In Australia at the moment, and a post about how I like it is long overdue. I seem to be spending all my time either on, next to or in the water – pretty amazing for a woman that hates sand, dislikes salt water and tries to stay out of the sun. Beach life is so integral to our Australian experience that I’ve had to give over and get salty, sweaty and sandy. The good thing is that Aussy beaches have sweet-water showers, so my problems are surmountable.

As a nation, Australians are fascinated by water – rainfall,  how many millimeters, how many millimeters they should have had, when to water lawns and gardens. Always going to the beach to go surfing, snorkeling, swimming, diving, boating, fishing, rowing. You name it, they do it. They prefer to live on Ocean Drive and consider a good view to be a view over water,  be it lake, river, stream, sea or ocean. Anyways, I’ve got the message: Water is Life.

Another thing Australian is their worry of being worried. Every other sentence is ended by ‘no worries’, or even better ‘no worries, mate’. Where did the national preoccupation with (not) being worried come from? Australia is the most laid-back country we’ve visited so far. In fact, so sunny is its weather and so friendy are its people and so spaceous is its space that I would seriously consider emigrating – if I did not have my roots so firmly planted in Dutch soil, that is.