Hi everyone,
I hope you're all doing well back up North -- no matter where you are, I can say "up North" and be right 99.9% of the time because there's not a whole lot south of us, and nobody that I know lives in Tasmania, New Zealand (which is more "to the right" than "to the south"), or Antarctica.
Now that Silver is home
we have all of our furniture
and things are generally pretty settled, I'll let you in on a few secrets about Australia that you may or may not be aware of....
1. It does get cold here. And that kind of sucks. Don't let anyone tell you that it's always hot in Australia because they're either lying or selling something! There are parts of Australia that are subtropical and thus never get cold; unfortunately, Melbourne is not one of those places. The weather is generally milder than the winters in Europe and the US (north of Florida and SoCal, that is), but because there are very few times a year when the mercury drops below freezing, the Aussies haven't been as meticulous about things like insulation and quality heating systems in homes and buildings. This isn't so much the case in newer homes, but in old ones (like where I live and work), sometimes we can feel a draft inside when the wind blows :| New homes are required to have a 5-star energy rating, though, so they are much better insulated -- hermetically sealed is probably more the word. It's my understanding that in the future, anyone who wants to sell an older home will be required to bring it up to 5-star energy standards. Sooner rather than later would be ideal! In the meantime, Silver enjoys warming herself by the gas fireplace when she comes in from outside. It's kind of sweet but in a way, a little sad too.
2. It's really weird to have winter in the summer. It just is. I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. It is NOT, however, weird to have summer during the winter. I never complain about summer, whenever it happens to arrive. With that said, I haven't yet spent a Christmas here so it will probably be a little surreal to hear "Let it snow" and "walking in a winter wonderland" in the shops when it's 85 degrees outside. I'm so about spending Christmas and New Year on the beach though.
3. Melbourne is placed at the top of the Port Phillip Bay, and most of our beaches are actually bayside beaches more than open ocean. You can get to the open ocean, but you have to drive to the bottom of one of the peninsulas (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours driving) to get there. The open ocean is an extremely scary place, however, and I wouldn't recommend going in alone, or at all.
There's even a popular TV show here called "Bondi Rescue". Bondi is Sydney's most famous beach, and the show is like reality TV meets Baywatch. It's amazing how many people risk their lives by going outside of the safe zone or almost drown and when they're interviewed, they're oftentimes tourists who say "I've never been in the ocean before"... derrrrrr... Occasionally they have visiting lifeguards from places like Hawaii's North Shore who talk about how much more dangerous the ocean is here. That's frightening!
4. Australia is about the size of the US, but it has 8 capital cities and about 10-12 major cities in total (depending on how you define "major"), all of which are a plane flight away from each other with the possible exception of Sydney and Canberra. Imagine if the US only had 12 major cities, and the entire middle portion of the country was completely uninhabitable. That's what Australia is like. Thus, there are no day-trips to Sydney. So, we haven't seen much of the country yet, but we will! Our next trip (we hope) will be Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. We'll drive to Adelaide -- about 10 hours by car -- and then ferry over to Kangaroo Island. We hope to bring the dog. We'll wait till it's a bit warmer though, probably October or November would be nice for that.
5. Never say never: I bought a pair of Uggs yesterday. But let me explain! First off, I still think they're the ugliest things you can put on your feet apart from Crocs which beat them by a mile. However, yesterday they were on sale for half-price (the end-of-season sale), and I bought a pair of slippers, so you'll still never see me step foot in public wearing them. With all that said, I am SOLD on the Uggs. They are the most comfortable things I have ever put my feet into, including those water foot massager thingies. It's like walking on a sheep (I guess it sort of IS walking on a sheep). And of course, they are sooooo warm it's lovely. I highly recommend them, for use in the house only!
A few other minor interesting things:
- full-flush and half-flush options on the toilets. That is cool.
- It's very chi-chi to use re-usable grocery bags. Safeway supermarket (along with just about all the others now) sell green bags that you take to the shop with you. They are ubiquitous. They exist in the US, yes, but you only see them at earthy-crunchy shops like Whole Foods.
- Netflix has an Aussie cousin named Quickflix. And Quickflix, for all its wonders, sends whatever movie it feels like sending you from your Q, not necessarily the one at the top (or even in the Top Five)
- The price and quality of fresh produce varies greatly depending on the season. That's fair but it does take some getting used to. Limes go from about $1/kg in the summer to $2.48 each in the winter. It's a little bit of a shock at first
- A lot of our neighbours have citrus fruit trees. This has proven to be quite the exercise in restraint for me (see note above).
