Some General Comments on Perth/WA



So two weeks in, I decided to post a few comments about some unusual things here in WA (good and bad).

1. Everyone knows how to spell my name!
- Over my 23 years, I have gotten accustomed to people not knowing how to spell or pronounce my name. I am used to being called "sio-bhan" and having to spell it out letter by letter. Here in Perth, however, I have not met anyone yet who does not know the name. Everyone at the office knows it, the guy at a winery where I bought some wine knew it, the lady at the phone company knew it. Its shocking.
2. The taxi drivers are useless
- They dont know where anything is, they take forever to show up, they are often rude, they suck.
3. Nothing is open in the evenings
- On Fridays, downtown there is now "late night shopping".... the stores stay open until 9pm! Every other day, everything (including grocery stores) is closed closed by 6pm. Banking hours are 10am-4pm. Only recently have stores started opening on Sundays (and thats a big deal here). I dont know when a person is supposed to run errands.
4. The cross walks are different
- Instead of allowing pedistrians to cross when the traffic light is green in the direction that they are crossing in, all pedistrians crossing in all directions cross at the same time. Which means that if you are trying to go kitty-corner you have to walk diagonally across the intersection. It also means you have to wait a long time to walk.
5. Martinis are A$18
- Seriously. Some places have martinis for A$12-15. This is very cheap and now seems like a very good deal. To be fair, the A$18 martinis do seem to have a lot of booze in them... but this makes them very undrinkable. I would rather have two $9 martinis with a pleasent amount of booze than 1 $18 drink that you can barely sip. We have found that you can get the house wine for A$7 per glass at most places, so I have been drinking a lot of wine which works for me.
6. Its hard to find spicy food
- Lots of menus say that their food is spicy, but it is not. I have learned that if I want some spice to my food, I have to choose the items on the menu that say "extra hot." Even then, its not that hot. At home, I would think twice about ordering the spiciest thing on the menu. Here, I know it wont be that hot.
7. The Australians really do abbreviate everything
- Fremantle = Freo, Subiaco = Subi, Vacationer = vaccie, McDonalds = Maccas. etc.
8. Burger King does not exist
- Its called "Hungry Jacks" instead. Its the same logo and food, but not called burger king. I wonder what australia has against BK

More to come as I think of them

Siobhan

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