Australia is at the end of the world!

I love to tell a “bon mot” from the very beginning of the European unity formation. In 1961, de Gaulle, Eisenhower and Churchill organize the first summit to start a commune economy for France, West-Germany and England. At the last minute Churchill cancel his venue because a storm is blowing in his country. Listening to this new, Charles de Gaulle says: “Of course, British people have storms, they live on an island!” Those words, describing a geographic situation that everybody knew, told by the French president in this context were dramatic. He just decided that European politic would be based in Bonn and Paris and that London would be only a satellite of it. Fifty years later, almost nothing changed, they still have storms in England!

First the coins, left you’ve got the two dollars coins and they are twice smaller as the one dollar coins. It’s getting worse two dollars are physically a quarter of a fifty cent coin and the same size as a five cent coin!

Money is a basic sign of national identity so we do respect this different detail and sometimes the Australians are not rude so, when you want to pay, you just have to take all your coins in your hand and they pick what they need. Not a big deal!

But much more life endangering is the way they drive cars; they drive on the left side! How is this possible? If you are lucky they write on the street “Look right”, “Look left”, but sometimes nothing is written and then you turn desperately in every direction your head, you try also to hear if a car could come and then you just run because the danger is everywhere. This nonsense can happen only on an island. When right is right then left must be wrong!

I wrote already how annoyed I was by the higher prices but now I discovered how amazed I could be by all the free things; and it is for sure a much more positive way of thinking!

- First, there is clean toilet for free everywhere. I mean really free, nobody waiting with a little plate telling you how respectful it would be to leave him fifty cents. I drink too much tea and I find myself permanently in very embarrassing situation in public. Here, “No worries”! there is always in the next 500 meters a Female and Male facilities possibility. I love the Male Call!

- Then the museums. If twenty five dollars are a normal entrance fee, there is often a free admission part, or a free admission day which is very enjoyable, let’s say “Lovely”!

- Then the tip. When tip is not forbidden, it doesn’t look like obligatory. Of course when almost everywhere they give you some blinking pager to pick up yourself your dish when it is ready, the idea of service must be a bit different. I don’t mind, I love to sneak in professional kitchens to see how they work!

Of course there is plenty of others that I‘ve already discovered and some I didn’t but this is not the point, it is all about the awareness of it. Why can’t I see the Fantastique when it is all around?

It is a lot of work, they live at the end of the world!