Thoughts and feelings

We've just moved into a holiday apartment for the next 10 days to give Richard's parents a bit of space, the sparkling Shiraz is about to be opened and Rich is taking photos of the cityviews from our balcony to share with you.


So, now that we're in our fourth week I thought I'd give you a bit more of an insight into the way of life here. As expected there are benefits and bugbears:

• Banks. The banks are a nightmare (bureaucratic buggers is what I'm now refering to them as). Nothing is simple, everything takes ages, requires lots of form filling / signing and just to confuse the customer even more you don't have a straightforward current account, oh no.... What to you and I is a current account, in the bank they call it an everyday account, if you want to draw money out of said account in the bank you have to select the cheque account button on the PIN machines. If you draw money out of the account at an ATM (which by the way if you use other banks ATMs they charge you a £1 a go) then you have to select the savings account button and if you use your Debit card in a shop you have to select the credit card button!!? Oh and it took a whopping hour and a half for the girl at the bank to set up our account even though we'd already filled out various forms in the UK to speed things up!
  
  So, all in all, Ozzie banks suck.
  
  


• Playgrounds. They are dotted everywhere, you could almost say around every other corner. All the ones we have been to have been well maintained, no cigarette butts, graffiti or litter lying around. The girls love it.
  
  


• Sand in shoes. Grrr. I am already sick of getting sand in my shoes from all of these playgrounds. Enough said.
  
  


• Coffee. Love it. Now have an addiction that I was just about controlling in the UK due to lack of coffee shops in the vicinity. There are cafes EVERYWHERE here (that really is not an exageration) and 99% of the coffee we've had has been really good. (We like to try it out daily, just to be sure.) The other bonus is that if you sit in for a coffee then it's the norm for the cafe to have a pile of reading material for its customers which includes all the trashy but necessary celeb gossip magazines which keeps me up to date with what's going on! (And it's free!)
  
  


• Supermarkets. Sadly I am missing Asda. Food shopping is more expensive here and as we've only done 2 major shops we're still testing the various brands. (There's no George!!)
  
  


• Fashion. Hmmm. Very variable. We've been 2 two shopping centres, only one of which we've managed a proper shop without children. Saw some very scarey outfits.... I've not yet been to my favourite suburb Subiaco which has lots of clothing boutiques, so that's something I'm looking forward to doing one day. I think Rich is probably secretly relieved about that! (But I will be going Rich, you have been warned......)
  


• People. They are all so friendly and very helpful when you ask for advice and even when you haven't they will give you details of places to go. Rich has been given contacts for two diffrent IT companies who he has been told about him looking for work!
  
  Everyone's interested in you as a person and how you're getting on, probably because most of them are ex-pats! We can count on 2 hands how many true Ozzies we've met since we've been here. We have chatted to people from England, Scotland, Wales, France, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Phillapeans, Singapore. So, all in all it's pretty multicultural over here.
  
  


• Wine. Mmmm. Tis good and cheap. Nuf said :o)
  
  


• Chocolate. They don't have Minstrels!!! So if any of you feel sorry for me, send me a packet or two. Cadbury's is not the same either :o(
  
  


• Eating out. Cheap, plentiful and generally really great food. The portion sizes are huge, so we rarely order more than 3 dishes for the 4 of us. (It's very important to leave room for the large variety of delicious cakes that are available in the eating establishment.)
  
  


• Gluten Free Food. Rich is being spoilt. Eating out is far easier as everyone understands what the gluten free diet means. It's common for there to be a number of cakes marked up as gluten free just in the one establishment. R's dad and I counted 6 different types of gluten free bread just in the local supermarket.
  
  


• The weather. It's coming into winter and believe me when I say the mornings are freezing. The nights aren't much better either! We have noticed that the appartment is much warmer than Richard's parents house mainly because we're in a relatively new building and I haven't had to resort to my dressing gown!
  
  The days however are still in the low 20's, so going out during the day is still lovely. Although it's funny seeing some of the locals dressed in coats, hats and even scarves as they think it's cold!
  
  


• Scenery. There are many beautiful parks and other places all over Perth and as you'll see from the photos, the city at night is pretty stunning.
  
  
• Television. In a word - rubbish! Not that we've had much time to sit back and watch much but it has homed in on what great TV there is in the UK. There is no Cbeebies on demand, Katie still asks hopefully in case I can make it happen!
  

Well, I shall leave it there for now. I'd love to hear your news, so if you've time to drop us a line please do. (I'm missing my Nottingham friends.......)

I'll write more soon

Jennyxxx