Country Life

It has been ages since I've shared anything online, in a blink of an eye the next term has gone past right before my eyes! I really count my blessings each day that I work within Education, especially the fact that I have the flexible option of taking student school holidays off as well without actually taking leave! The work might be hard at times, but effectively I am able to actually not work for 8 weeks a year (or more actually!)

6 months out living in the country, and I wouldn't be honest if I said I loved every bit of it. The social isolation can sometimes be a bit discouraging, especially when people ask "so what do you do on the weekends?" and I say "nothing really, sometimes talk to myself?".

But what surprises me though, is how much I actually love staying out here! For one, here's my massive big house (pictures courtesy of a friend who came down and visited and provided awesome Canon shots):

The Differences in the Country (i.e. regional/rural Australia vs Metropolitan)

 1. Larger Spaces (as if Brisbane isn't spacious enough already)

 

I currently stay in a spacious Queenslander with another girl, it looks dodgy on the outside, and I must admit, it doesn't look spanky on the inside, but I reckon it's WAY better than a number of dodgy places I've seen in Brisbane/Sydney!

This house is probably waaaay older than my mum I'm sure.

And take a good look at my backyard. THAT IS MY BACKYARD. It's the size of 2 HDB 3 bedroom flats I'm sure

 2. Nature is ALWAYS abundant, and photo-worthy scenery is never scarce.

It still amazes me how you can go up to someone and ask, 'So... how large is your property?' and they go without batting an eyelash 'Oh, only 40 acres..." Singaporeans out there - how many of you actually know how big an acre is? Here's some perspective from Google..

1 Acre  = 43,560 sqft = 4046.84 sq m

If you live in a 3 bedroom HDB, that's about 700-900sq feet. A 5 bed room flat according to HDB's website, is about 1,184 sq ft. I CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND THAT NUMBER.

Yes it has been artificially pinkified, but still, so much green and sooo much space!

 These are the wetlands that are just across from my place, by far one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen! This picture was taken without any funny effects or editing, it is what it is!

The view from my back door any given day during the evenings. Picturesque eh?

What my friends called 'Lord of The Rings' hills when we visited my colleagues property.

3. Drinking Rainwater is normal and BETTER than drinking town water

Now this statement sometimes comes to a shock to not only people back home, but even people who have lived in metropolitan Australia all their lives. I didn't think much of it when I initially came out here, but basically, every house would most likely have a rainwater tank behind their house. These tanks collect rainwater run off from the gutter. They go through a couple of filters here and there, and voila, we drink it. Everyone out here tells me sternly 'DON'T DRINK THE TOWN WATER'. This refers to water that is processed by the towns and comes out from most taps in the toilets and what not.

People have different piping systems depending on how they choose to install them when they build their houses. Some only have tank water going to the toilet, some only have it going to the kitchen, some have it going to every pipe in the house. It's such a different world as to how we just buy ready made houses back home and perhaps, fuss about flooring or tiling. Even if you do build your own house in Singapore, you wouldn't be fussing about town vs tank water as well.

 

 Unfortunately, my tank water is rather dirty. The tank and pipes are so old that rust and some form of fungi often come out of the tap as well. I don't drink my own tank water, rather, I drink the tank water at schools where they have clean and well-maintained tanks. It has become so that I find Brisbane town water rather distasteful! My town water basically smells like a combination of sweat, chlorine and iron/blood. It stains the white ceramic tiles yellow, and causes the metal tap heads and pipes to develop blue rust. (Now go back and think of Secondary school Chemistry as to what element might be bringing about blue reside, haha). also, the town water tastes reallllly bad. Like salty and gluggy.

One thing living out here has also made me is grateful. Grateful that when I do go back to Brisbane for a weekend, I can take a shower with my mouth open and not splutter!

But rain water here is much much cleaner than out in the city, because of pollution and all. Hence it is much more acceptable to drink rainwater in the country as opposed to that in the city.

 4. The Cow Culture is Strong here

 Here are a couple of my neighbours! Many people own properties and farms here. I go to the staff room and listen to teachers talking about how their husbands have to do some work on the fencing in the farm, or that they have to maintain the farm or stuff like that. Most of them aren't farmers or anything like that, they just enjoy having a farm as a hobby!

That fence demarcates the boundary between my neighbour's property and mine

 Even my Speechie supervisor has cows! Just for consumption mainly. She explained how they had a mobile butcher come in for a couple hundred dollars to get meat for them. Basically, you call in a mobile butcher who drives in with a portable cool room, he shoots your cow, drains the blood in the cool room for a couple days, takes the skin/hide whatever you call it, chops it up for you and you pack it away. You then have to dispose of the bones and offcuts yourself. She says they normally burn or bury it. A cow gives her husband and her about a year's supply of beef. I'll have to talk more about cows in another post! I've just learnt so much about them!


There are a lot more things about the country that surprise me everyday, and I'll try and pen them all down to share before I become too complacent and ungrateful for all that's out there for me right now!