Au-ddly Australian

This weeks post:  money.  And its uses.

For fans of the new US bills, with all their colors, like green, Aussies have full color, bright bills.  Each denomination is a different color, but I still couldn't tell you what each one might be with out looking for the number.  Twenties are mostly red, tens mostly blue, fives mostly purple and fifties mostly yellow.  I think each bill is also a different size.  But I don't have all of them to compare with me right now.  Since I'm out in public I guess I won't inspect them too closely.  But for now, each is a different color, a different size and all of them have clear plastic windows in them.  I suppose this is a security feature.  The whole bill feels much more plastic than an American bill.  I suppose it could be because its all plastic, I'm not quite sure.

Next on to coins.  Oh coins, how I loath you.  For haters of the American penny, we don't have any.  Any non $.05 amount is rounded appropriately.  I hadn't even seen a nickel until today.  The nickel is indeed the smallest, which cures some of my grief with the monetary system.  Until the mysterious nickel with its Echidna on the back surfaced, the smalled coin I had seen was a $2 piece.  Good for bartenders, bad for shorts with holes in the pockets.  Change is a pain.  Really it rattles around, you have to keep track of it.  Might as well just give it back to the bartender as a tip.  Which isn't customary down here actually.  But now, that change you got back could be worth upwards of $4.  And in terrible little coins.  And the washing machines don't take them.  Even though clearly they should.  A load of laundry with 20 minutes of drying time is $4.  The laundry takes dollar coins (probably my second to least favorite coin) and fifths.  Not quaters.  Fifths.  It would make a mess of any problem involving so much money in so many coins.  One is not a quarter.  Well actually none are quarters.

Now how you spend this money.  I mentioned laundry.  Expensive.  This will be a theme.  Hungry Jack (a BK company) will sell you a meal at Jersey Turnpike rates, with either a small, regular or large drink.  Small actually means dollar menu small sized.  Tiny.  With tiny dollar menu fries.  Which are more like soggy McDonalds fries than crispy BK fries.  Or, you could try to buy something that Australians love.  Beer.  Or most alcohol for that matter.  The exception is wine.  They give that stuff away.  But beer and liquor and pre-mixed cans of liquor and mixer will cost you a pretty penny.  Which we don't have.  So a pretty fifty dollar note.  A 24 pack of the cheapest beer will run you over $30.  A 700mL bottle of Bacardi for mojitos (it is summer here) will run you $33.  There will be no bringing bottles back home from this trip.  Cokes are similarly expensive, $2.80 for a 600mL from the vending machine.  Not as bad, but still enough to quell most desires for a coke as refreshment.  But sushi, normally moderate to expensive back home, is dirt cheap.  Fast food sushi bars will sell you a roll for under $3.  Fast food only because they keep a fresh supply on ice to hand you as you order.  Its quite the system.  I have yet to see if its any good.  But it exists nonetheless.  So there is the monetary system of the Land Down Under.  Maybe I'll get around to more at some point.  But now its time to return to Color For Dollars class.  Which has more meaning now that the dollars are so colorful.