Culture shock with the calendar

I'm probably stretching it a little to call this culture shock, but we did get a little bit of a jolt on Sunday-Monday and it was largely because we weren't in touch with the local calendar.

First on Sunday night we missed a big football final (National Rugby League Grand Final).

No, this wasn't our pantry shelves on
Saturday! It was filled with non-perishables.
But I have to admit that I'm loving this
walk-in lighted pantry. It's wonderful,
especially that it's filled with Australian
food (and a little bit of Japanese).

The boys would have loved to have seen it, but we simply had lost touch with the competition and when the final date was.

Second we had some grocery difficulties. On Saturday our plan was to pick up some groceries close to home after our 800km drive, but the local grocery store was shut when we got there. We missed it by 15 minutes! So I improvised and found some essentials at a nearby fruit and veg shop.

We also neglected to shop on Sunday, we were just too tired to think about it (and I prefer not to shop on Sundays anyway). So on Monday I optimistically trooped off to the store armed with my carefully constructed list. Nope, the shops were shut again. I knew it was a public holiday, the boys were home from school. But I didn't realise that most major shops shut on Labour Day. Afterall they are open most other public holidays, including weekends.

Alas, after driving to another shop at a major shopping centre and finding that shut too, I located a less well-known shop that was open. Half of the local suburb was there, it was crazy! Obviously I wasn't the only one who was caught out.

So, again, I don't know if you can put these down to culture shock. Possibly it is more  along the lines of cultural ignorance?