Happy Easter Sunday. Whatever that means to you…
To me, this year it means eating chocolate almost a day earlier than I would have been able to in the UK (even if the chocolate here doesn’t taste the same owing to increased levels of waxiness to stop it melting too early) and it means being with good old friends – whether I’m halfway across the world or not makes no difference. It means eating eggs for breakfast that the children decorated last night, followed by an Easter egg hunt in the garden, followed by a walk down to the beach for Dim Sum and maybe a stroll into St Kilda to look at all the beautiful people and the beach volleyball.
I do think people look good here. Less stressed. Obviously. WHAT IS THERE TO STRESS ABOUT?? But also, I have been studying the older Australian woman and I think they look great. They haven’t tried to iron out their wrinkles and in fact they probably do have more lines on their face than the average European woman of the same age, BUT, their faces move and have character and they all look very stylish, wearing younger style clothes and good make-up. They seem to be especially good at choosing the right colour lipstick. I am impressed. Like Jerry Hall says “I don’t do any Botox. I think it looks hideous. I’m going to go for the eccentric, wrinkled, suntanned look instead”.
I was doing so well with my jet lag. It was creeping a little closer to dawn every day before I had to get up and tiptoe around the house with laptop under arm. NOW the bloody clocks have gone back in Australia and my body clock has gone mad again. Last week I had to deal with the clocks going forward in the UK and now they’ve gone back here. Which means that, um, there is less time between the UK and Oz? I think? We’re nine hours ahead now instead of eleven. I think. Not sure. All I know is that it’s bloody early AGAIN to be up and about.
It’s still lovely, lovely, lovely here. What a great time of year to come. Loads of sunshine but not too hot. Temperatures in the mid 20’s. Obviously I have managed to get prickly heat of the chest (or instant melanoma) by getting over-excited at the sight of sun and failing to put enough sun cream on.
It really is expensive in Australia now. When I lived here 15 years ago it was over $2 to the £1 but now the exchange rate is $1.4 (well, that’s what I got at the airport which is the worst place to get your money as we all know and if I’d been clever I might just have got $1.6 somewhere else). I am amazed at the cost of everything. Clothes are a lot more now than the UK and even food seems expensive. Car parking is astronomical and it seems that the only thing that still remains cheaper than London is eating out. It used to be SO cheap to go out and get a fantastic meal here – especially as most restaurants had a BYO wine policy. Even the wine I drink in the UK – NZ Sauvignon Blanc is no cheaper here than in London.
Lynda
April 3, 2010Happy Easter to you too.The clocks changing are a pain aren’t they? At least I won’t be getting up in the dark for a while until winter hits.I was getting mighty sick of it.
The cost of things depends on your point of view, according to your exchange rate, I’d say! I was in England 4 years ago and I couldn’t believe how expensive everything was. We were only getting 42c for our dollar so we were having to add 2 1/2 times to the price to work out if anything was worth buying – it wasn’t! I am probably going again next year and the odds are a lot more in our favour. We won’t even have to double it if it stays similar to now so everything might be a bit cheaper for us.Fresh food was the thing we found most expensive in England. The parking is dear here but you only have to pay for it in the cities. We couldn’t believe how every tiny little village and its few shops had you paying for parking. That just doesn’t happen here. Still, who’d miss the experience of staying in a different country for a while? I can’t wait to go back and see more.
Chris
April 4, 2010Could not agree more about the cost of living I was shocked this year at how expensive things were, and I was there this time last year. I kept looking at things and thinking “cheaper at home” I use to get bargains in their end of summer sale but that went by the board. Do you have any Wiggles fans at home I got some great bargains in K Mart for those but that was all!!! oh and yes my proper Uggs I forgot!!
down sleeping bag
May 14, 2010While this issuecan be very touchy for most people, my attitudeis that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can stumble on. I do appreciate that youve added relevant and intelligent commentary here though. Thank you!