Just a lazy Saturday in Perth

[Gizmo]

Yesterday afternoon, despite being winter, it was one of Perths many warm days. I was sitting on the lawn in our front garden in shorts and a t-shirt with our 9 month old and it struck me how very different and very good life is here.

Our front garden has some planting beds, three big trees and a rolling lawn that goes right to the kerb line. The only way to tell where our front property boundary is is by looking at the post box position (its mostly used here to demarcate your front boundary line). In reality though, the garden is one space right up to the road - and I treat it as mine right up to the road. My neighbours are no different. Nobody has any walls, fences or anything of that sort in our street. On our front lawn is a swing-set. It has been there since Christmas last year and it will be there probably until it rusts or the kids outgrow it. It won't be stolen or vandalised, just like Steve's (a Zimbabwean two doors down) trampoline, which has been out on his front lawn for years and years. Almost all the houses in our street have a small seating area in front of their house looking on to the park across the road. Needless to say - the chairs are left there and they never get swiped either.

I sat out there pushing our 9 month old Peter on the swing. During that time, my neighbour (one door up) came across for a chat. My 6.5 year old appeared with our neighbours kid from his house, one door down. They noticed that some of their school friends were at the park across the road, so they raced off (unaccompanied) to join them for a quick play. The old man from up the road walked down to the park with his moth-eaten ancient dog, stopping to say g'day and ruffle Peters hair. The youngster across the road sat weeding his lawn. A group of joggers passed by all calling out greetings.

Not long after, our Aussie neighbours (two doors up) with their kids arrived for a pizza-making evening (we do this together every couple weeks).

This is life here - its relaxed, informal, friendly and safe.

Edited August 12, 2012 by Gizmo

[AndreaL]

Wonderful, isn't it? Much the same in my street, we all know one another by name, stop for a chat and generally look out for one another...I can't put it any other way than life is good.

[Jill]

Wonderful post Gizmo...Yep, have to agree, life is good...

[deroche]

I can't wait for that.

Here we are closed in by high walls and dont really speak to our neighbours.

[JellyTots]

I can't wait. Just this weekend my 9 yo was begging me to go with him for a walk so that he could ride is bike. Unfortunately we had people coming to finishing some tiling and my daughter had to finish up with a project for school and had a couple of people coming around, so I couldn't go with him

His comment to me was, "Well in Australia I can go by myself can't I?" He is going to enjoy his freedom... mmmmm maybe a bit too much

[miraclebabycaw]

as close to Heaven as one can get....brings back so many wonderful memories of my childhood.

[6lie]

I cannot wait to experience it for myself. It almost seems unreal.

[Donovan83]

Ag guys it's not that great compared to Joburg! Just look - I wrote my own story about my life here.

It's a frustrating Saturday morning in Sandton. I've just gone outside through the sliding door to enjoy the sun outside. Thankfully I am in a security complex so I don't need to worry about burglar gates, although I'm often woken up by my upstairs neighbor's gate which she had fitted after she was robbed elsewhere. It's winter so it's cold, this means that there is a lingering smell of smoke in the air from the nearby Alexandra squatter camp.

I decide that it's a good day to go do the grocery shopping. After exiting the secure complex and waiting for a chance to zoom out onto the main road outside (the traffic lights outside are stuck on red for me, and have been since November 2011), I sit in a traffic jam. A pipe has burst and there is a delay. A taxi drives past me and pushes in on the pavement. After 20 minutes (to travel a block - which I would have walked but it's too dangerous as there are vagrants living in the drain near the road, which I discovered by accident on the one time I decided to try cycling to the shops) I arrive at a mall. It's a nice mall, it has a PnP and some other shops.

I buy my groceries, which is an unpleasant test of my patience. The produce is average but cheap. I don't like buying big bags of produce as most of it goes to waste or goes off before I can eat it so I fill some of the plastic bags with what I need for the week and look for one of the shop assistants to weigh it. Nobody is around so I start doing it myself (it really isn't that difficult to zero the scale, push the "tomatoes" button and weigh the produce but apparently this is a job). Someone comes running and rudely completes the job. I get some other stuff and go to the tills and wait my turn. Eventually I go to one of the tills where a surly woman sits. I greet her with a smile and she ignores me, preferring to keep chatting to her colleague. I decide to not be polite any more and just chuck my cards on the counter when the time comes. Her only response is to grunt "PLASTIC?" at me, which I guess means "would you like a plastic bag, sir?" in PnP employee speak. I brought a plastic reusable box thing that collapses, so I say no thanks and hand them the container, already half uncollapsed. This causes mass confusion and hysteria. I show them how to open it and what it is for (put the groceries in it! wow!) and pay. The rest of the transaction happens in silence.

Despite the mall already charging me for parking, I have a dimwit in the parking lot who just doesn't understand that I am perfectly capable of locating my car, unpacking my groceries and returning the trolley to the trolley park without their help. This one is persistent. Eventually I drive off an exercise my skill of carefully pulling the car out to avoid having him arrive right at my drivers side window, hand outstretched for his begrudged reward. "I wish they'd go beg at the union buildings", I think to myself.

Later that evening we decide to go see a movie. Naturally we go to another mall. There isn't much else to do in Joburg except watch movies, go to a casino, a mall, or perhaps to get hijacked if you're in for a bit of excitement. Tonight I'm hoping for just a movie. Driving down the streets of Sandton at around 6pm is pleasant. Many traffic lights are off but there aren't too many cars on the road to cause a delay. After a few near death incidents of taxis and other cars skipping the broken lights (and lots of hooting) we get to see our movie. I'm already dreading the trip home.

After the movie we head home through the deserted streets, noticing that the vagrants in the ditch now have some lights and fire going on. There also sounds like there's music and they look like they're having a fun time - I'm glad I don't live in the secure complex close to this. We try not to stop at even red lights, unless they have a camera on them, because there's a good chance you might get hijacked.

Finally home, thoroughly exhausted after a nice, lazy, relaxing Saturday in Joburg I get into bed and think: what a way to live.

I haven't made a single thing up above... it's what it's like.

[hestie tt]

Try telling that story to an Aussie I went to an Aussie friend's house today and she asked why we left SA? "is it a security thing?" We only had devils fork, 6ft precast wall, electric gate, burglar bars and a dog for security! Other people need more security than this

Speaking with her I realised that the reason my 14yr old son was reluctant to go on the school bus was because he had never been on one Now, 2 yrs later. He catches the bus. miss the bus, take the town bus, walks home with friends or phone mom's taxi, no worries mate!!!

[Gizmo]

as close to Heaven as one can get....brings back so many wonderful memories of my childhood.

This is exactly why we came here. This is the childhood I experienced and the one I could only dream of in SA for my kids. Living the dream now though!!!

[LizM]

ah Gizmo - you made me long for home.

Can't wait to be back and to give my boys the freedom I had growing up and to have the weight of constant "anxiousness" that you don't even realise you have until you aren't in South Africa, lifted off my shoulders.

[germarlou]

Hi Gizmo, Thanx for a lovely post! I can't wait for the load to be off our shoulders. We are constantly alert about every movement, every taxi coming in your direction, every person walking by you or looking at you for more than 2 seconds. I just want to be free and give my son a proper education and life. We just can't wait!