Friday – What a relief

I have a habit of calling things the wrong names. I've been calling my house mate "Jeff" all the time, and was wondering why he didn't answer sometimes. He is a Chinese fellow, and I thought that maybe it was because he couldn't speak very good England. I find out now, it is because his name is "Jack". Oh well, we live and learn.

I work up this morning to look out at the sky to find that there were grey overcast skies. "Am I back in England and dreaming?" I asked myself, but no, that wasn't the case. It wasn't driving rain, and freezing cold, just a gently (I have been here to long) 25 degrees. Will I need my jacket to take to work, I wondered.

Each day is an adventure, out on the motorway (freeway over here. Very Colonial – the other ex-colonies I've been to also call their motorways freeways). There are supposed to be a lot of English people here, but they all seem to have left their driving skills (if they ever had any) somewhere before coming over.

There are three and sometimes four lanes of traffic, which you can pass on either side. In my mind that would make everyone drive at roughly the same speed, but oh no, it is just accident heaven. If you know someone who likes to remove dents and repair accident damage from cars, I'm sure they would make a fortune of cash over here, fixing smashed up cars.

I saw two accidents on the way to work this morning. The nice thing about it is I haven't got anything in my car to be able to help them, so I just carried on chugging along. And then it looked like it was going to be my turn. I needed to overtake a bus, to get to the slip road at my junction for training school, but as I was trying to pass it, a car pulled out from in front of the bus and then slowed down. ARRGGGHHHH, it was a close call, and needless to say, I missed the junction, and the offending car, lost my temper and then got lost in a suburb I'd never been to.

Training went with a breeze. The exam turned out to be a quiz, in the University Challenge style. After that we were inducted into the Union. (It is almost closed shop working here, and we weren't really left with much of a choice about joining or not.)

After lunch (a short one ½ hour) it was more practical assessments, on Advanced Life Support. I don't think I did too badly, and then home early.

Driving home was almost as much fun as driving to work. Only one near miss and that was at the roundabout at the end of my road. I think that indicators are optional extras here, that most people don't bother purchasing, when they buy a car. That is what it certainly feels like.

Friday night I went out into Freemantle to a pub/restaurant right on the harbour front, with Dave, and Katherine (two paramedics from Hove who moved out here earlier last year). The food was scrummy (nice to have eat something other than steak – I know what a hardship), and the drink was all brewed on the premises. I want to call the place "Creature Comforts", but I think looking in the Perth guidebook this morning it's called "Little Creatures".

I hope that I'll get a little better with names soon.