As an Aussie who's lived around the world with stints in California and Germany, I really miss my American friends' ability to just show up when they figured I'

As an Aussie who's lived around the world with stints in California and Germany, I really miss my American friends' ability to just show up when they figured I'd be around, unannounced, and hang out for an afternoon - or not, no worries, nobody home - compared to my German friends who literally needed a weeks notice to come over and have a couple of beers, even in this mobile-phone era. Or, my Australian pals who would come over, let themselves in, do the dishes, have a beer, and wait until I got home. Then again, there are the Austrians. Never, ever be even a minute late to an event involving Austrian friends. Strange how things are more and more rigid, the further from the frontier one gets ..