I don’t have much to report with our trip in Sydney. I did get my boat license and got 100% on the test. Instead here is some differences I have noticed since living in Australia

Rules

It feels like there are more rules in Australia. More like a nanny state. It’s not that there are more rules and laws it is just enforced a lot more here with no margin for human error.

Paperwork

Almost anything you want to do paperwork wise you can pay a company to do it for you. I can see why they exist, it is rather complicated a lot of this. Applying to get a medicare card was not straightforward and I won’t know if I have it until another 2-6 weeks. Apparently they show up in the mail or you may hear from them if they need something else!

Food

Fresh meat and vegetables are for the most part cheaper. Also it is a lot warmer climate here so items like fruit are easy to grow making it more accessible. But just like us imported food costs more or out of season items like at the moment Tomatoes and imported kiwifruit.

I have noticed processed foods like chocolate, biscuits, potato chips are more expensive here. A bag of potato chips is $6 not on special. Things like scotch fingers are $3.30 here where they are more like $3 at home. Plus we have about 80c to the Australian dollar at the moment. Even some foods like pasta can be more expensive. It is nice having cheaper fruit and vegetables for the most part but there are still some pricey things like capsicum is nearly $7 each ouch!

Eating out is about the same price. I haven’t been to a fast food chain since being here so I can’t speak as to the difference in takeaways.

Medical

Rowan has been seeing a GP and anything that can move onto a specialist it does. The GP is like the gateway to get something solved. The GP doesn’t offer much advice and everything is worded carefully. I am not sure if this is because they can sue over here or just the way the system works. So Rowan went in the first time a few weeks ago. He got 5 referrals for different things. Looks like ADHD part is going to be a costly nightmare. Anyway he went off for a blood tests and then had another appointment with the doctor to talk about the results a little but he practically told us to go Google the results and referred Rowan to have a scan and onto a liver specialist. When I asked him about getting my IUD replaced as it is due he was shocked to hear that in NZ the nurses put it in for me and would have taken it out. I think he was most shocked they did it with no anaesthetic. He said I would need to see a gynaecologist.

Smoking

I wish we had followed Australia and banned vaping. It would be near impossible to do it now. I have needed to get used to the odd whiff of a cigarette. It is foreign and I have gotten used to some bubblegum monstrosity instead. I don’t see vapes on the ground but plenty of butts. Smoking is still around but much like I remember before vaping, it isn’t cool, it isn’t socially acceptable and it’s not cheap. Vaping is only prescribed if you’re trying to get off cigarettes just like patches or gum.