Ok, a couple of people suggested that I start a blog about our move to Australia. Quite a lot has happened since seeing most of our friends and family in the UK, including a stressful move and a lovely few days in the the S of F. But let's start as we mean to go on and stick to the point; this is about moving to Australia, not about the trials and tribulations of getting away from the UK.
Arrival:
We arrived in Australia on Friday 23rd September. We'd been travelling for about 36 hours or thereabouts and because of the nature of long haul travel we hadn't seen daylight for more than a few short hours in that time. Zach and Penny both managed to sleep pretty well but I only got about three hours. Having said that the excitement of arriving in a new country (and the inflight entertainment system having a few good films and several episodes of The Inbetweeners) kept me feeling pretty alert.
As some of you will know, airlines insist on all the window shades being shut during "nightime", so we had been flying across Australia for a couple of hours before the lights came on and someone sitting by a window near us opened a blind. The sun was just starting to come up, which from 35,000ft gives you an unrivalled view. The sunrise stretched from across the whole horizon and the colours were brilliant. Stretched below us was a sea of greys and pinks that could of been desert or cloud. I'm still not sure.
We landed at around 08.30am, and cleared customs. This is where you start to see the first tangible difference between the UK and Australia; the customs officers appear human!
The first shock of the day was the cost of the coffee, and this has been a recurring theme throughout our time here. I always assume that everything costs the same in local currency as it does in sterling. So a beer should cost 4 euros, dollars, whatever. This is not the case. I think our first round of two coffees, water and sausage roll for zach was something closer $25 dollars.
We got a cab to the motel and all got some sleep. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur but I can say that it was cold! We are in the early spring here at the moment, which is quite a departure from the late summer weather in the south fo France. The next three days were taken up with jetlag and in my case, not much sleep. Apart from that we have started to explore Adelaide and it is definitely an easy city to get to know and it is instantly likeable. One of the real bonuses is the wildlife. You hear a lot of birdsong, the difference is it is cockatoos, parakeets and gallahs! That is a nice thing to wake up to.
Probably the biggest difference noticed so far is the cars. I swear I heard more V8 engines in the first afternoon than in the rest of my life to that point. I would say that half the cars are V6 or V8 with a healthy dollop of seriously loud Imprezzas and old school Nissan Skylines as well. This probably wouldn't be worth a mention if we weren't in a motel next to the main motorway that services Adelaide from all points east! The trucks are also seriously loud and look more like American rigs (think Smokey and the Bandit and Convoy) which for Zach is really exciting, less so for us at 2am.
The real shock though is beer. Firstly there are very few pubs as we would know them. In the city and suburbs at least there doesn't seem to be the same pub culture we would expect in the UK. Secondly the beer is unbelievably expensive. A six-pack of average Australian beer, in the cheapest off-licence goes for around $18 dollars (that is 11.78 in sterling). To put this into context, you can walk into your local Morrisons and buy a six-pack of VB (Victoria Bitter, the lowest rank of Ozzie beer) for less for around 2/3rds of the cost than someone in the country it was brewed in. Finally, you can only buy alcohol in sanctioned off-licences, this does not generally include supermarkets. It will surprise most of you to learn that I have seen more shops devoted to "adult interests and marital aids" than off licences. I'm not joking about this, virtually every local shopping street has one!
It puts to test the myth of the beer swilling Australian bloke. It also raises questions about our attitudes to alcohol in the UK in the past 20 years or so. When we are looking at young people and wondering why there are such problems with violence and anti-social behaviour in Britain we ought to be asking ourselves whether it is sensible that we are able to buy 24 cans of lager for a tenner and what message we are sending to the younger generations. I am not saying that there isn't a problem over here, but you certainly see less evidence of it.
So, to end, I already love Australia and Adelaide. There are a quite a few differences, but nothing truly negative so far.
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