Some Random Perth Thoughts
It got pretty toasty here this past weekend, hitting 36 degrees. The nice thing about Perth though is that there's usually a good sea breeze that reaches 5-6 km inland, and also the river is big enough that if you're anywhere near that you also will pick up a breeze.
We've been slowly discovering all that this supposedly sleepy town has to offer, which is quite a lot. One neat feature is that there are millions of play parks. So pretty much anywhere you are the kiddies can find a place to play. Many of them are shaded too, which is nice since the equipment gets too bloody hot otherwise.
We've also taken quite a shine to the Perth zoo which is very good - not overwhelmingly large but quite thoughtfully put together. Last week we also went to AQWA which is the acronym for the Aquarium of Western Australia. Again, it's not a huge thing but it is very thoughtfully put together and quite captivating - very well set up for the kids. We're finding that there's lots for the kiddies to do here.
And the beach...the glorious, beautiful, white-sanded, turquoise-blue Indian Ocean. We've only been twice, but each time I've been blown away by how marvellous the water is - it is SO clear! The temperature is quite nice too - cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough that once you're in for 30 seconds you forget you're even in the water. We've only been to one beach so far, but there's about 20 to choose from all within an hour's drive up or down the coast.
Regarding flora and fauna I have to say we still feel like tourists (at least I do) because we're often gazing about in awe at lemon trees, palm trees, beautiful flowering trees, etc. I still haven't gotten used to the wild parrots either - very beautiful, but also very squawky! I've spotted my first kookaburra, and I also quite like the crows here - they look the same as any old crow, but here in WA (by the way, nobody here calls it "Western Australia" - it's "WA") they sound like wounded cats or sick babies. In fact, many times in my first days here I often thought Lucy was making some strange noise and it would turn out to be the crows. But the topper has to be the dolphins. I've spotted them 4 times, frolicking in the Swan River...a few times on my way home from work on the ferry, and another time with Joely at a park near the river. One time all of us were out on the ferry dock watching them and they couldn't have been more than 6 m away. In fact, just tonight I saw three of them, causing a bit of splash and tossing some (unfortunate) fish up in the air.
Housing....oy. That one has been a challenge. I'm happy to report that finally, a few days ago we secured a rental house (with a pool too!). The real estate market here has gone crazy in the past year or so. Perth has went from one of the most affordable cities in terms of housing to I think possibly one of the most expensive, all because of the huge economic boom that is being driven by natural resources here. It's a lot like Calgary back home. So definitely one thing that we're definitely not a fan of is how fierce the market is here.
Other than that we like it quite a bit. There's niggling things like the fact that most everything is more expensive (bananas!! they are literally $2-3 per banana here, because of the hurricane several months ago in Queensland), and we're also adjusting to the fact that Perth pretty much shuts down after noon on Saturday - in that regard we find it a lot like Canada about 20 years ago. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just different.
Now that we've got the housing sorted, we can get rid of that stress. Unfortunately, we can't move in until the 29th, so it will still be a week or so until I can get some of the pics I've been snapping posted.
We've been slowly discovering all that this supposedly sleepy town has to offer, which is quite a lot. One neat feature is that there are millions of play parks. So pretty much anywhere you are the kiddies can find a place to play. Many of them are shaded too, which is nice since the equipment gets too bloody hot otherwise.
We've also taken quite a shine to the Perth zoo which is very good - not overwhelmingly large but quite thoughtfully put together. Last week we also went to AQWA which is the acronym for the Aquarium of Western Australia. Again, it's not a huge thing but it is very thoughtfully put together and quite captivating - very well set up for the kids. We're finding that there's lots for the kiddies to do here.
And the beach...the glorious, beautiful, white-sanded, turquoise-blue Indian Ocean. We've only been twice, but each time I've been blown away by how marvellous the water is - it is SO clear! The temperature is quite nice too - cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough that once you're in for 30 seconds you forget you're even in the water. We've only been to one beach so far, but there's about 20 to choose from all within an hour's drive up or down the coast.
Regarding flora and fauna I have to say we still feel like tourists (at least I do) because we're often gazing about in awe at lemon trees, palm trees, beautiful flowering trees, etc. I still haven't gotten used to the wild parrots either - very beautiful, but also very squawky! I've spotted my first kookaburra, and I also quite like the crows here - they look the same as any old crow, but here in WA (by the way, nobody here calls it "Western Australia" - it's "WA") they sound like wounded cats or sick babies. In fact, many times in my first days here I often thought Lucy was making some strange noise and it would turn out to be the crows. But the topper has to be the dolphins. I've spotted them 4 times, frolicking in the Swan River...a few times on my way home from work on the ferry, and another time with Joely at a park near the river. One time all of us were out on the ferry dock watching them and they couldn't have been more than 6 m away. In fact, just tonight I saw three of them, causing a bit of splash and tossing some (unfortunate) fish up in the air.
Housing....oy. That one has been a challenge. I'm happy to report that finally, a few days ago we secured a rental house (with a pool too!). The real estate market here has gone crazy in the past year or so. Perth has went from one of the most affordable cities in terms of housing to I think possibly one of the most expensive, all because of the huge economic boom that is being driven by natural resources here. It's a lot like Calgary back home. So definitely one thing that we're definitely not a fan of is how fierce the market is here.
Other than that we like it quite a bit. There's niggling things like the fact that most everything is more expensive (bananas!! they are literally $2-3 per banana here, because of the hurricane several months ago in Queensland), and we're also adjusting to the fact that Perth pretty much shuts down after noon on Saturday - in that regard we find it a lot like Canada about 20 years ago. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just different.
Now that we've got the housing sorted, we can get rid of that stress. Unfortunately, we can't move in until the 29th, so it will still be a week or so until I can get some of the pics I've been snapping posted.
posted by chrismarkbye @ 22.12.06
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