We arrived in Perth, WA, at around half six in the morning on Saturday 20th February. Looking through the window of the aeroplane was an interesting sight. Completely different to anything I had seen: the land was red and brown with little dots of green around. As we got closer to the airport, I could see more one-storey houses and dirt tracks leading to and from them. Then the buildings became denser as we finally hit the metropolitan area of Perth. Looking down on the suburbs and the city, the place made me think of the America I had seen on TV – no offence to any Aussies!
Wide roads and square blocks were evident in the landscape of Perth and its suburbs. But the main thing that hit me was the dryness of it all, don’t get me wrong, I knew we were heading for a place on the edge of a desert, but I guess I didn’t realise how different it would be to what I have seen before. Sun-baked buildings; millions of pieces of glass reflecting the sun and the brown, dead-looking grass could be seen for miles around as we dropped altitude and landed in Australia. My first time here and Gem’s second!
After departing the plane and passing passport control, we headed for border patrol and I had brief flashes of travellers being searched for hours on end from watching Australian Border Patrol on TV! I had noted on my immigration card that I had soil on the soles of my gym trainers so we were directed to a different queue where most passengers seemed to be. After about forty minutes of waiting we went to a table and a lady asked us why we had been sent down to her. We showed her the card and gave her the reason, and she sent us on our way without checking our bags after I described the extremely small amount of soil on the trainers. A great waste of time for peace of mind: I didn’t want to be fined thousands of dollars and blamed for bringing Foot and Mouth Down Under!! Gem wasn’t too pleased, mind you.
Walking through to arrivals, I met Gem’s uncle and cousin for the first time and immediately became suspicious of their Southern English accent (they moved to Perth about seven years ago from London).
After an hour on the freeway via a McDonalds for Gem’s cousin, I still kept being reminded of America: the wide, open roads (there wasn’t much traffic) and the huge amount of fast-food joints; ‘drive-thrus’ (including drive-thru coffee…); and retail outlets dotted around every few miles with vast amounts of car-parking spaces.
We arrived at our new home (for about 5½ months) and after been given a tour of the place, we headed off to a patisserie across the road that is famous in Perth for serving some great pastries and cakes. ‘We’ included us two and Gem’s Grandpa, Jim and we thoroughly enjoyed our croissants and coffee before going to the Lakeside Shopping – we always like to do something different when we travel.
(The picture above shows the patisserie across the road from our house)
For the next couple of hours we wondered around the shopping centre and then Gem and I had a quick walk around the centre of Joondalup ‘city’ (they have a few ‘cities’ dotted around the metro area of Perth that aren’t the size of cities as we know them, more like suburbs of cities – like Wincobank and Beighton back in good, old Sheffield). As we walked I had a mix of emotions: I was nervous about living here for a few months – would I find a job and would I like it here? And I also looked forward to being in Perth with the nice weather; Indian Ocean so close by; and the chance to sample life somewhere else.
Wide roads and square blocks were evident in the landscape of Perth and its suburbs. But the main thing that hit me was the dryness of it all, don’t get me wrong, I knew we were heading for a place on the edge of a desert, but I guess I didn’t realise how different it would be to what I have seen before. Sun-baked buildings; millions of pieces of glass reflecting the sun and the brown, dead-looking grass could be seen for miles around as we dropped altitude and landed in Australia. My first time here and Gem’s second!
After departing the plane and passing passport control, we headed for border patrol and I had brief flashes of travellers being searched for hours on end from watching Australian Border Patrol on TV! I had noted on my immigration card that I had soil on the soles of my gym trainers so we were directed to a different queue where most passengers seemed to be. After about forty minutes of waiting we went to a table and a lady asked us why we had been sent down to her. We showed her the card and gave her the reason, and she sent us on our way without checking our bags after I described the extremely small amount of soil on the trainers. A great waste of time for peace of mind: I didn’t want to be fined thousands of dollars and blamed for bringing Foot and Mouth Down Under!! Gem wasn’t too pleased, mind you.
Walking through to arrivals, I met Gem’s uncle and cousin for the first time and immediately became suspicious of their Southern English accent (they moved to Perth about seven years ago from London).
After an hour on the freeway via a McDonalds for Gem’s cousin, I still kept being reminded of America: the wide, open roads (there wasn’t much traffic) and the huge amount of fast-food joints; ‘drive-thrus’ (including drive-thru coffee…); and retail outlets dotted around every few miles with vast amounts of car-parking spaces.
We arrived at our new home (for about 5½ months) and after been given a tour of the place, we headed off to a patisserie across the road that is famous in Perth for serving some great pastries and cakes. ‘We’ included us two and Gem’s Grandpa, Jim and we thoroughly enjoyed our croissants and coffee before going to the Lakeside Shopping – we always like to do something different when we travel.
(The picture above shows the patisserie across the road from our house)For the next couple of hours we wondered around the shopping centre and then Gem and I had a quick walk around the centre of Joondalup ‘city’ (they have a few ‘cities’ dotted around the metro area of Perth that aren’t the size of cities as we know them, more like suburbs of cities – like Wincobank and Beighton back in good, old Sheffield). As we walked I had a mix of emotions: I was nervous about living here for a few months – would I find a job and would I like it here? And I also looked forward to being in Perth with the nice weather; Indian Ocean so close by; and the chance to sample life somewhere else.
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