The other day, when we were at the beach the water was calm such that it had the inviting aquamarine blue-green look one would expect in a tropical setting. No question then, we went straight in, only to find we weren't the only notable species that was inhabiting the water. Yup, jellyfish. These were of the small variety and hard to spot, so most of us ended up stung, but luckily these stings do not elicit a pain that required the urine treatment.
Moving swiftly on from natural treatments and onto a national treat. Australia Day. 26th Jan. Coming from a country where we don't really celebrate a national day (or if there is a national day it is never really given much interest) the prospect of witnessing one abroad is a nice opportunity. Well of course we had a barbecue, and a delicious one at that. Amongst the many activites that are put on, the big thing out here is the fireworks display (or as they call it 'skyworks') in Perth city centre, along the Swan River. It really is a BIG thing, the reason being fireworks are banned expect by the use of the councils. Im told that this is mainly due to the possibility that someone could start a bush fire, to which you can get up to 14 years imprisonment*. Not cool, literally. However because a quater of a million people turned out for the celebrations (Perth's population is just over 1.5 million). Battling the crowds is something I prefer to avoid, and after all Britain do their own fireworks well, so we decided to spend the whole day with the extended family just chilling out.
This turned out to be a wise move, as the weather decided to choose this day to unleash it power with a thunderstorm, my first experience of true rain since being here (though it didn't last long) but the thunder and lightning hung around into the night, so we kind of got our own skyshow from the comfort of the living room with the lights turned off :)
One inconsistency that ha been brought to my attention is petrol prices, on average they are the same numbers as quoted in England petrol stations, which makes it cheaper here (approx £1 per litre) but the bizzare thing is that it can change up or down by 20 cents daily, and some petrol stations do 'cheap days' on fuel. Maybe the UK should take note. But in all fairness in the Brits can't feel too hard done by, as food costs pittance in comparison to here. Par example to eat healthily it costs $300-400 AUD per week to feed a family of 4 (fruit and veg are extortionate). (£1 is roughly $1.5, you do the math).
I'm off to Denmark soon...a place in the south of WA, not a spontaneous trip back to Europe... so I guess I may get snappy-happy (take many pics) and will post them up in due time.
Selamat tinggal
Reference
* bush fire convictions: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s203e.html
No comments:
Post a Comment