Life In Australia

It’s important for everyone with fair skin (and not so fair skin too) to take on board a simple fact. The UV from the sunshine in Australia will take the skin off you – literally.

People get sunburnt here much, much faster than in the Mediterranean. I’d say the sunshine in Australia is stronger than in the Greek Islands by the same amount as the Greek Islands are stronger than the south of England.

If you expose unprotected skin to the sun for half an hour here at midday here you could be burnt badly.

I’d never been a regular hat wearer until I came here. The first few days here – and ears and nose burnt so badly that the pain was excruciating – changed all that. At this time of year, I’ve learnt not to go outside for more than a few minutes between 9am and 3pm. If I really have to, I wear sunblock, hat and sunglasses and move quickly from one clump of shade to the next.

Fortunately the sun rises at around 5am in summer in Brisbane so you can get in plenty of outdoor activity before it gets really strong.

If you’re coming here in summer for the first time, please be safe rather than sorry. Cover up until you can judge safely for yourself the extreme effects of the Australian sun.

The funny things I read. I was comparing life expectancy in Australia with the UK and a few other countries on this Australian Govt. page.

Our son was born in Australia, so according to this table, by emigrating we have gifted him an extra two years of life compared with if he’d been born in the UK. He can expect to live to 77.9 years in Australia compared to 75.8 in the UK.

He also gains 2 years of healthy life in Australia. He can expect to be healthy for 70.9 years in Australia compared with 69.1 years in the UK.

Why? My guess is it comes down to 3 main reasons:

1. Australians eat a better diet.
2. Australians get out and about more.
3. In our experience, a much greater proportion of Australians are more upbeat about lives. I’m sure being miserable takes at least a few months off your life expectancy.

My honest guess is that it’s probably a better diet that leads to most of Australia’s gain.

A few weeks back, my wife was taking some cuttings to propagate some of her plants. As a once avid watcher of the late and much missed Geoff Hamilton on Gardener’s World, she knew her chances of success would be better if she added a touch of rooting hormone to each cutting. So that’s what she did. I’m pleased to report that her cuttings rooted very well.

Anyone with a passing acquantance with Australian English will know that “rooting” means more than something botanical – there’s a very much biological meaning too. Still, the Aussies don’t bat an eyelid. They still call it rooting hormone just the same.

If you still don’t know what “rooting” means, then trying thinking of rooting hormone as some sort of aphrodisiac.

And now you’ll have to excuse me, just off to get a tub of yoghurt. (Pronounced Aussie style so the “yo” rhymes with “go” rather than “law”.)