Experiences

Sunday, Apr. 17, 2011 - 4:24 p.m.

My stay in Perth continues apace. Everybody has been utterly tolerant and wonderful.

There are a couple of interesting things I didn't learn by my reading that I found out firsthand:

1. In Australia, it's okay not to leave a gratuity for a service person. In fact, it's seen as borderline insulting, and a tip can be seen as a gesture of pity of condescension, as if to say poor thing, you can't possibly be making enough money at this job you actually chose to undertake. In tourist areas, this outlook has softened slightly, but frankly, on an economic basis, it's been a real advantage to see this place with a local.

2. Where we Americans only have granulated white sugar and once in awhile brown sugar in our cupboards every day, Australians will have three or more sugars at hand for cooking and beverages, because Australia is one of the largest sugar producers on the planet, and most of them have tasted more than two kinds of sugar. Paul's pointed me to the plain old classic granulated sugar and turned me loose, but I'm eager to find out the subtleties.

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Here's some pictures; there will be more.

First, this is the Stop Sign out in front of the place you turn off to get to the hotel I stayed in on the night I arrived:

If you can see, the lettering was applied by hand, which means somebody in the dark of night hung their arse out in the wind and took their time to do this.

Next, here's a picture of Hay Street, which is the main part of Perth's Central Business District:

It's very pedestrian-friendly, and best of all for me, there's lots of shade.

The day we happened to be there, there was a protest against the treatment of Australian Aboriginals while in police custody:

Paul tells me that the situation with the police here is really bad. There are instances of things like aboriginal work crews left locked in the transport vans for three hours in the heat, killing most or all of them, and obvious beating victims' deaths listed as suicides.

I'm now at the home of Scott and Tamara, where Paul has been living for the last couple of years. His housemates are jovial and welcoming, and I am enjoying my time here. The weather here is what I call Yuba City Hot, and I'm still adjusting to the time change because I tend to droop slightly when it's early in the morning my time, but overall, it's been a very enjoyable adventure so far.

That's it for now. See you next time.

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