Transitions - Running out ofHhotwater

Since we've been married, we've moved almost 20 times and each time there is a transition process which requires time and effort to get settled again. For example, with our latest house, we have been running out of hotwater. There is a 315L hotwater heater but it doesn't seem enough for 5 of us to have a shower and washing the dishes. We've had a plumber in a few times already now. It seems that we are on an off-peak plan which only heats the water during the night. So if we use all the hotwater during the day we won't have anymore until the next day! I asked the plumber whether we could install the electric hotwater heaters that we've used in Thailand (see photo) in all the houses we've been in. He laughed at me. Doesn't seem like it's an option in Australia. I have seen gas ones through Rinnai but not electric ones as we don't have gas. Now a call to the electricity company to see if we can change our plan so that we can have water heated when needed during the day.

Our moves:-

1. Strathfield

2. SMBC

3. Strathfield

4. Croydon Park(Aidan born - 10 months

5. Enfield

6. Cluney Rd, OMF IHQ -  6 weeks

7. Lopburi - 1 year

8. Lampang - Suksawat

9. Wahroonga - HA 1 (9 months)

10. Lampang - Suksawat

11. Lampang - The Lighthouse

12. Thornleigh - HA 2 (1 year)

13. Lampang - The Lighthouse

14. JOFC - 2 years

15. Chiang Mai - Koolpuntville 7 (8 months)

16. Orchard St: HA 3 (8 months)

17. Chiang Mai - Koolpuntville 7

18. Chiang Mai - Thanawan

19. Eastwood

Don't leave your shoes at the door

This past weekend we were at the OMF National Conference at Chatswood. Our two sons were in childcare and our middle son (3 years old) insisted on taking his shoes off before going into the playroom even though the childcarers told him that he didn't have to. Taking his shoes off is pretty ingrained now in his little mind.

The conference speaker, Marlyn was relating a similar experience with her daughters when they went back to Canada. Her father took his granddaughters to Sunday school and when he brought them back after it had finished his comment was "they are a bit disobedient aren't they". Apparently the girls refused to sit down in the Sunday school during story time when asked to by the teacher. Maryln explained that on the contrary that they were being very obedient. In the Philippines where they worked they had to train their children to never sit on the floor at church because it was very dirty with chicken poo and other nasty things (they worked in a tribal setting). Imagine the confusion and the conflict in their little minds when things like this happen on their re-entry.

Reverse Culture shock 2

Self Check out

Taking the frustration out of finding parking

EFTPOS machines. I didn’t use it at all in checking out at the supermarket in Thailand. Cash is still king in Thailand even for buying cars! However, I mostly use credit cards in Australia and when I was checking out at Woolworths for groceries I saw the EFTPOS machine it said, "swipe anytime", even though the checkout chick was still scanning the items. This was new. So I swiped the card and started going through the options. But I got stuck at the last option. It had “Entire sale” or another option I can’t remember. I paused thinking which button should I press. I didn’t know the entire sale amount and it wasn’t showing so I hesitated in pressing it. By that time the check out chick had finished scanning my items and seeing how incompetent I was, she reached over and pressed the “entire sale” button for me. She had a bit of look of contempt on her face as if I was such an idiot.

Anyway, I said my nicest “Thankyou” to her when she gave me the receipt and she gave me a sincere and happy “have a nice day”. Obviously she didn’t know that I was some weirdo out of Australia for the last 2 and half years. This option must have come in while we were away. It certainly wasn’t there before we left.

Just before this incident, I overheard an elderly couple who had lined up behind me, seeing that the line was long, say to his wife “lets go to the self-serve option”. This is something new too. I guess it involves scanning the items yourself and paying by credit card(see photo at the top). I heard rumours about this just before we left so it must have been introduced while we were away.

Parking: One very positive reverse culture shock was seeing thin metal rods coming down from the ceiling at the parking lot of the shopping centre at Westfields, Hornsby. A green light at the botton of these rods indicated an empty space, the red light an occupied space. Then there were helpful indicators showing you how many empty spaces were left and which direction. So all you needed to do was follow the arrows and look for the green light. Fantastic. Gone are the days of spending endless minutes going round and round looking for parking.

Reverse Culture shock 1

We’ll we’re back (in Sydney)! Thailand gave a fitting farewell. The plane taxied to the runaway. Their were blue skys when we left the terminal. We had 4 planes in front of us waiting to take off. 5 minutes later, it was bucketing down with rain, so hard that at times you couldn’t see more than a few metres ahead. With winds up to 100kph, the Captain decided to wait on the tarmac. We sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes before it was safe for us to take off.

The 8 hour flight was not so bad as our two sons slept reasonably well (apart from our eldest son vomiting some flem up). However our daughter (9 months) woke every couple of hours.

We landed in Sydney at around 5:30 am (2:30am Thai Time). We got through immigration and picked up our bags in quick time. Too quick in fact. We forgot our stroller. So it took another 20 minutes to get Qantas baggage staff to go back in and get it.

First reverse culture shock happened at the airport. Lisa was feeling faint so I went to buy her a bottle of water. AU$3.50 (120 baht) for one small bottle of water! I couldn’t believe it! So expensive. Prices seemingly have gone up incredibly in the last 2 and half years. I had to do some grocery and other essential shopping yesterday at the local supermarket (Woolworths). I didn’t buy that much but I ended up forking out nearly $200. That’s nearly amounts to 6,000 baht in Thailand (and a month's rent or us in Lampang). The most I’ve spent in Thailand has been only half that amount for a lot more things.

The second reverse culture shock was the amount of choice at the supermarket. In Thailand (outside of Bangkok or Chiang Mai) there are maybe 5 different cheeses all up in just one small row of the diary section. In Australia, the cheese has it’s own section taking up half an aisle. I felt overwhelmed with choice to the point I couldn’t buy anything. With things being so expensive I didn’t want to make an expensive mistake. The range of food (at this small to medium size Woolworth’s supermarket) was extraordinary. So much choice with everything and so nicely packaged.

One positive reverse culture shock was not seeing a single dog on the 1 hour trip from the airport back to my parent’s house. Also, I’ve hardly heard a dog bark (apparently our neighhour has a small dog though which barks and poos in our lawn). Anyway, I didn’t hear any dogs barking last night and had a great sleep.

I got to see my first Bledisloe Cup (Rugby Union - Australia vs. New Zealand) on T.V for the first time in over 2 and half years. Unfortunately, Australia lost by 1 point in the final minute (not much has changed in this regard).

Anyway, more reverse culture shocks in up coming posts.