I don't mean to offend anyone but as a person who grew up in the USA and lived there half my life, then lived in New Zealand for 20 years, I find the worst manners here in Australia.

The bad manners, as others have pointed out, seem to be across all age ranges.

We live in the best country in the world, it's a shame our culture doesn't encourage and reward being more patient and treating each other more respectfully when it's the most difficult circumstance to do so.

Suse there may be another reason for that lack of acknowledgement by others.

The other day my lady & I were driving somewhere when someone extended me some little courtesy. This I acknowledged with a little wave as I passed. This was on my right, so she did not actually see my hand.

My lady asked me, in a troubled voice, why I had "given the other car the finger"? I could not help but wonder how many times she may have taken offence at a friendly thank you wave.

This proves the saying "you can take the lady out of Sydney, but you can't take Sydney out of the lady". If you can, it must take a while. I took this lady out of Sydney 38 years ago.

I always acknowledge any courtesy extended to me on the road, even at roundabouts sometimes when it's my right of way. I always raise my hand in apology too if I have inadvertently made a mistake on the road as we all do at some time or another or when someone has blown their horn at me. Raising the middle finger in such circumstances only exacerbates the situation, creates road rage and is pretty ill-bred anyway.
Incidentally why can't people at supermarkets push their trollies neatly into one other in the "return bays" instead of scattering them in a jumble of different sizes and sometimes creating no further room? I just find things like this small but thoughtful for others. It costs nothing.

"you can take the lady out of Sydney, but you can't take Sydney out of the lady" or as we say in Queensland "once a bogan, always a bogan"

Is Mise,

Nice story about the lawyer in the lift: Well played indeed!