My Thoughts So Far...

If you’ve been reading Isla’s blog then you’ll see she often puts down some notes about her observations on Oz. This has been a big talking point since we’ve been here and I’ve decided to give you some chat along those lines too. So here follows a list of some of my pros and cons of being in Australia. Enjoy.

Poisonous Animals
Everything here is poisonous and deadly. The funnel web spider can kill you in less than an hour and even a simple dip in the ocean can see you covered in blue bottle stings. It seems that in order to survive in Oz you need to have some venom on board. The weird thing is that these poisonous creatures are SO poisonous – it seems that the amount of poison they have in their fangs and stings far out-weighs the amount required to kill their prey. Even the damn platypus is poisonous.

Thankfully, the only ones that I’ve seen have been in tanks, cages and containers. However, I was bitten by a Redback Spider in 2000 on Magnetic Island – but I didn’t see that one either (one too many vodkas that night was to blame).

Weather
The weather here is great. Even when it’s raining its good rain – big and torrential but also warm. Even though it’s May and almost winter it’s still 27C today and the sun has been shining all day.

The down side is that Australia is in the middle of the “100 Year Drought”. It’s not rained properly in the dam catchments areas for years and reservoir levels are below 30% for the first time in 40 year. A real downer since there is water restrictions all the time and the government keeps telling you that you can only shower for 3 mins per day and you mustn’t flush the toilet unless the stink is attracting roaches.

Street Lighting
As Isla says, there is almost no street lighting here. When I take the train to work there is a street that I walk down near the hospital which is about 500m long. However, there is only 2 lights!!! Can you imagine what the driving test would be like if you had to read a licence plate from one lamp post to another?

I guess the lighting of also testament to the fact that nobody walks anywhere here. The Aussies have a real American attitude to cars and walking. Everyone has a car including every 16 year old and walking is taboo. I suppose if you are driving everywhere then you don’t really need street lights. Also the petrol here is really cheap (although even complains despite it being half the price of petrol in the UK) so I suppose that perpetuates the car usage here. It also does nothing to help the fact that Australia is such a big polluter on the world stage. Cheap cars, low insurance, no MOT, cheap petrol, unsafe public transport, poor street lighting and no facilities for walkers… well it’s no wonder people drive.

Cycling
This is a great way to get fit but you really take your life in your hands on the roads here. I’ve talked at length about this before so if you are interested you can look through the archives.

TV
Is totally crap.



Sharks
I guess Oz is famous for these. Haven’t seen anything along those lines except at the aquarium. However, the only place most people worry about sharks is… at the beach and Sydney is full of those. So that’s a fair trade off.



20c Coins
These are massive and every time I leave the flat I seem to come home with millions of these. They truly are huge and once when I was inspecting a couple of them I noticed that one had the date 1967 on it. Can you believe that it’s been more then 30 years since these have been updated? On the plus side, they are so bloody heavy that a few of them in your pocket must increase your daily calorie expenditure by a good few hundred.

Distances
Australia is an impossibly big island. Because of that, to get anywhere takes hours. To get from one major city to another requires a flight. Driving from Sydney to Perth can take a week.

The other issue with distance is that Australia is so far away from the rest of the world. I was watching the movie adaptation of Nevil Shute’s On The Beach the other night and it really brought it home. The premise is that there is a nuclear war in the northern hemisphere between the Russians and the Americans. A US submarine crew travel south to Australia for help as it’s one of the only places unaffected by the fall out. You get the picture.

That film really makes you think about how far away you are from everyone you know. Although its only a days flight, it’s still a really long 24 hours. I often think how long it would take me to get home if there was an emergency… and it’s not cheap either.

Cinemas
I love the cinema but I really only like going when it’s quiet. So much so that I make a point of seeing new releases by myself early in the morning on weekdays. That way my viewing pleasure is not sullied by others and their popcorn and vocal antics. This is even worse in Australia. People seem to think that the cinema is a place to catch up with each other and chat through the entire film – and I don’t mean whisper, I mean talk, shout and laugh at full volume with seemingly no interest in the movie. IT DRIVES ME MAD!

I went to see the 9:45am premier of Spiderman 3 yesterday and thought that there was no possibility of the film being spoilt by “others”. Unfortunately, even though the cinema was quite quiet there was a “special” bloke sitting right behind me who laughed all the time, even at bits that weren’t remotely funny. Rubbish. I think that I’ll have to change my approach – early morning, week days AND during the last week it’s showing. Hopefully that means there will be nobody in the cinema with me. The trade off is that everyone will think I’m a total saddo – if they don’t already.

One plus side of the cinemas here is the fact that all prices are discounted on Tuesdays. $9 instead of $15.

Wine
There are vineyard everywhere. The wine is cheap and all tastes amazing. I wish we had some vineyards back home. The tours here are fantastic and actually not too expensive. They are also a must since everyone here seems to know stuff about wine and you feel like a bit of a fool at the dinner table if you’ve not got a bit of vino-chat to fall back on.




Food
What can I say? It’s everywhere. There are great takeaways and brilliant restaurants. The supermarkets are full of fresh fruit, veg, fish, meat and all manor of produce. It makes for one of 2 possibilities – either you can overindulge in healthy food you make yourself OR you can overindulge in takeaway and restaurant deliciousness. Either way you are in trouble. It’s just as well we have a free gym downstairs – although I rarely use it…

So I hope that brings you up to speed on my thoughts about Australia. Comments are welcome.