For those who know both my brother and I you will know we are very different. Growing up Marc was really good at writing….poems, stories, scripts for the next Jean-Luc Piccard storyline in Star trek etc. so when the other day he said my blogs were quite good…not only that but funny as well… I was stumped for words. Compliments from my brother come once in a blue moon, so I was pretty chuffed especially as I follow my dad when it comes to bad spelling, bad grammar and anything else related. I was much more the arty creative one growing up spending hours playing with my fimo at the kitchen table. But with all of my brother compliments comes constructive criticism, which this time round was that I should write more about the cultural difference that I have experienced so far….so this blog is my cultural analysis of Australia (so far!) as well as my latest antics.

Sometime I sit back and forget that I am the other side of the world…other than the constant concern that some deadly spider will be under the toilet seat or in my bed…life is pretty much the same. Getting up, working and going out does not vary that much but somehow I thought it would be really different.

I recently did some admin work for an organisation in South Perth and my commute involved two trains and a bus. To me this sounded like an absolute nightmare journey and was dreading my first day of commuting thinking it would just be hours of waiting due to missed connections. But in fact public transport here works like clockwork….sometimes even better than that. I could leave my place at 7:45 and be at my desk in work by 8:45, which was perfect. Don't get me wrong they have delays here as well but because the service is so frequent you are waiting maximum 15 min for the next train or bus. They have a swipe card system here similar to the oyster card and is used on both trains and buses like in London. The main difference is that here it is 10 times cheaper….my journey for the train and bus there and back, so nearly 1.5. hours of actual travel time would cost me 5 pounds in UK money (no pound symbol!) - bargain! The work was basic data entry, photocopying etc. which was ok and the week actually went by pretty quickly.

Going to a private school is pretty normal here and you see a lot of children waiting for the train in hideous uniforms. You also have state schools that do not seem to have any real uniform code at all other than maybe the same type of hoody. Not sure how much the standard varies but from what I have seen it is mainly the white children who go to the private schools and then all the immigrants/aboriginals etc. go to the other schools. I doubt it is quite that clear cut but there does seem to be quite a bit of segregation between aboriginals and the white Australians.

Work in the outdoor shop has been going really well - although it means me working pretty much every weekend all weekend. It is quite enjoyable as you get to talk to people and see where they are travelling to. Most Australians who come into the shop are heading to either Everest basecamp or Europe. When we have customers heading to Europe it is quite easy to help them as we have first-hand experience of the weather etc. I work with 4 other people - a guy from England, a guy from Scotland and 2 Ozzies. There are so many people here from the UK, you almost forget that you are the other side of the world from the UK! I am getting better at fitting backpacks to people -did not realise it was so technical and I definitely did not get fitted back in the UK. Maybe I catch teach Blacks and Millets a thing or two when I get back. It is surprising what a difference a proper fitting backpack can make. I was on a roll last Saturday and managed to sell 3 backpacks and a sleeping bag bringing in around $1700 to the till that day! (our products are pretty pricey!) Whoop whoop.

One strange thing that always gets me is when customer come to pay for their goods. There
are so many different accounts here unlike at home where we have basic credit or debit. Here they are credit but then there are 2 different types of debit cards - cheque or savings. So you have to check which one it is as otherwise it will not go through. You can also still sign here for things and they also have a new system for certain cards where you don't sign or enter a pin but just swipe it through. That might be in the UK now but not sure how that helps eliminate fraud?! You also have to pay here for having a bank account and some of them limit you to how many withdrawals you can have per month. So setting up and account is never straight forward as you have so many different things to consider.

Food over here is very similar to home although some of the products have a lot more preservatives in them due to the high temperatures in the summer time. Fresh fruit and veg is huge over here with the recommendations being 5 pieces of veg and 2 pieces of fruit a day, think this is higher than that recommended in the UK. Luckily I have a local market on the weekends here which sells really cheap fruit and veg and has so much variety it is amazing. The only thing they don't have over here is sweet popcorn…..they only have salted - why oh why would you want to eat salted popcorn ewwwww!!!

I went to a festival the other week in the middle of Perth city and it was really good. Some of the bands I did not know as they are Australian but I was really going to see Mumford and Sons who were awesome. Following them where the Strokes who closed the festival but they played all their well known songs first so half way through the 1.5hours long set people began to leave. The weather was perfect for the day with nice clear sunny skies. The weather lately has been really good which a few days hitting 25oC - not entirely sure how you can call that winter but hey ho!!

Danielle my old housemate from Winchester arrived yesterday so have a jam packed two weeks ready once she manages to wake up….think the jet lag has set in! We have 2 days here in Perth before heading off on a road trip to the SW corner of WA taking in Margarets River, Pemberton, August, Denmark and Albany before heading back to Perth.

There is a newish fitness craze here called zumba which is a mix between aerobics and Latin American dance moves. It is huge over here but I have never heard of it in the UK. We are going to go to a class tonight to see what it is like. Looks like an intense class especially if you are not used to dance classes but should be good although we might not be able to move tomorrow.

Been a bit lazy recently doing my blog but will be better from now on once I have been on my little road trip. Should be good to explore again as getting itchy feet here in Perth. I have made plans for the next part of my travels but will share them with you in my next blog ;)

Bye for now

Rhi xx