Work in Perth

Learning to Live Again - It has been just five weeks since we arrived in Perth, clutching our brand new Permanent Residency permits.

We have made reasonable progress establishing our new life. The children are now settled in schools, we have a car, a house and a small amount of new furniture. Sourcing a home was definitely a major task and our experience was worthy of note.

One of the first places we looked at was described as an ideal family home, and it was not wrong, several families had obviously lived in it recently, and judging by the state of it, simultaneously. The large colony of scary looking bugs inhabiting the dishwasher shaped item in the kitchen were also quite at home and it was clearly ideal for them.

Another memorable residence was billed as having a below ground pool, this was an exciting concept for us. Pools were the domain of lottery winners and soccer players in the U.K and subterranean pools being reserved purely for James Bond Villains and Gangland bosses. It was therefore a tremendous disappointment to discover the pool was in actual fact an outside bath with a fence round it. Dreams of floating round the pool on an inflatable chair with an elaborate cocktail in one hand, and a good book in the other were instantly dashed. In fact it reminded me of the kind of outside bath that several years of social reform and housing improvement wiped out from the mining towns in the North of England.

So after a hectic start things are settling down now, and I am starting to believe that the constant chorus of "No Worries" goes beyond a mere casual phrase, routinely delivered by all and sundry. I'm starting to think that it reflects a genuine and sincere sentiment, a lifestyle banner to be waved at every opportunity.

All I need to do now is find a job, “No Worries ?” not quite, but I am working on it.

Tim A.