28 Days Later

  "Yeah, we're really close to the city, just 40 minutes straight down the freeway." - Excerpt from #theshitthatperthpeoplesay

Going back to little P. Town is like trying to fit into old clothing that you've outgrown; They're familiar, and you know they use to fit you, but now, they're just too tight and not really your style any more.

Every time I come back to Perth, I feel like I've been transported into something like 28 Days Later; Apocalypitcal end of the world senario - deserted town, minus the zombies. The city always seems disconcertingly empty, and I can't figure out whether it is because:
a) I'm always visiting around public holidays, and there's been a mass exodus out of town, or;
b) There really isn't anyone in town....

My Perthian friends reassure me that peak hour is a nigthmare. I'm unsure whether we're still talking the same language as in when a 25 minute journey becomes a 2 hour car park ride on the freeway. You know, it's sort of like the "traffic jam" in little M. town, back in the days of working in Ireland. It use to take ten minutes to drive to work in peak hour traffic. And then another ten minutes more, when the gardai would decide to turn off the traffic lights due to a) heavy rain b) flooding c) freak weather conditions (okay, what I really mean is torrential rain), as they figured it would somehow make the traffic flow faster. 

Go figure.

It's a bit strange coming back to a place that you've been out of for a while. I feel like I've been rediscovering things I already knew but had forgotten that I knew.

Familiar and yet unfamiliar, these are just a few things that I've re-learnt this Easter weekend:


1) Meat straight out of the freezer will defrost in about an hour and a half.
2) Hardly anything is open on a public holiday. That includes those small chain supermarkets (ie: IGA) that basically survive...on being open on Sundays and public holidays.
3) Because of point number 2, I had a trip down memory lane visiting Fresh Provisions. It was like old times, only I'm no longer twenty-something, and wasn't massively  hung over. Still, I was visiting there at 10am, but this was after a night of restful sleep rather than after a night of extreme partying. What still remains the same is that I am continuing to pay over $20 for a handful of menial grocery items like yoghurt, milk and cheese.
4) Everyone lives like, really close to the city: 40 minutes, straight down the freeway.
5) The city beaches are always beautiful.

6) Those black swans are hell scary. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just go to Lake Munga with a handful of bread, hurl the bread in the direction of lake, and then run to the car for cover. 
              You have been warned. 

6) And while there are people who I love dearly there, I never, ever want to move back to Perth.

But who knows, maybe things can change. 
That chapter will have to be called #BuyAHouseAndDie

'Til next time, signing off, Citygirl