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Published: April 15th 2010
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A totally laid back day, consisting of lots of sleeping, some swimming and a small amount of laundry duty! The daytime temperature is about 30 degrees and the humidity is really high, so it’s good to just relax round the pool and have a dip every now and then.
A brief venture to the beach as a small flotilla of ships appeared on the horizon, then back to the Su Doku! By the way, our apartment is on the second floor between the two big palms in the photo - unfortunately, it’s behind the two smaller palms but you get the picture!
So, not much happening, so perhaps this is the time for us to start ruminating on our experiences in The Land Downunder...
The first thing people will tell you proudly is that Australia is big - in fact that it is BIG. And it is. We’ve travelled solidly for weeks, ratcheted up considerable klicks, and only scratched the surface, but the surface that we’ve scratched has been great. Everywhere we’ve been since we left home, we say the people are wonderful, and Australians are certainly no exception to the rule - What I particularly like is
that they are definitely of the WYSIWYG variety (what you see is what you get) - everyone appears open and friendly and they have been unendingly helpful to two poms struggling to get by in a strange environment.
Strange environment - gosh, its almost a different dimension! That’s something that has struck us - I suppose we were expecting it all to be very similar to home, and the differences have made it seem sometimes as if we’re looking through a broken glass and seeing everything slightly skewed. (Perhaps I’m being a little too poetic for my own good here!!). Perhaps we ought to just quote that lovely Asian saying ‘same same, but different’ ... It has made me think of the body language course that most of us at work have done that uses an example of the Aussies - the ‘fast’ city boy and the ‘slow’ country girl. Basically it was pointing out that in the outback people have a lot of personal space around them, whilst those in the city have a lot less. Hence, when a city person approaches a country one they step into their personal space without realising it, making them appear ‘fast’ and forcing the country person to step back thus appearing ‘slow’.
And it has struck me that one of the differences is that you just can’t hurry an Australian! At home we spend our time rushing from pillar to post, there is never enough time in the day ... but here I’ve stood in shops fidgeting from foot to foot waiting to be served whilst the shop assistant chats to her customer asking what their plans are for the weekend or enquiring after family. They don’t speed on their roads, they don’t open their shops if they’re busy doing something else, they don’t rush to the front of queues - everything gets done in its own time.
Another thing that we have noticed is that Australians are proud to be Australian - not only is there a plethora of flags everywhere, but we’ve been very aware of the Buy Australian branding - for instance, John bought a fruit juice (apple strawberry and guava!) (yep, no way I’m going there!) - the brand name is Extra Juicy and the front label tells us the flavour, there’s no added sugar/preservatives, 20% extra free (this is John after all!) and 100% Australian owned - the bumf on the back tells us it is 100% Australian made and owned and that the Company has been supplying products to Australians for 20 years, making them one of Australia’s leading beverage companies. It also tells us once again that P&N Beverages Australia Pty Ltd is 100% Australia owned. It only tells us in small text that it is made in Australia from imported and local ingredients.
I’ve also worked out why they’re so good at sport. Its not just that they have brilliant weather, fantastic facilities and a competitive sporting spirit. Its also because their TV stinks! We’ve only caught some TV this week in the apartment, and trust me, even I was beginning to think about taking up tennis! More channels than I could throw a stick at, but none worth watching for more than catching up with the News. (Interestingly, I hadn’t realised that they didn’t get TV in the Outback until the mid 70s). We have been watching with interest the saga of the boat that ran aground on the Reef - someone will have to tell us the outcome as I doubt we’ll have any updates in NZ.
So Australians are proud to be Australian - and who can blame them? They have a wonderful country, we envy their strong economy, and they normally have fantastic weather - they also have a wonderful approach to life that we seem to have lost ... the wonderful Mars ethic of work, rest and play! Yes, we’ve found it frustrating to turn up to places and find them closed, but hey, to me that means the owner had something far more interesting to do! (probably something sporty!)
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Daughter darling
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The boat on the reef
They've arrested the captain and the officer in charge at the time for taking an illegal route across Oz waters and for putting a1km gash in the reef. The boat has been floated and towed to anchorage, tested stability of the hull first! xxx