Life – OZTHOUGHTS

Thoughts about living in Australia

We have now lived in Australia for about 11 years so I feel that I can talk about it. The main thought that I have is how lucky we are to live in Australia – it is peaceful and not warlike at all. The rule of law is almost all over the place effectively. There are a few areas were the rule of law doesn’t pertain, but these are exceptions, which is a pity, but is the same all over the world, the only country I have lived were this doesn’t apply, is curiously Botswana, where the cops are totally honest. Mark you, the cops in Angola are as corrupt as you can get!!! We understood that there was a Tariff involved. A motor cyclist cop was given 100 Kwai (the local currency), but a uniformed cop was given $100, and so it went…. Each cop had his price.

Mark you, if you are an indigenous “native”, then you will have it much harder. The way they are treated is shameful, and they figure in the arrest figures ludicrously. Particularly the young.

All in all, living in Australia is an easy thing, generally life is easy, and the government here gives us no end of money (Pensions) after living here for 10 years (regulations) and life is easy. It was well worth the money we paid to live here ($95,000). Having lived in no end of other countries we can confidently say that living in Australia is a doddle. And they speak English, well at least a version of it, so we don’t have to learn another language to communicate which is handy!

Living in Australia is a real doddle, and we are happy to have this as an end to my life (I am now 82), so I have already paid to cremate us when we die.

China…. My experiences there.

While I was working and living in China, I had a number of experiences that were – for me – tricky to deal with. I had all manner of work related experiences and life experiences.

One such work experience was the way we worked in the school I was employed in (Western Academy Beijing – better known as WAB) . As I have said we worked a hell of a lot of hours, much like the Roundhouse Theatre. We worked from about 7 o’clock to about 11 o’clock every day, starting from the Early Learners Centre and working until about 11 o’clock in the evening with a rock show, and in between we had films, and other entertainments. So basically it was non-stop all day long. Sometimes we had a relaxed day, which we celebrated!!!

But generally we worked all the hours that we were sent.

Normally we worked from about 10 until about 6 in the evening. With exceptions!

When we had Pop Concerts, we worked until they were finished (obviously), quite often they were added to by other International Schools in Beijing which was fun. I drew upon my professional experience a lot for these concerts – shades of my Roundhouse days – in was much the same. It was a mix of groups, a Heavy Metal group or a folk group, following on from each other, a real mix of groups! In my Roundhouse days we never mixed them up in that way, we tended to have a “type” of group, so Heavy Metal with Heavy Metal and such like….. Ah Doctor John!

We worked on these which was one thing we did, but otherwise we worked on kids talking or another thing…. We were really impressed by the kids presenting themselves…. They were so professional. Striding around the stage as if they possessed it.

We used to have demonstrations of the lights, in which we had the kids standing around the stage and shone different coloured lights on them. Which was intriguing. We discovered that blue gels in spotlights had a really weird effect. If we shone blue, simply blue lights on the kids, they were hard to focus and the weird thing was that they sort of were hard to see clearly. Odd effect.

So we worked all the hours that God sent, and generally functioned as serious professional roadies, which was entertaining, so the long hours really didn’t matter.

Stange Ideas About The Past

Hi, to begin with I will talk about the past, by which I mean the past that I have experienced, not that one that you may have experienced. I have experienced no end of life, as I have been alive for about 81 years, so I have experienced war, several of them, and peace, many more of them, happily. I have lived in about 10 different countries, and have enjoyed life incredibly, so far!

One thing I have learnt in all of this living, there is no such thing as “my country, right or wrong”. All countries are the same, and all people all over the world are the same, occupied with raising their kids, and possibly doing their work…. So all such things as Flags, and Nationalities are a waste of space.

I have lived, so far, in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia (twice), and England, so I reckon that I speak from experience.

All I want to say, is that I firmly believe that all life is the same, and such things as nationalities are absurd, and National Anthems are totally idiotic – apart from ones that are good, musically. Most are pompous and silly songs praising a land, which is identical to another land. And a waste of space. I have two flags at home, one the Angolan Flag, and the other is the Chinese one… Not because I love those two countries but because I enjoyed living there, and had fun living in those two countries…. I also enjoyed my time in Holland, France, England, Australia, Singapore and all the other countries I have lived in – basically I have enjoyed my life and whichever country I was living in at the time. All of them!

Anyhow, that is my view of the world, accept it or not, who cares………….