Working 9 to 5 (but only on alternate days)
Trip Start
Feb 24, 2011
1
27
40
Trip End
Nov 24, 2011
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Its really expensive to stay in dorms and since our experience in Darwin where we ended up sharing a room (technically a bed in fact) with a man and woman having sex, we have really been put off them so we are keen to find a house or shared room to rent first. We spend all morning on the gumtree and all afternoon viewing and its sooo tiring. Accommodation here is pretty pricey and we are having trouble finding anyone that will take us for less than 6 months. In the end it comes down to a choice between a room as a house-share with a 'friendly' (read: silent and rude) Korean girl or a ramshackle studio flat all to ourselves. Well, it is technically all to ourselves but it is down the side of our landlords house and the walls are pretty thin and so we are pretty much living with the family, its cosy to say the least. Our bathroom seems to have been constructed out of cardboard as a cubbyhole in their living room with the TV backing onto our toilet and every morning I hear the voice of David Cameron coming from the depths of the toilet bowl telling me that order will soon be restored. Good to know.
The landlord is a lovely man and lets us know that he was in the middle of renovating but ran out of money and that is why the ceilings are not attached to the walls. We are ok with living with this as it is so cheap and it has the bonus of a self washing bathroom: every time there is a storm water comes in through the roof and leaves everything lovely and clean. A great bonus as long as you remember to leave towels and toilet rolls somewhere sheltered.....
Its good fun to stop and live in another country for a while as you can get to know it better than when you are only passing through. As we are trying to save money we have been watching excessive amounts of TV. It is however, difficult to predict what you will be watching as the TV guide really is just that - a guide and pretty approximate at that. Not only will things be shown at completely different times and days from the schedule, they will also have 'unknown' in some time slots and at other times they will show the same program on two channels at once. Pretty confusing. Its worth persevering though as they have some quality TV with awesome theme songs our favourites currently being The renovators and the farmer wants a wife. Classic.
Weather reporting is also interesting. In the UK we are used to reporting being pretty optimistic, so full sun will be predicted if the sun is likely to show itself totally unobstructed by clouds for at least 30 seconds whereas here they will report it as mostly cloudy if there is so much as a light wisp that burns away before 7am. Additionally, they spend most of the weather report talking about what it was like yesterday, about 5 minutes talking about what is happening right now and then at the last minute flash on screen what is predicted for the next 5 days so by the time you have located where in the country you are, its too late but you are pretty sure that yesterday was lovely.
Other than watching TV we have managed to fit in some good city exploration. Perth is not the most exciting city we have been too but it a really lovely place to stop and chill out for a while. There are loads of gorgeous city parks, all the transport within the city is free and there are some fantastic beaches just a short tube ride away.
We did a day trip to Cotisloe, one of the surfing beaches, intending to don wetsuits and ride the waves, unfortunately we realised that rather than paying to get salt water up our noses and have our skin scoured by sand, we could alternatively just buy loads of beers for the same result. What to do? Three hours later we found ourselves laying on the beach, giggling and drunk by 4.30. A bit embarrasing trying to hold ourselves together on the commuter train back to Perth but could be worse....
Keen to soak up some Perth culture, we met up with some friends who took us to roller derby. It turned out as we arrived that none of us really had a clue what it was. Well, i'm happy to report that it was totally bonkers. Basically people dress up as characters from the Wizard of Oz (I believe the theme changes each game), put on rollerscates, whizz round the track, bash into each other, make strange hand signals and then someone wins. Not sure if the win is due to the whizzing, bashing, hand signals or costumes but it didn't seem to matter at the time. .
Actually I think there is probably a bit more to it than my description. They seemed to take turns wearing different symbols on their helmets which at times I thought I had grasped the significance of and there were about as many referees (all in costume of course) as players, so perhaps I have over simplified but I think that is the gist of it.
And for the winners? I hear you ask. Well, the other team have to skate round and smack you on the rear. Now that is sport that is worth watching
Actually, the only (rather big) downside of life in Perth is that alcohol is ridiculously expensive (although if you speak to Tobes he is more upset about the price of bananas). A standard pint of anything in a bar is $9 and as the dollar is doing so bloody well that translates to about six pounds! We have virtually become tee total and are in bed by 9 most nights watching the farmer wants a wife, well they have to find some way to make people watch their crappy TV.....
So, work, well, we haven't done a great deal of it to be honest. I managed a week making the university prospectus and we have both done some transport surveys (laying in the park counting bus passengers for me). The pay is so good (about 18 pounds an hour for temping) that you don't need much and we have already achieved the aim of paying off the car and the visas but it would be nice to have some more spending money so that we could start resuming normal life and drinking alcohol (and eating bananas) again!
