Flowers from the Aussies

I believe that Australians are a happy people, they are content with who they are and the life they lead. This statement is not based on any scholastic research or something I heard on the radio, it’s purely based on my own observations. Why do I believe this? Because Australians give compliments. They say nice things to friends, acquaintances, colleagues, neighbors and even total strangers. Swedish people do not compliment each other very often, especially not if they are not feeling as they are on top of the world and therefore can afford to say something nice to somebody else and make somebody else happy. When I got my new car, our neighbors congratulated me and seemed happy that I - their neighbor - had a new car that I like although my car is much nicer than theirs. In Sweden, the neighbors wouldn’t have said anything to me, pretended like they hadn't even noticed a new car, just muttered ”it’s probably a company car” to themselves. 

Here, I’ve gotten many compliments from total strangers. A lady in the grocery store exclaimed when she saw me: ”You are absolutely stunning and what a gorgeous top you have”. The girls in our daughters’ school think that the daughters’ mummy is ”soooo pretty” and some days ago a girl said to my eldest that ”your parents are really sophisticated. They don’t look at all like any Australian parent I’ve ever seen”. And my own favorite; a somewhat backhanded compliment: ”your parents are really young. Was it a teen-pregnancy?”. Compliments are good, it feels good to receive them and it feels good to give them. In my experience, you have to feel good about yourself and be in harmony and balance with yourself to be able to see good things in others without being jaundiced. That is why I believe that Australians are happy with their lives and who they are. A couple of years ago when I was in Sweden, I was walking down a road with my handbag over my shoulder. A woman was walking behind me with her boyfriend and I heard her comment on my handbag to him, a Louis Vuitton. When they passed me she said ”it’s a nice handbag you’ve got there” and as they got further away she added ”I bet it’s a copy”. Ah Swedes, they sure know how to take back the flowers, don’t they?