G'day RossMAN Bit of a late reply, but I haven't been on the net for nearly 2 months.
Interesting, amusing thread heehee For the unimformed, I'm an Aussie living in Australia. I've never been to the US. I've been to the UK and briefly to India and Singapore.
Time for a few facts Australia was voted the 2nd best place to live in the world, behind Switzerland I believe. The US was 6th.
In a survey of 130 of the worlds top cities, all 5 of Australias cities surveyed were in the top 8. My home city of Perth (which came 3rd) is reportedly one of the most technologically advanced cities on Earth.
The economy is growing strong at about 3%, despite current US and Japanese woes. We are the best sporting nation in the world Welcome to the land of Aussie Rules Football and Cricket We're the only country in the world to show swimming during prime time TV lol. Despite all of this, we are one of the fattest people in the world, those bastard Americans are still beating us at that
Health care is world class and cheap as chips compared to the US, as well as education.
Computer gear will set you back about 5-10% more than it does in the US, with the range not so vast, although it is there if you know where to look. Fuel is about the same price, as is pretty much everything else I presume.
Ok, we do have some nasty creepy crawlies, but it is very, very rare you hear about someone coming a cropper to one of them. I work on a vineyard 40 hours a week and I haven't seen a snake the whole time. Redback spiders (2nd most deadly in the world) are common but you'd have to go out of your way to get bitten by them. In suburbia, these nasties aren't common. Basically, if you don't bother them, they wont bother you.
The beaches are superb The heat is sometimes unbearable and the bushfires in the eastern states are devestating at the moment.
A lot of people say Sydney is too much of a rat race, everyone that has been there says so, but it is one of the 'cities of the world' as they say. Melbourne is the sporting capital of the world, it is also very artsy and cultural. I don't know too much about Brisbane, other than it's nickname is Brisvegas. I love Perth, it is laid-back and has clean air and beaches. And since moving down south to the Margaret River region, Perth feels like a rat-race now lol. Beer and wine here is fantastic
I'm travelling around Australia soon, so we might indeed get to catch up with each other RossMAN
Catchya!