So last week I had a short twitter back and forth with Cheesie where I whinged that Japan pwns Perth really hard, but also noted that Perth has good beaches. Hahaha. But anyways later that night I got to thinking about what's good and bad about Perth/Australia, because I do like living here, but there are things about it that I hate too.
Pros:
- Seriously, great beaches. I don't actually go to the beach much because I burn a lot, but they are super.
- Lots of unspoilt natural environment, and very little pollution. Clear skies all the time etc.
- Kings Park is one of the best parks in the world I think.
- Perth feels like it's on the verge of becoming a really awesome city, culture-wise, though it's not there just yet.
- Not prone to any kind of natural disasters. Occasionally there is a bushfire threat, but that's just the Hills anyway. (Yeah, take that Hills, but you're not actually part of Perth in my mind, so feh.)
- People are generally friendly and welcoming.
- A very multicultural society.
- I have a good job and so does Ant! Australia (WA in particular thanks to our mining boom) has really been shielded from the worldwide financial crisis.
- Family is all here, and most of our friends, too.
Cons:
- So damn spread out (seriously, the city is like 100km long for only 1.7 million people; our population density is 1/6th of Sydney's) and rubbish public transport that isn't keeping up with how the city is growing. Bah.
- Cost of living is very high, even for Australia. I think we are the highest now. The price of food is still quite surprising to me.
- The things I despise about Australian culture - basically boganization. I hate that most people don't respect authority, I hate that getting so drunk you glass a girl in the face, vomit and pass out is the only way people know how to drink here, and I hate that people tend to not think how their actions affect anybody else in any way. And the pervasive low-level racism that exists here really gets me down.
- Um, the shopping is a bit meh. This is also improving but it has a really long way to go. I think if some multinationals like H&M or Topshop opened then it would force the market to improve. Everything is quite expensive though :(
It's the second last point that gets me down the most about Perth (I don't know if it's true of all Australian cities - probably.) Whenever I come back from Japan it really hits me how little people here respect social order. I don't really want to speculate on why that is, but it's the flipside of the "she'll be right mate" coin and it irks me no end. I think it's probably more prevalent in the suburbs than the more inner parts of the city where I live, but my neighbours sure do love making a crapton of noise at 2am all the same. Australians are very bad at living in high density housing!
Anyway, Perth is home, and I do love it here.
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