Finally, after months of boring you all with our talk of leaving England, we are off! We are now migrant workers, living in Perth, Western Australia, for one year, employment commencing scarily soon (tomorrow). It seems that married life is all about having fun. If only someone had told me. In just a month, we managed to squeeze in an amazing wedding, two weeks diving in the Maldives, followed by a UK tour to say our farewells to family and friends and now this! There were a few tears, especially upon leaving Hel, Margo & Olivia – our dear housemates, but as we made our way through the rain and grey of dismal London, at the start of our torrid journey to Singapore, we felt sure we’d made the right decision. Well sort of sure...bit concerned about the clothes shopping possibilities in Goth-addled WA.
Singapore was as we remembered – a well-ordered but essentially boring, pretend country. There were only two things on our agenda though – have curry, go to zoo. This time, we stayed in Chinatown at a little place called the Inn on Temple Street, which was quite acceptable and rather posher than Little India. Trouble was, it was so hot and humid, and on top of the jetlag, this put is in quite a turmoil. Following a lovely sleep next to a Sumatran rhino, we ferreted around Orchard Road trying to haggle over camera prices and ended up buying nothing. If anybody remembers how Andy suffers with jetlag, I’m sure you are feeling my pain - potentially another fortnight of moaning.
After 3 days, which was rather long enough, we journeyed onto Perth. The 5 hour flight was quite bearable but the timing meant another night without sleep. Not to worry, we thought, as we’d be in a nice comfy bed soon enough! At the risk of sounding like whinging Poms, our initial misfortune in Perth has lasted all week! It all began as we checked into The Hostel. At about 50 quid a night, it was pretty expensive considering what we got out of the deal. We had an agonising 4 jet-lagged hours before we could check in so went on a zombie-mission looking for estate agents. No joy in the housing department, we scuttled off the bed.
The Hostel is directly located on the railway line, it has a tannoy system which conveys messages straight into everybody’s room at all hours of the day, and it is infested with bedbugs. Andy has been bitten quite a lot and believes the ropey-looking duvet to be the culprit. I knew there was a reason I didn’t go near it. So there we were, atrocious with exhaustion and in a 20 minute period, there were 6 Hi-de-Hi announcements, several trains and a cleaner breaking-and-entering. Two boil-washes later, we happily left YHA Perth City for the lovely Emperor’s Crown! Onwards and upwards...
We are now living in a temporary apartment, and by the end of the week, we hope to have found something more permanent , but the rental scene here is quite problematic. Apparently house prices have shot up in accordance with the mining boom, so there is huge demand for rental properties. Still, everyone we have met so far is really friendly and helpful. The bloke in the mobile phone shop said “ah, you too are just so cute,” and laughed at us a lot for not understanding what he was saying. When Andy asked if we could top up our phone credit using a cash-point (sorry, ATM), the bloke said he’d heard of such a thing but never seen it in reality... Ah, the future! Consequently, we were charmed into buying two new (very cheap, quite rubbish) mobiles and we have Aussie bank accounts but are still of no fixed abode.
In one week, we have viewed 10 properties, and out of that has some one hopeful and a couple of not-too-terribles. Fingers crossed!!! You basically phone
lots of estate agents, nobody answers their phone and if they do call you back it's to tell you when the property is to be viewed. This is a torrid process, as there is no limit to the number of people who can turn up. One place we went to see had 37 of us busseling for space! Many of the flats are in the middle of nowhere, some are infested with snakes and many have rude and hideous estate agents showing you around! One old crone even started swearing about how overworked she was and that nobody worked as hard as she did for as little gain.
On a more positive note– the beer is sold in Pints in Perth, not pots or schooners or some other daft and feeble measure, and is icy cold. The weather is beautiful – crisp and sunny, and today we had a smashing barbie in Kings park.
