Our Year In Oz Started With A Short Fear But Our Home Gave Sanctuary
Gazing out of my window I can see the starting signs of the leaves changing on the trees. We had our first sign of autumn a 2 weeks ago when a massive house spider ran across the living room carpet. Following that we have had another three and another is sculking near the stairs somewhere. I’m not great with spiders, and I wish I could bbq the lot of them. It was one of my horrors when we moved to Canberra as the red back frequently lives under toilet seats and is known to snap at things that dangle too close. The fact they can be fatally venomous just increases the woe. But for some reason they rarely live above the 2nd floor in a building and we rented an apartment on the 3rd in ours.
We lived in a place called Capital Tower, one of the 2 highest buildings in the Australian Capital Territory. The other one, Rydges Hotel was next door and was convenient for a quick srop on the way home on a sunny day. The main bar had photos of all Australian prime ministers including the best, Harold Holt who went swimming in a cove near Melbourne on December 17th 1967 and disappeared.
Our apartment complex contained a gym which had a sauna and hot tub for soaking after a session which I used several times a week. Odd, when you think it was free for us to use and paid a fortune for a membership in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and yet I very rarely went. Outside it also had a garden which included a swimming pool and an enormous gas bbq which you could have as long as it was reserved and left clean. There was also a smaller charcoal bbq which largely redundant as you had to provide your own charcoals and have it cleaned and cleared of ash and detritus. The grounds also had a couple of tennis courts as well which were constantly in use once autumn was finished.
Leaving the block, you could turn right along a path to head into the main business district, known as the Civic, or head left which took you over a bridge to the edge of lake Burley Griffin, dedicated to the man who laid out Canberra when the Aussies decided to construct a city to be a home to the federal government. There was a small beach, though going in the water was not a good idea, but also a place where you could hirerent rowing boats and pedalos and also a picnic area which had a public bbq area with anyone could use if there was an unused charcoal bbq as long as they bought their own briquettes. If they hadn’t got charcoals, you could use a gas bbq which were used by inserting a coin which would deliver a standard measurement of gas. These were commonplace in Australia which is of course keen on the bbq as a cultural icon and not everybody wants to carry a portable bbq with them when they go out for the day. They just want to carry the grub and grog they will need to get them through the day.
We should have them in the United Kingdom at parks, beaches or other places where families go to spend a day in the open air.
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