2 Texans Down Under

Yesterday, I talked about three important considerations for predicting compatibility in relationships — sex, money, and degree of neatness — and speculated that these concerns could be important to the question of how compatible Australia and you might be. Could you move here and sustain a relationship with this continent?

I dealt with degrees of neatness first. Now you might want to be sure no one’s looking over your shoulder because I want us to consider s-e-x in the US and in AU.

SEX — I have no idea what single life here is like. (How embarrassing, to have to begin with a confession of ignorance, but then, knowledge isn’t a requirement of blogging, is it?)

I get the impression, though, that sexual mores are pretty relaxed here. Live together for a while and you’ll be seen, legally, as being in a “de facto relationship.” You may even be identified, a bit inelegantly, as “a de facto.”

On the positive side, some states allow same-sex and opposite-sex de facto couples to register with the state in order to get a certificate as verification of their commitment to each other.

More than US women, Australian women seem to have an easy-going attitude about the exposure of skin.

My wife has noticed, for example, that cleavage is much more common here in casual settings and even in work or classroom situations. Once Kristi pointed out to me this fact (or these facts), I said, “Well, mercy me, I believe you’re right! Fancy that.”

Men, oddly enough, tend to bare their feet. Young men, especially, are much more likely here than in the US to be barefoot in shopping centres or strolling along sidewalks.

Extramarital sex for prominent politicians, if recent newspaper headlines are any indication, seems to be equally distributed between our two countries.

After a crime-commission report on corruption, an entire town council was removed in New South Wales this month amid allegations of shady dealings involving developers and Labor Party office holders. Prominently featured in most news reports was an attractive, blonde planning officer who was accused of having had sex with three builders eager to erect buildings in violation of codes. It seems she gave them permits and more.

Lately she’s been showing up in court wearing cool “sunnies” (dark glasses) and saying nothing to the press. My guess is she’s now holed up somewhere, working hard on her tell-all book.

New York State’s governor, now a former governor who had been elected as a corruption-fighting good guy with a wife and three daughters, seems to have been paying a young woman $1,000/hour to visit his hotel rooms.

The professional other woman, press reports here tell us in great detail, looks good in a bikini and dreams of being a professional singer of the blues. Given the value of celebrity itself these days, she, too, may be about to make a lucrative career change.

I can almost hear it now: “I got those mean ole Nooo Yawk gov’nor blues….” Wait, though, it seems to need a male voice. Can Spitzer sing?

The AU vs. US score on this compatibility consideration? Being a happily and monogamously married man who always wears shoes, I probably wouldn’t express an opinion if I had one.

My guess, though, is that if you’re happy there, you can be happy here.