Australia is a good place to live.

I've been reading back some of my posts , and whilst none of them are untrue , I have realised that I only really blog about South Africa , when I am feeling a bit homesick.

See, the thing is , when things are good, and when I am too busy to feel depressed, then nobody really get's to hear about it.

I thought that it was probably a little unfair to Australia, so in this post, I will list all the reasons why I think Australia is a good place to live.

• The government is actually accountable for their stuff ups.

If they muck up , they get voted out. People understand the democratic process, and they wield that power like a 4 year old with a light-sabre. And I love it. Oh look , don't get me wrong, there are Ju-Ju Malema types on this side of the world as well, and the spats and tantrums are just as entertaining. The biggest difference is the media has no respect for any politician whatsoever ,  and will go out of their way to make said politician look like an ass-hat. Although in the case of Tony Abbott, I think they just cloned Tony Leon.

• Australians have a strong social conscience , and are very generous

It never ceases to amaze me ,some or another bunch of volunteers will raise millions in a single day , standing at the traffic lights with big cans , essentially begging for change. It's possibly because the number of 'haves' and 'have-nots' is not so out of kilter like in South Africa, but those who do have, feel a strong pull to the charity of their choice, and they are usually quite generous. Community effort is no sweat for this bunch. 

• Everyone has Coeliacs - or knows someone, or is related to someone who has it

Strange one, I know, but hear me out. The disease affects 1 in 100 Australians. It's one of the highest rates in the world. I don't have Coeliacs, but I do have a gluten intolerance, and eating gluten free in South Africa , was severely challenging, and very very expensive. 

Now imagine my absolute bliss at arriving in a country with just about the highest incidence of Coeliacs in the world ? Almost every single restaurant has several gluten free options. Italian restaurants almost all have at least one gluten-free pasta dish , as well as offering gluten free pizza bases. Sheer Bliss I tell you. 

Shopping in the supermarket is as easy as going down the health food aisle, and browsing a whole aisle of varying combinations of gluten, dairy and sugar free items. 

I am rapt** with joy when I walk into the supermarket.

  ** Now that's how you use the word rapt ladies and gentleman of Australia

• Daylight Savings

I am going to be honest, I never really gave a toss about this one- and I never really saw the point. I mean , so what if it's light until 10pm ? Who really cares right ? 

Well , turns out , after my first summer , in a country where it's safe to be outside your house for any length of time, having extra daylight hours in summer is incredibly useful. 

I love the fact that I can work a full day, cook and eat supper, and then go down to the beach and watch the sunset before driving home and climbing into bed. And all without rushing, since sunset is after 9 at the height of summer. Yes, a large part of that is because I'm in Melbourne, and we're so far south, the only thing keeping the Icebergs from hitting us is Tasmania - but the point is I love Daylight Savings. 

All this extra leisure time, just because we all agreed to pretend that we're revolving around the sun one hour ahead of schedule for 6 months of the year. Genius I tell you. Genius. 

• There's no such thing as a silent H, or a name that can't be shortened. 

This one just cracks me up. I thought it was impossible to shorten Ryan. Turns out I was wrong. I got an email one day from a Ryan. And I thought, "shame , he hit send accidentally while typing up his salutations" Turns out , I was wrong, he really does refer to himself as Ry sometimes. As do a lot of his friends. No such thing as a name that cannot be shortened in Australia.  No such thing. 

The 'H' is a killer - the rest of the world says 'aitch' when they call out the letter . Australia says 'haitch'. 

Spelling my street name is fun, since it has a silent Haitch smack in the middle of it, and if you say 'aitch' to your average Australian, they will look at you blankly like you just sneezed or something. 

But strangely enough, I enjoy all this cross cultural stuff. It's like being in the middle of an anthropology study. And I even caught myself saying 'haitch' the other day. 

• Australia Post. 

Like , wow! What's not to love ?

1. Post delivered in a day , even inter-state. 
2. Registered Mail comes to your door, because all the Posties ( postal workers) have hand held devices for accepting signatures on the trackable items
3. Parcels come to your door, with the Posties that drive vans. 

Australians think I'm quaint , but when you come from a country where it's unusual to get your mail intact and not tampered with, and within 2 weeks of it being posted into the box that's 200m from your house, anything that works so efficiently is amazing to me. 

When I started this post, I thought it would be hard to find a lot of things to mention, but I've only touched briefly on a few points, and there's so much more that I do like. 

I will have to split this post into two entries , firstly because it's getting long , and secondly because I am hungry and I have 2 marinated porterhouse steaks calling me from the kitchen waiting to be cooked ....