It's Thursday June 16th, the fourth day in a row of rainy weather. Farmers all over WA are delighted since their crops will grow better and their livestock won't suffer. My neighbor's parents, who own a farm about an hour's drive north of Perth, have been paying $1,000 per week to have water trucked in for their cattle and for home use. I expect a big thank you from them all -- it was our shattered windshield that triggered the storms, I'm sure. :-)
Cold, wet weather makes me want to cook comfort food, like beef stew and cornbread. My recent marketing brought to mind several observations about things that are really good about living in Perth.
** Car insurance is really cheap compared to Houston. $584 for a whole year, and that's for the super premium version. Only $300 deductible (they call it "excess" here) and the service is fabulous. It only took one phone call to report my incident and they arranged everything else. The problem was fixed within a couple of days. The glazier actually came to my home and did the work on the spot.
** There is no tipping here. When you eat at a restaurant, the price you pay is all you pay. Granted, it costs a bundle to eat out, but servers are paid a living wage (approx. $20 per hour) and don't expect gratuities. I thought this would mean that service is poor, but it doesn't. These kinds of jobs are highly sought after and people work to keep them. Great service and no need to leave a tip - wow.
** Golf is incredibly inexpensive. On weekends it costs $20 per person and only $15 per person on weekdays. The courses are beautiful and well designed. I'm going to get in as much golf as I can in the next 2-1/2 years! In theory, I could golf every day...
** The price on the tag is what you pay. No extras. I LOVE this. It makes it easy to figure out whether I can truly afford something or not. How does this work? There's no sales tax here. Well actually there is, and it's called GST, but it's already included in the price of whatever you buy.
** And my favorite thing... non-food items in the grocery store cost the same as they do elsewhere. Such a balm to my pet-peeved soul, which always hated that a tube of toothpaste at HEB or Kroger costs twice as much as it does at Target. Now I don't have to make a separate trip to buy cleaning products, lotion and shampoo, or nail polish. I can get it all at my local Coles or Woolies.
Writing about this has put me in a most cheerful mood. Who cares about a little rain? See you tomorrow for Day #5. Yup, I'll probably winge (complain) about a few not-so-great things in Perth, but I'll be sure to include some good things too. Until then, cheers!
Cold, wet weather makes me want to cook comfort food, like beef stew and cornbread. My recent marketing brought to mind several observations about things that are really good about living in Perth.
** Car insurance is really cheap compared to Houston. $584 for a whole year, and that's for the super premium version. Only $300 deductible (they call it "excess" here) and the service is fabulous. It only took one phone call to report my incident and they arranged everything else. The problem was fixed within a couple of days. The glazier actually came to my home and did the work on the spot.
** There is no tipping here. When you eat at a restaurant, the price you pay is all you pay. Granted, it costs a bundle to eat out, but servers are paid a living wage (approx. $20 per hour) and don't expect gratuities. I thought this would mean that service is poor, but it doesn't. These kinds of jobs are highly sought after and people work to keep them. Great service and no need to leave a tip - wow.
** Golf is incredibly inexpensive. On weekends it costs $20 per person and only $15 per person on weekdays. The courses are beautiful and well designed. I'm going to get in as much golf as I can in the next 2-1/2 years! In theory, I could golf every day...
** The price on the tag is what you pay. No extras. I LOVE this. It makes it easy to figure out whether I can truly afford something or not. How does this work? There's no sales tax here. Well actually there is, and it's called GST, but it's already included in the price of whatever you buy.
** And my favorite thing... non-food items in the grocery store cost the same as they do elsewhere. Such a balm to my pet-peeved soul, which always hated that a tube of toothpaste at HEB or Kroger costs twice as much as it does at Target. Now I don't have to make a separate trip to buy cleaning products, lotion and shampoo, or nail polish. I can get it all at my local Coles or Woolies.
Writing about this has put me in a most cheerful mood. Who cares about a little rain? See you tomorrow for Day #5. Yup, I'll probably winge (complain) about a few not-so-great things in Perth, but I'll be sure to include some good things too. Until then, cheers!
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