Americans have an idea that Australia is full of sand and lots of poisonous bugs/insects/snakes etc. I noticed bare feet. Is our perception of the nasty biting-stinging things of Australia off?
They're there. It's just the things you do - like shaking out your clothes before taking them off the line or putting them on - are automatic background noise. It's like I don't have to think about things like not taking water with me when I go walking, it's just unthinkable not to. You take it for granted that This Is What You Do, and get on with life.
Also, there's the fact that Australians as a whole are typified by laid-back bloody-mindedness and a laissez-faire attitude to danger. My Dad picks up redbacks barehanded so that he can put them in a jar and take them somewhere more appropriate (to either kill or release, depending on what works best at the time). I went out to my mother's Stash Room yesterday to get something, went back inside to get my camera and Mum when I saw one of the white variants of a redback and when photos had been taken we both left it there (in one of the major lanes through piles of Stuff in that Stash Room). It wasn't doing any harm.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-03-20 11:33 am (UTC)They're there. It's just the things you do - like shaking out your clothes before taking them off the line or putting them on - are automatic background noise. It's like I don't have to think about things like not taking water with me when I go walking, it's just unthinkable not to. You take it for granted that This Is What You Do, and get on with life.
Also, there's the fact that Australians as a whole are typified by laid-back bloody-mindedness and a laissez-faire attitude to danger. My Dad picks up redbacks barehanded so that he can put them in a jar and take them somewhere more appropriate (to either kill or release, depending on what works best at the time). I went out to my mother's Stash Room yesterday to get something, went back inside to get my camera and Mum when I saw one of the white variants of a redback and when photos had been taken we both left it there (in one of the major lanes through piles of Stuff in that Stash Room). It wasn't doing any harm.