Show and Tell

So we had a visitor at the weekend, the lovely Bridget who I worked with in the UK was sent by the company I used to work for she still (just) works for to Melbourne for six weeks, I am assured that actual business took place. So she hopped on a plane and came and saw us at the weekend. I still can't get over the fact that the next major city, with more that 50,000 population requires a two hour flight to get to, Australia doesn't seem so big when reduced to a size that fits on one page!

So around 30 hours to play with then, I set about frantically planning the quickest, most actioned pack tour of Adelaide and surrounds. Then I realised that I was falling into the trap, and forgetting that friends and family really come to see you and not the location. And I also realised that I don't need to make visitors 'get' this place like I do, as if I were seeking their benediction that I have made the right move. So instead we sat in a pub on the sea front and gossiped, and I felt like a bit of the old home had come to the new home.

Why I avoid the English

When I moved to Australia I found this great facebook group ExpatsinAdelaide, where I met the people who have got me through the last two years in Aussiestralia. Now I am reflecting on it the thing I have loved most about this group and the friends I have made is that none of them are English. I have my bbqs with Canadians, Americans and Mexicans (though technically they are all Americans as they like to point out!) I grab a coffee in the city with my Fijian/Indian/Scottish friends. So why not the English? Well it’s simple, they whinge! Within two minutes it degenerates into a discussion on what products you can't get here, how this thing and that thing annoys them, how it’s not like home. Well, that’s the point isn't it? I love Australia, of course I miss friends and family, and the English countryside, but that's about it really. For everything I used to enjoy in the UK there has been something wonderful here that I have found. So while I don't get Robinson's Pink Grapefruit Barley water, I instead love the wonderful Turkish bread that I never saw in the UK. Every day I fall in love with something Australian, and embrace a little bit more of what it truly means to be a traveller.