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What seemed weird when I visited your country

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Grognard:
technically, Masterpiece is right.
blurg.
But according to American common sense,
K(ilometers)p(er)H(our)
is much, much easier to understand.

and yes.  I was a cop.  long time ago.  far, far away.  when I was  skinny.

Method of Madness:
Right, I acknowledged that km/h is the standard, but kph isn't wrong because it still stands for kilometers per hour.

nekowafer:
I regularly go 100 mph in my Hyundai Veloster. It is awesome. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket yet, but I'm sure it will come one day.

Ben:
I tip in the US because basically, that's the table staff's income. Same goes for Sky Caps, taxi drivers and people like that. The IRS assesses them on a notional tipping income, if I understand it correctly, so not tipping is pretty poor form.

I tip cab drivers in FSU countries because it's usual. Room staff, no. Anyway I'm usually on an account booking in places like that.

I usually tip the absolute minimum in French bars and cafés because its a good way to cause nuisance and embarrassment if you don't. I don't like it, but when in Rome etc.

I rarely tip in the UK because I simply don't think the service is worth it, and there is a general practice of paying actual wages. They are pretty lousy, but when you are paying Starbucks or Costa prices, or motorway services prices I DON'T expect to pay the staff on top of that. Go in any given outlet for any length of time and you will see a continual turnover of non-British counter staff, and this is why.

Akima:

--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 01 Jun 2014, 15:51 ---What's the fastest speed limit down there?
--- End quote ---
In Australia, the highest speed-limit on a non-freeway road is now 100km/h, I think. Freeway (in the UK you would say motorway) speed-limits vary by state. In NSW it is 110km/h. Trucks are fitted with speed-regulators which theoretically limit them to 100km/h on all roads.

Most highways in Australia are *not* freeways, but fairly narrow single-carriageway roads, with soft shoulders often 100mm or more lower than the "bitumen", as the tarmac metalled surface is known here, so 100km/h is plenty. It is questionably safe to overtake on many sections of such roads, because the closing speed of a vehicle coming the other way is 200km/h or 56m/s. If you pull out to overtake a 30m-long "B-double" truck on the Newell Highway, for example, and spend ten seconds on the wrong side of the road, an oncoming vehicle will have to have been something like 600m away when you started to overtake. Can you look at a white blob through the heat-haze, and be sure it is not, say, only 400m away? And that assumes there are no bends, bumps or dips to hide oncoming traffic.


--- Quote from: Masterpiece on 01 Jun 2014, 18:04 ---Uhm, yes, it is. "Kilo" is not any unit of measure, it is an order of magnitude.
--- End quote ---
Kilo is a very common abbreviation for kilogramme. In Australia, we have an all-purpose word: "kay".

"How far is it to Tiree, mate?"
"Oh.. About 300 kays. (kilometres)"

"How fast were ya goin' when the cop pulled you over?"
"The mongrel booked me at 130 kays! (km/h)"

"How much d'ya weigh?"
"'Round 80 kays (kilograms).

"My boss is a useless bludging bastard; he just sits in his office all day 'n pulls down 120 kay! (Thousand dollars a year).

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