Paul1Perth

On 30/01/2022 at 19:32, Dusty Plains said:

Be happy (I am) that the English language, world-wide, has many grammatical variations, including vast variations on the predominant vowel bank: "AEIOU".

Check out the New Zealand News hour and vowels galore that just do not work for Australians. Is that a "pig, or a peg?" I am stuffed if I can translate it. Yet these nuances are what make the English language word wide.

When I went to school, if you were using two adjectives to describe a noun then you have to hyphenate the two, or more hyphens more according to the adjectives. So in the case of a blond haired suspect at a bank robbery in Bondi then that person is a blonde-haired suspect. 

Syllable breaks are even more common.

UK: YOG-URT

Australia: Yoe-Gurt.

UK:  Caff ( usually a tea room or coffee house)

Australia: Caffay, given that the word "café" is pronounced given the agrave accent on the "e"

UK: Garage: "Garridge" ( where you park your your car under shelter)

Australia: Gararrge:

UK: Homage:  "O'marge"

Australia: "HOMidge"

and so it goes on.

 

 

 

     

Coming from Derbyshire you could pick which village people were from by the accent. Going to Sheffield on weekends, only a 12 mile train trip, the accents were totally different. Dying out a lot now, Chesterfield and Sheffield almost jouined up.

I have asthma and it's much better here than in the cold and damp of Manchester. I notice it a bit more on cold winter mornings if I'm going out for a ski paddle or a winter swim.

On 22/01/2022 at 09:13, ali said:

My daughter describes herself as a British born Australian 

My youngest with autism quite often nips out to the shops with no shoes on. We often say put your shoes on, he replies Australian Paul.

11 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

Well a few reasons that spring to mind. 

Not all beaches in UK are so great.

The 'great British summer'  can indeed mean a week wrapped up in water proofs looking out inside over a grey sky and equally grey sea. 

Med offers some great deals in guaranteed sunshine and freedom to cut loose for the younger crowd. 

Simply going abroad is more exotic. You may as well ask why West Aussies dominate Bali. Almost an off shore Provence. Is that due to poor Perth beaches? 

Quality of hotels for the price in Bali must be some of the best in the World. Only been twice but the best hotel We've ever stayed in was Intercontinental on Jimbaran Beach. Other time was The Conrad near Noosa Dua. Brilliant and very cheap flights to get there. Love the breakfasts, service, massive rooms, facilities.

Ddon't know when we'll feel safe enough to go again though. Was going to meet my Sister there and then come back here for a few weeks. Can't see that happening for a while. Pity.

13 hours ago, Marisawright said:

But if the beaches of the UK are so great, why is there such a massive exodus of Brits to the beaches of the Mediterranean, many of them more than once a year?

You can't rely on the weather and the quality of hotels for the price is much better. I've been to Weymouth and Bournemouth a couple of times in "summer" and had maybe one day where you could go to the beach. Rest of the time you'd be struggling to find things to kill the time, mostly sat in a pub.

It's different with no holidaymakers at this time of year. I like to see and have a chat with them. Also good for the economy here too. 

Seems not to have affected it too badly though as most people had holidays booked that had to be cancelled, got the money back and spent it here.

My youngest works at Dome and says he's talked to a few interstate visitors lately, nowhere near as many as usual yet. 

Come Feb 5th we might have to get used to wearing masks again. 

4 hours ago, bug family said:

you could though swap the word 'UK' for 'Australia' as it is exactly the same, blazing heat for months on end and if you are lucky enough to find a pub (suburbs) they are guaranteed to be empty, as for saving for the foreign holiday you have the choice of 'bali' or 'bali' lol

I don't find that at all TBH. As far as I see from the people we hang around with is everyone thinks the weathers great, more people off work on holiday, so more people down the beach to train with, pub at the beach is packed all the time, specially during happy hour, same with The Breakwater at Hillary's and the new pub at Iluka. Pubs in the suburbs might be quite, that's why we live near the beach. 

Be a long time before anyone heads to Bali I reckon. 

One of the main reasons we came was to live in a place where we weren't hankering to get away from. We love it.

4 hours ago, bug family said:

Paul Its due to be 42 degrees on Christmas day!...are you really going to spend the day sitting outside and at the beach?.... i would melt 

Yep. Be down early, we have friends who live 5 mins walk onto the beach so we park there and go back to their place after for beers and a barbie. If you're not a beach person you won't realise that it feels quite comfortable as there's usually a bit of a cooling breeze off the ocean. If you get too hot just go in for a swim. Hardest bit is keeping the beer cool and the sand out of your croissant.

Usually head off around lunchtime and spend the arvo at our friends. They've been having a sort of open house for years now so usually get a few round. Some we only see at Christmas.

You realise what a difference the dunes make. You can feel fine and comfortable on the beach, walk through the dune path to the car park and it suddenly feels 10 degrees hotter. Top side of Marmion Ave another 5 hotter, top side of Wanneroo road another 5 hotter. If you live out at say Ellenbrook, that's when it can be uncomfortable.

16 hours ago, Bulya said:

Used to be a fair sized RAAF base.  Not sure if it is these days 

I think it's still there, I worked there a few years ago and stayed in Sale. Typical small Aussie town, zero traffic problems, found it a bit boring but was away with a few workmates who like things a bit more lively.

I would think there's some good bike trails around there if that's what you enjoy. Locals were friendly, like most country places. Lot easier to get into a conversation than in a City.

On 20/12/2021 at 06:41, Blue Flu said:

You are most likely right. I'm don't hold much sway of such figures, bit like Melbourne being termed World's Most Livable City for a number of years previously. But never been to Bradford , the curry enticement would probbly be main reason for it to be a port of call. Although would likely pick Leicester during Devali (biggest celebration outside the Sub Continent it is said) ahead for a curry and sample of English/Sub Continent culture. 

Mate the curries were great in Sparkhill where our crappy student digs were when at Uni in Birmingham. Wouldn't be a reason for wanting to live there though.

On 18/12/2021 at 08:58, s713 said:

Who wants to 'put up' with Xmas? Wow.

After Christmas and the New Year in the UK was the worse time. No one with any money, crap weather for months, pubs empty, everyone trying to save up for their summer holidays in Spain, Portugal, Greece. Adverts for summer holidays started day after New Years day I reckon.

We just embraced Aussie Christmas, weather doesn't get any better, pubs are still packed, difference is you can sit outside, ride around and show the kids the Christmas lights, some people must spend thousands. Long days, loads of time at the beach, meet friends at the beach Christmas Day, along with hundreds of others, busiest day of the year for the beach, champagne, beer, croissants at the beach, walk back to a friends house 5 min walk from the beach, have a few beers and barbie at his, if we have too much walk home and get the car later. Get Christmas dinner over and done with Christmas eve.

We don't have any relatives here so don't have to rush off visiting aunties, uncles, grandparents. Some of the friends we meet have to do that when they really want to stay at the beach and have a beer and let the kids play, but they have to "do the right thing". 

We know some who still do the big Christmas Day Turkey, Ham etc on the day. We scrapped that after the first year.

22 hours ago, Bulya said:

True but he’s only done Perth and it sure ain’t ‘Australia’ if I was an Aussie and moved to say Bradford in England and told everyone ‘England’s a bit of a dump’ people would laugh. It’s just nonsense…

Hope you're not hinting Perth is anything like Bradford.

Watching the Ali documentary at the moment. Very detailed and long but there was an awful lot I didn't know about him.

Good it is though. Used to love boxing back then, when boxers used to shake hands and have respect for each other at the weigh in. Maybe Ali was the start of all the bad mouthing?

9 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

25% is a considerable minority. 

To be fair we watch quite a few shows on ABC and SBS. They are mostly UK documentaries or drama, much better than American formulated rubbish. Their news is dire though. Seems to have got worse since Ita Buttrose has been in charge.

On 08/12/2021 at 05:59, Blue Flu said:

Why so many down on the ABC I don't know. To have a form of media not reliant on commercial interests is a definite positive. Important to have a form of media that maintains a neutrality and airs minority issues regardless of viewing numbers. It has already been brought to heel by successive governments not wanting to be held accountable. 

If they maintained neutrality it would be a good thing. They seem to have swayed so far to the left, woke, PC, anti men. SBS is about the same.

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Ah, but it does. Double the size means double the demand.  In fact, if there are satellite cities nearby, then even more than double.    I can give dancing as an example - there are more than twice as many dance studios in Sydney or Melbourne than in Perth. And of  course, the big theatre companies put their shows on in Sydney and Melbourne but rarely Perth, because it would cost too much to transport their sets etc.  

So it really depends on your lifestyle and interests, whether you find it isolated or not.

Not necessarily. Especially in the arts, dancing, theatre, ballet. There are some very small isolated spots all over the world that seem to attract artistic people. They seem to like each others company.

Perth seems to attract more sporty types than arty I think. I have zero interest in dance, ballet, theatre. Love a live band, usually louder and heavier the better, don't seem to miss out on too much of that and for people who do like the arts, dancing, ballet, theatre, there's plenty of venues. 

When we lived in the UK most big bands only played in Sheffield when we lived in Chesterfield or Manchester when we lived near Stockport. Unless we drove and didn't have a drink, which was part of the fun, it was often difficult to get back home. Here in Perth if something big is on it's going to be easy to get to on public transport and home again.

We've seen more international live bands here than we ever did in the UK and were able to get a few drinks and have a good time.

16 hours ago, bug family said:

I am possibly a third option Paul, in that I did want to come on this adventure...but, Its came with an expiry date, which I set before I had left, I was always going to give it a go just as much as i was always going to return back home...

There's the difference, it was always an adventure for you, which is fine. Pity the rest of your family didn't get the message.

8 hours ago, Amber Snowball said:

I can sympathise, I have sometimes thought maybe I shouldn’t have chosen Australia but not sure it would have been any different tbh. Canadians and Americans are very different cultures again and relative proximity doesn’t mean they are any more similar to the UK than continental europe. The weather and landscape might be more similar but probably not much else, so I wouldn’t beat yourself up about a decision made in good faith, with the information at hand at the time and many years ago.

I have moved to a different part of the uk and I think this is about as good as I can hope for. I miss some aspects of australia but not much. It was a good adventure for 10 years and served me well, last 3 years were more unsettled, but anyway. All we can do is make the best of what we have. I wish you peace and happiness.

We were going to move somewhere, even if we'd ended up stuck in the UK. I had been eyeing up jobs on the South Coast. Would have been horrendously expensive moving from Manchester and the salaries aren't much better down there. It's surprising what a move in the UK could do, if you find a lifestyle you like. I've really enjoyed Michael Portillos recent series walking the South Coast path. Thought I could easily live in a few of those places.

My wifes Sister and hubby live in Tolpuddle, which is OK. Still too far from the coast for us and too quite. They'd had 10 years in Bermuda, teaching before that. 

Their kids were out of there as soon as they could though. One lives in Nottingham and the other now in Jersey at the moment. They did a couple of years teaching in China to save some money.

We feel extremely lucky to have found somewhere that suits us to a tee.

10 hours ago, proud preston said:

@bug family- Well meaning posts have wondered if I’m depressed too - not at all - yet I do have this constant longing for ‘home’. I’m wondering about your thoughts on the mini obsession I have with ‘we should have migrated to Canada’ Some have discounted this and said I’d still feel so homesick - and whilst I can see their point yet ......Canada has the same 4 seasons, it’s the Northern Hemisphere, old buildings, also French, probably similar opportunities to here and it’s so much nearer to the UK. Familiar trees, mountains, lots of hiking in decent  weather. Easier to wrap up warm than try and stay cool. etc. I’ve an old school friend who lives in Catskills, New York state. She has acres of land filled with deciduous trees and gets snow at Christmas- I’ve often thought I may have taken to Canada more than Australia but that ship has sailed anyway as too old to try. 

That was the other place we would have tried for had we not got in here. Both me and the wife love the beach, sun, warm weather though. Every holiday we had we were off to Portugal, Greece, Spain. We had a timeshare on the Algarve for a few years, used to love it there. We were always depressed flying back into Manchester airport after hols.

My wife lived in Canada, Toronto, for most of her secondary school years. She had a Canadian accent when I met her. My son lived in Whistler for a couple of years, he loved it and the snownboarding. We visited and had a brilliant time. 

Too cold for us though. Son came back a couple of years ago, luckily just before covid. We have friends who's son and girlfriend are still stuck there. It's not a place you can save money but as a youngster party central. I've written in other threads about the drug problem in Vancouver. Has to be seen to be believed. Like the authorities have just given up on about a quarter of the City.

We all still love the warm weather, beach lifestyle and being close to the ocean.

36 minutes ago, bug family said:

Not yet ...still stuck in this dusty baron land......but I am working on it, trust me 

leaving here will be both the hardest and the easiest thing I have ever done, literally.........leaving my children takes my breath away

But missing home and being able to go back and start another new adventure pulls me in the opposite direction

I have mentioned before that I am returning but with a totally new career and new work area, (an ambulance trust in England somewhere, think big city), but even though I plan to work somewhere new, I also plan to save up and get a house (deposit and mortgage as I am broke:) in or around my home town in North Wales, so that I am not living and working in the same area on my days off (for mental health reasons due to the nature of the job), .......my point is I feel that I have a better chance of making this work as I am not 'going back' to try and fit into my old life, this is a new life .......and my children, after a period of time (which I have accepted will be very hard)  will also have the chance of a new life and new adventures...I am not walking away, I am simply opening up new doors for them

My job here in Australia really does put life into perspective, when you are around real sickness and death on a regular basis it makes you focus on TIME and how you spend it and more importantly how much you may have left.....

The welsh have a saying

noun: hiraeth

1. (especially in the context of Wales or Welsh culture) deep longing for something, especially one's home.

   "I could not begin to put into words the hiraeth that the Welsh feel for the mountains and valleys of their homeland"

    

   Hiraeth is not something that you can explain as such, you either feel it or you do not, you do not even have to be Welsh or from Wales to experience it, the longing for home, wherever that may be never goes away ....

So, as well as not liking Aus you have a shit job that makes you more depressed.

On 13/10/2021 at 15:41, Bulya said:

Why do so many poms move to Perth?

Perth is not the problem mate. All the people we know who emigrated here, and it's lots, love it. Those people wanting to go back to the UK never wanted to leave in the first place. Wouldn't have mattered where they went, would never have been right for them.

On 13/10/2021 at 12:37, 22B said:

Indeed, that's a terrible quandary. We left Gloucestershire for Perth and our three small children are fully settled into good school and social environments. My wife, her parents and brothers (who all live here too) dislike the UK now and will never go back to live........... But it's all I want to do. I'm a long way off retirement, however, the thought of staying here until at least the children are on their own paths is slowly ruining me. Even after that point, my wife won't entertain the idea. As parents and partners do we simply have to accept that the greater forces at play (being a good dad and partner) mean we put any preferences we might have on the back burner... or drop entirely for the sake of doing 'what is right'? I suspect so.

When you get married everything after that is a compromise. Have kids and it's even moreso.

6 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

I've been to India as well and traveled in it. One of course focus on the poverty, but it is a land so much more than that. . This is unlikely to be so in countries sadly diminished and defined by their poverty, for example Haiti. India  has long  captivated western minds and senses  and changed lives in ways never expected by people prior to going. Such an assortment of different personalities encountered have never encountered elsewhere. 

Try and get the book inhaling the Mahatma. Won a few awards when it came out. Written by an English Foreign Correspondent in India who fell in love with the place. Great book. 

Didn't change my view that I'd ever want to go but interesting.

On 24/11/2021 at 19:09, Toots said:

Watched Ben Fogle's Sacred Isles of Scotland on SBS.  If I wasn't here I could easily live on one of those Hebridean Islands. 

Way too cold for me. Good program though.

44 minutes ago, Dusty Plains said:

I must be the typical new Aussie. I have a small skin cancer on my right nostril and will need plastic surgery in January. I recently had a full blood test and all factors were good except for one, namely that I was low in vitamin D. Weird. 

My wife had a skin cancer removed from her lleg when we'd been here about a month and has had a couple more removed from her back. All non malignant. The one on her leg had been there years and just about the first visit to a doc here he said he didn't like the look of it. Only looked like a small mole but they took a chunk out.

I think all the damage was done i our younger days in Spain, Portugal and Greece with no sunscreen and you hadn't got your moneys worth if you didn't get 8 hours in the sun.