Update Australia - personal letters 'home'
Read about the life and experiences of one of our contributors. Whilst we do not endorse or neccessarily support the views of our contributors, we post their experiences here so that you may know what everyday life is all about in Australia.
We have taken the liberty of changing the names and details of people and corporations so as to protect their identity.
January 2011
The world around us has changed since my last update.
Firstly, a year ago, almost exactly, I had my last day as the Manager for xxxxxxxx in xxxxxxxx. Secondly, a year ago our daughter was born. What a wonderful occasion (on both accounts)!
Twelve months later and I face another momentous prospect; my other daughter, xxxxxxxx, is finishing her Year 12 and leaving the house. She is going back to South Africa to spend a year with her mom. After that she plans to come back to Australia to study. It is hard to imagine. I am that age already!!
In the meantime, since I left xxxxxxx I have started my own business. What’s more is that I work from home. Yipee!!
Starting a new business wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but I am so glad things worked out this way. It was ‘hard yakka’ (Queensland speak for ‘klippe kou’) to learn to design the web site and get things in place (Australia is very, very regulated) but now things are starting to take shape and having a client is no longer a cause for jubilant celebration. That said, I still appreciate every client I get.
Mowing the lawn, trimming the edges, cleaning the pool, washing the patio or the car, spraying for weeds, or pulling them out, .... these things have since our arrival here in Oz become second nature. The really weird thing is that, in a way, I am glad I am doing these things myself (most of the time, I guess). It is really very liberating (if my dad heard me now he would have had me mow the lawn all the time!). But there is something about being busy around the house. I guess it is because I never really saw myself as the DIY type. Now I have no choice, and I am glad for it too.
You may have heard that Australia was in political flux as 4 independent MP’s took their time in deciding which way to go between the Liberals (similar to the UK’s “Conservatives” – go figure!) and Labor (similar to the UK’s Labour). Our voting resulted in a ‘hung parliament’ – yes that’s right, since we became citizens in May we got to vote for the first time in a federal election. I thought I’d vote out Mr Rudd but his own party (Labor) got to him first.
‘Liberal’ in this context refers to the party’s economic policies, which supports free enterprise. Everywhere else in the world the ‘Liberals’ are the ones with liberal moral standards. Australia is different, again. So, we had to choose between the Liberals’ Tony Abbott and Labor’s Julia Gillard. Of course I was for Abbott (because he is a conservative ‘Liberal’) – he is a guy with conservative values and liberal economic policies. He is a conservative liberal. Got it? Anyway, Labor's Julia Gillard still 'got in' and that's not too bad, I guess. Things could have been worse.
Apart from that xxxxxxxx is having his “Gemeenskapsdans” in ‘Brissie’ this weekend. We’re not going because I still cannot dance. Some things never change!
Last update: April 2011