Friday, May 28, 2010

Quality of Wife

This week Mercer's 2010 Quality of Living Global Survey was published giving me an opportunity to collect and benchmark facts from you, my adorable blog chums.

It also provides an opportunity for me to complain about the cost of living in Oslo, which jockeys annually for the most expensive city in the world (the Economist).

Interestingly enough, but no surprise to BB, Canadian cities top the list for Quality of Life in the Americas, Australian cities for Asia Pacific, and German cities for Europe.

There are few changes to the top cities in the in the Eco-City category. Nordic cities emerge in the Europe category, including Oslo, which comes in at 9th in this overall global category.

Well done Oslo! The Eurovision Song contestants, in town this weekend for the big sing off, will be able to fill their lungs with clean air. Hoofuckingray!

This year’s items for comparison are a bit idiosyncratic, unfortunately bear little relationship to 'Eco', and have more to do with what is available to hand, but here it goes:
  • My favourite baker’s scone - $5.40
  • Dry Cleaning of my 2 piece suit - $55.25
  • Hot Dogs (580 grams/1.23 pounds) - $8.00
  • Lindeman’s Chardonnay (any year, it’s all rubbish) - $53.90
  • My Haircut (my hairdresser has great tits) - $85.94

If you have the time, check out these similar costs in your neck of the woods and blog them into me.

I shouldn’t really complain too much, my quality of life in Norway is quite excellent, Eco or not, and often in life, you get what you pay for.

More importantly for me my quality of wife is outstanding and Norwegian. She is priceless!

Beaverboosh

16 comments:

daisyfae said...

In middle-Ohio, USA:
Scone (Starbucks) - $2.95
Dry Cleaning 2 piece suit - $8.79
Hot Dogs (gas station) - 2/$2.00
Lindeman’s Chardonnay - $8.00
Haircut (Big Gay Chuck's Big Gay Hair Salon) - $20.00

Quality of Wife? Well, i'm here, so i guess it's definitely on the low side... (but i'm still working a trip to Oslo in August!)

Rob said...

Interesting post BB, although it leads me to conclude that, besides the land of our birth, we have nothing in common. Still here are my data:

My favourite baker’s scone - My favourite baker is the missus her scones cost whatever the ingredients cost, although they're priceless because they contain only healthy ingredients

Dry Cleaning of my 2 piece suit - Well, I don't own a suit and I don't dry clean anything (Nasty!)

Hot Dogs (580 grams/1.23 pounds) - 6 pack of veggie dogs - about $5.00

Lindeman’s Chardonnay (any year, it’s all rubbish) - no idea, don't really consume alcohol any more

My Haircut (my hairdresser has great tits) - as does mine and she's also the missus - no dollar cost

kyknoord said...

I can't comment on the various items, 'cos we mostly eat dirt and baboon droppings here in Africa, but since my ex-wife lives in another city, I'd have to say things are excellent on that front.

ian in hamburg said...

Hin Germany things are expensive, but not Norway expensive!

Scones: not available, but a croissant is about $1.20

Dry cleaning: I don't own a suit

Hot dogs: I haven't bought weiners since my student days

Decent bottle of Italian/Spanish red: $10 - $12

My haircut: $14. My hairdresser has a great budgie.

Wife: priceless as well!

Anonymous said...

In the city you like best in the world, Ottawa (in funny CA$):

* Scone - $2.00
* Dry Cleaning - $30 for my super heavy winter coat (sorry, I'm not a shirt and tie girl)
* Hot Dogs - no idea, $2.00 in the street
* Wine - depends a lot... as you know. Coke is only $1 for a can, I stick with that
* Woman haircut - $50

I'm the wife and I'm pretty cheap.

DianeCA said...

I don't think you can really compare prices directly, as it also has something to do with income. Like the fact that a social worker here makes over 60,000 dollars per year. Might have something to do with the prices....

Karla said...

I have never had anything dry cleaned here because i refuse to pay it. I lug it all home to the US and have it cleaned. It's like international laundry day. i can sometimes save enough to pay for the flight!

Happy for you that your hairdresser has nice boobs, though. That is worth some of the cost, no? I cut my husband's hair with some clippers he bought. Next time i will wear my bikini when I do that. Maybe i can charge him for it.

Michele said...

I'll never, ever understand why it costs more to have my hair done than to have my teeth cleaned here in Norway. Something's wrong there.

It's also wrong that the price of a train or bus ticket has increased more over the last few years than the price of bensin. What's Eco about that?

Diane is right that most people with jobs here are compensated well enough to balance out the high prices. For those of us with less than moderate incomes, though, it can be a real f-ing bummer sometimes.

nursemyra said...

I think $60,000 a year would be an average wage here in Australia Dianne and we wouldn't pay anything like those Oslo prices BB posted.

Scones: about $2.00 each
Suit dry cleaning: about $20.00
Lindeman's Chardonnay: $7.00
Men's haircut: about $40.00

Anonymous said...

I want a wife.

RubyTwoShoes said...

Here in my village we also have an exceptional quality of life. I cant compare in dollar terms, but I can say it averages out at about one serve of bread and dripping per day, which is what we give the 'help' around here to do things like bake our daily bread; plant, harvest and sew our cotton for our clothes; barrel and distill our alcohol and mold our heads of hair into a high from of hair art. All said, Excellent value all round, especially considering we can kick them up the ass if they are not working fast enough - at no extra cost!

Anonymous said...

Don't know what exchange rate you're using but Lindeman's is around 110-120Nok which is $18.53, rubbish it may be, but it's not that expensive! Interestingly the Pole makes more sence the more up market you go.

Scones, well in Baker Brun they're around $4.63.

Dry cleaning! Man you're in Norway no-one wears suits enough to need regular dry cleaning!

Hot dogs - $1-54 in Ikea

Hair cut - about the same as a boyttle of Lindemans, but then I'm old fashioned and my barber is male.

CIA factbook Richest to poorest 10% ratio US 15, Norway 6. Anything involving personal service will be expensive (cooking, cleaning, haircuts) and Wine's a state monopoly and considered bad for you. Why not compare electronics prices at purchasing power partity?

What's that old saying about lies and statistics now?

suicide_blond said...

In Washington DC:
Scone: 3.56
Dry cleaning: 19.00
Hot Dogs (half smoke on the mall) 4.00
Chardonnay 22.00
Haircut with large breasted woman: 85.00

but..i also have a wee place an hour and half outside of the city

Virginia Countryside:
Scone: not avail but a biscuit is 3 / 3.00
dry cleaning: 9.0
hotdogs (7-11): 2/ 2.00
Chardonny: 18.00 (its wine country)
Haircut: 36.00
xoxo

Anonymous said...

Apropos of nothing at all - seen this?

http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/cuddly-clean-and-cool/

beaverboosh said...

df . i lurv america... i am pregnant with anticipation of hearing of the possibility of your impending visit...

rob - man you have one optimised supply chain dude... nothing in common... i can always find something I have in common with another human being... are you an alien?

kyk - most excellent, baboon droppings are a fave of mine but unavailable here... business opportunity?

ian - fantastic!

zhu - that's my girl, Canadians are cheapskates and hate getting ripped off

dianeca - even when adjusted for ppp, this is a pretty expensive place... still not many complain... except tourists and me

michele - girl this is just one expensive place... you can't afford to be poor

karla - top girl... we do all of our serious shopping in the US, some in London... the dry cleaning mission is impressive... and you are right, probably pays for the flight

nm - i lurv OZ, lived there for 6 months, reminds me of Canada with funny accents

dolce - find the right one, your soul will be at peace and filled with warm and fuzzy lurv

ruby - 1 portion of bread and drippings...luxury... when I were a lad we were raised in a shoebox and got 1 portion of cardboard no drippings

anon - used last friday central bank strike rate... lindemans quote is from vinmonopli in Oslo W, see website if you can be assed, you can get bin 65 for under 80 NOKs and its really shite... capitalists wear suits here, head to Aker Brygge any evening and you'll find a high suit count... did ppp with survey 2 years ago see July 2008 blog, still vexpensive here... only buy 1 tv every 5 years, need scone, haircuts, drycleaing, and wine on a regular basis... statistics are irrelevant in this context, it's the bank balance that does the talking... thx

suicide - ah the countryside of Virginia... think I need a weekend there for a haircut and a scone, x

az - no... abso outstanding!

Anonymous said...

Dubai UAE comparison:

My favourite baker’s scone - $2.73Dry Cleaning of my 2 piece suit - $15.00
Hot Dogs (580 grams/1.23 pounds) - $4.00
Lindeman’s Chardonnay (any year, it’s all rubbish) - $16.43
My Haircut (my lebanese male hairdresser has a fantastic a$$) - $52.05
Full tank of fuel for a Mitsubishi Pajero 4X4: $20.00 or so

Nat