed John Howard have been noticeably more right-wing than previous Labor governments. Examples are the regressive approach to labour laws (WorkChoices), gay rights (conflicts between ACT govt and federal govt over same-sex marriage), aboriginal relations (the 10 point plan), and immigration (mandatory detention). The combination of the last two of those is something I find especially hypocritical given that all Australians are either descended from aboriginies or from immigrants. Also, what is up with the Australian Labor Party's spelling? For those who don't know, "labour" is spelt with a "u" in Australian English, but for some reason the ALP has to be different! For those who think Australia is constantly hot, bear in mind that the distance between the extreme north of Australia and the extreme south is about 3600 km. That's about the same distance as between Scotland and Algeria, or between Mexico City and Lake Winnipeg, or if you'd prefer, between Moscow and the Egypt-Sudan border. I'm sure you can imagine there's scope for a wide variety of weather there. The weather forecast in Darwin today is 32°C and sunny; in Hobart it's 12°C and there's a thunderstorm. Yes, 12°C in summer! This picture was taken just outside Sydney in October (mid-spring):

The Ghost of Christmas Present (from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol).

People change their username and avatar willy-nilly, making it hard to mentally keep track of who is who, and who said what before. (And I'm aware of the irony that I changed my username and avatar for Christmas, but my username change is just two letters, and the avatar is the same OC in a different pose.)

Welcome to the forums! I concur with Princess Ditzy Doo - you should add your OC to the database, and get RPing!

Welcome to the site! I know you'll have a good time!