Melbourne Musings

Some random thoughts and observations on life here...

Fences - Every house has a fence on all four sides. And not little knee high numbers, we're talking 4 - 6 feet high with little to no visibility through the fence. It seems they value their privacy above estetics.

Prices - Things here cost exactly what they say they cost...no PST, no GST. No Pennies. If lunch cost 8.50 then lunch costs 8.50. Not 9.13, 8.50. Things definitely seem more expensive here when you look at the price, but when you realize you don't have to add 15% to it, it's not that bad.

Beggers - There are no panhandlers downtown. I asked about this and was told an Australian is more likely to tell you to F$%^ off as to give you money.

Sliding Doors - There are automatic sliding doors everywhere. Not exactly sure why yet, but it reminds me of Star Trek.



Washrooms - There are permanent public toilets here in parks and on street corners. They have the requisite power sliding doors, muzac when you enter, and various other novel features. Very civilized.

Parks - Parks here are impressive to say the least. The city is divided up into suburbs each with it's own council. The councils try to outdo each other with thier park/play structure in order to attract people to their suburb. They put the parks in Canada to shame.



Lunch - Everyone here goes out for lunch. They take a full hour and eat what we would consider a large dinner. No eating a small sandwich at your desk and working through lunch here.

Chicken - They seem to love their chicken here. They have restaurants devoted to nothing but chicken. They have chicken steak, they have chicken flavoured potatoe chips.

TV - Most people here do not have cable. If you look up above the houses you'll see a sea of ariels. With that you get between 5 and 9 channels. There are a few major networks here and it seems most people make due with that. If you live in the city cable is available but it seems to not be the norm to have your house already fitted with it.

A/C and Heat - Air conditioning here is not that big a thing, I guess locals are accustomed to the heat. Most houses make due with a window unit for each floor. Some of the fancier places do have central air. They look at heating like we look at air conditioning. Space heaters, gas heaters..they are a luxury appliance here. The cafes break out space heaters for the patios at lunch when the temperature is around 10 - 15 degrees.