Living like an Aussie

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We have settled into life in Western Australia and thought it was worth mentioning how we are getting on, on a day to day basis.

The first thing is the Australians themselves. Before getting here I had the impression that (gleaned mostly from sports programmes in the UK) Aussies were a bit loud, and a bit full of themselves. That isn't the case at all; the Aussies are warm, friendly, polite and helpful all the time. Whether you meet them in a shop, golf course, on the beach or public transport they just seem happy to chat and answer questions.

They are often fascinated by the concept of house swapping and seem to think it is a wonderful idea, which had previously been unattainable for them.

The heat here has been pretty much relentless. Every day has been at least 30, sometimes the high 30s, dropping to about 20 during the night. We try to get up early walk a couple of miles along the exercise tracks (excellent, they run for miles adjacent to the sea) followed by a swim in the Indian Ocean.

We are not being 'whingeing poms' about the weather, since leaving the UK we have never been out of our shorts so rather this than the damp, grey, dull days back home!

We have found the cost of groceries to be expensive and whilst you can balance that against some things which are cheaper, you do need to be prepared if travelling to Australia. e.g. all prices given in uk pounds based on the Aussie dollar being worth 0.65p GBP. Due to the floods and loss of crops in other parts of Australia some items are in short supply, there was also a problem with the railways being out of action for a while.

things that seem expensive:-

2 litres of milk 2 (i.e. pounds)
6 yogurts 3.89
cooked chicken 6.82
paperback novel 13.00
large bottle of beer, 750 ml, from the liquor store 3.25, pint of beer from a pub 4.55.
kettle crisps 2.00
loaf of light rye sliced bread 3.04

things that seem cheap or better value:-

public golf course, 9 holes 10.00, 18 holes 15.00
entry into Yanchep National Park, per car, 7.15
Transperth ticket (combination of bus, rail, under/over ground) return family ticket (obviously included 2 people) into Perth from our suburb 5.85
1 litre tub of suncream (slap it on every day!) SPF 30, 6.50
digital print from supermarket 6.5
1 litre unleaded petrol 0.89 (yes, they do have some big cars!)

All this writing is probably wearing thin, more photos coming in the next blog!

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