Photo Rebel

So far I’ve been in Australia for a little over 10 days and I thought I’d write about a few observations so far… in no particular order…

• The homes in the suburbs are on wide streets with houses on each side. There’s plenty of space on the properties and looks like a suburb scene in a hollywood movie.
• Melbourne is quite hilly which is something I didn’t expect. Very nice and varied. Good for walking! 😉
• A lot of vehicles are automatics.
• A significant number of vehicles run on LPG gas. To give you an idea of cost. A litre of petrol is $1.20 and LPG is $0.53 per litre.
• Twice a year, homes can leave things they want to throw away on the verge of their driveway and the council will pick it up and dispose of it. This is really cool. People layout the goods neatly so that passers-by can see what’s there and pick up the things that can make use of. Everything from toys, sofas, washing machines, timber, cupboards, etc…
• The FoxTel television appears to be based on the same system as Sky back in the UK. The remote control is the same and the menus are almost identical. One of the channels is UKTV which has content from the UK TV broadcasters.
• The weather in Melbourne can get quite chilly from time to time.
• Feel quite safe in the centre of downtown Melbourne.
• The shopping centres are awesome!!! Probably the best I’ve seen. You can quite simply spend all day in them and not get bored.
• Nice coffee shops all over the place.
• From the outskirts of Melbourne to the city centre (Federation Square) takes about 30 minutes by car. Within 30 minutes drive outwards, your deep in the country side.
• The country side is amazing! Lots of smaller communities…
• The sky is really blue!! I’ve never seen skies this blue… Comparison below.
• There’s only one mobile phone in use in Melbourne. Its an iPhone! Seriously, I’ve never seen so many people with the same phone. Apple must be very pleased!
• Some days are very bright. I think its because I’m not used to it! I’ll probably need sunglasses.
• Everybody in Melbourne is very friendly.
• The restaurants I’ve been to so far have very nice food and loads of it!!! No skimping on quantity!

This is the photo I posted for Day 11. I desaturated the blue because I felt it was distracting attention from the trees.

Here is the original frame from the camera. Notice how blue the sky is!! The skies here are really blue!

Where Barry and I have had coffee a couple of times. Photo by Barry Johnston taken on an iPhone with the Photogene application.