Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowperson
It has the highest skin cancer rate too doesn't it? And it's expensive and, as one of my clients said recently, "they fry everything there."
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Part A: probably true. Likely a combination of climate and demographics... not many tropical places have this many pasty white Brit descendants. You see it on people in the street, and talk to people at work who are getting skin growths removed. A lot of it is the lack of care that people used to take w/r/t sunscreen and proper clothing, but there is also something about the sun (or probably atmosphere) here... if it were a sunny 30° day here and in Calgary, your skin will feel the burn a lot sooner and hotter here. I'm a ginger, so I speak with some authority to that last point.
Part B: yeah, it's expensive. But - and this is a weird thing - every Canadian I know here says the same thing: they have more spending money. None of us can figure out how that's possible. The only thing I've been able to surmise is that the nice weather means that you entertain yourself outdoors... go to the beach, hike, bike, bbq, whatever. Cheap activities. Think about how much money you spend over a winter to amuse yourself and ward off cabin fever (or at least, I did). It's scary. Of course, $0 heating bills help a bit too. Seriously. My house doesn't have a furnace.
Part C: absolutely, unequivocally untrue. Probably was true at one time, but modern Australian food is largely Asian-inspired, healthy cuisine. The good influences from Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam... not crappy small-town Chinese restaurant fry-o-rama.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chemgear
I've heard that Australia was indeed similiar to Canada in many ways, very beautiful. Great for vacations too - definitely on my list of places to visit soon for holidays.
Interstingly I do recall that Australia is also worse than Canada for housing unaffordability. Some of the larger cities have housing costs of about 7-9 times median income ( http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf) |
Trust me, New Zealand is much closer to Canada than Australia. Both in geography and culture. But as I've traveled more of the world in recent times, the more I realise that - in the bigger picture - anglo Commonwealth countries are pretty much all the same in a lot of ways in the bigger scheme of things.
Sydney and Melbourne are insane for housing, but Brisbane was similar pricing to Calgary when I moved here (Brissy is about twice the population of YYC, for reference). $450k or so got you a pretty nice home in the 'burbs, then more spendy near the CBD. Er, downtown.