May 31, 2016. Reflections of Australian vs. USA economics

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Mooloolah, Queensland, Australia

WEATHER:  Another picture-perfect day. High around 70

Today we made the trip that we tried last week, when the bus was not running due to a festival.  Today, our successful trip started here in Mooloolah from where we took the train to another city.  With a 5-minute connection, we caught a bus that took us to our destination, Maleny.   The bus ride was beautiful, through foothills of the Glasshouse Mountains.

Arriving in Maleny at 12:30, our first task was to find lunch.  Maleny is a cute little mountain town.  It reminded me of Blowing Rock, North Carolina in the Smoky Mountains.  Lots of cute sidewalk cafés, boutiques, organic shops, art galleries, and real estate offices. With lots of choices, we settled on "The Old Bank" cafe.   After lunch, we peaked into lots of shops, and bought some cheese at a wonderful cheese shop.

From Maleny, we took another bus to a different town where we caught the train, after checking out their local pub.  Back home, the birds were waiting for their afternoon meal.  

The news on TV tonight was about raising the minimum wage.  It is about $19/hour.  The legal workweek is 38 hours/week, after which is overtime.  The other topic in the news is questioning work/life balance.....should 38 hours be reduced and/or enforced more, especially for fathers.  

My info not be totally correct, but this is what i have gathered.....

- Saturday weekend differential, called penalty rates, is time and a half

-Sunday differential is double time

-Holidays are double time

-Some holidays are triple time

-Christmas is triple and a half time

-Salaries are high.  Tradesmen, for example, earn $150k

-Full-time workers earn 6 weeks of paid vacation annually.  Plus, there is a 17% "load leave" paid while on vacation

-Sick  days and holidays are on top of the vacation

-12 weeks of paid maternity/paternity leave are provided, with talk about increasing this

- A type of sabbatical of 3- month paid additional leave, after a certain number of years worked 

I think one reason employers can pay this is because employers do not provide health insurance benefits.  All citizens receive free government healthcare.  Most wage-earners buy their own private health insurance, as this is perceived as better access than the public healthcare.

Also, the cost-of-living here is much higher than in the USA.  A hamburger in a regular cafe is about $18.   Gas is about $5/gallon. A beer in a pub is about $8, mixed drink about $18.  Real estate is very expensive.  They say you can't buy a teeny condo for less than $1 million in metro areas like Sydney. I think taxes are quite high.  Public services are much better here, especially transportation.  The earnings disparity seems less here.  I see very little poverty, although I know it exists.  Very few homeless.  

Another consequence of the high weekend pay is that many shops just close down on the weekends, especially on Sundays. Those that do stay open often pass on the additional cost by adding a surcharge the customers must pay.  This is quite controversial right now.

After all of this thinking, I heard an interesting noise outside,  it was an old-fashioned ice cream truck, cruising the neighborhood!

DINNER:  Leftover lamb chop with pasta on the side.

Next plans for Reids on the Road

We are housesitting now on Australia's  Sunshine Coast in a village with a darling name.....Mooloolah.  From here, we fly next week to Melbourne.  Then, we housesit in Ballarat, a historic town 1.5 hours from Melbourne.  

We finish up there on June 29, then fly that night to Lobdon, with layovers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and Colombo, Sri Lanka.  Wish we had time to explore those cities, but we have to rush to England.  

Then, in England, we have 5 housesitting assignments lined up in July and August, including one near London, one in lovely, historic Oxford, one in an old vicarage, and one in a converted barn.  

Our  daughter and boyfriend are meeting up with us in Oxford in early September , where we have reserved a longboat for a 4-day canal trip.  From there to Ireland for a few days.

Then, flying to Nova Scotia in late September to visit friends. Then, to Detroit to visit our other daughter and her husband in October.   

Eventually, we will get to Phoenix, Arizona where our camper and pick-up are stored.  We don't have plans yet for after that.  Once we arrive in Phoenix, we will have completed a trip around the world:  Arizona to California, to New Zealand, to Australia, to England, to Canada, to Midwest USA, then finally to Phoenix. 

Life on the road is good!  

May 4, 2016. A ride on the Ghan!

LOCATION:  Somewhere in Australia's Outback

WEATHER:  Sunny and hot...100!

One of George's bucket list items was to ride a train across the Outback.  We had bought tickets for the Indian Pacific route a few weeks ago, but there was a freight train derailment on the route so our trip was canceled.  That would have been from Adelaide to Perth.  Undaunted, we changed our plans, flying to Perth, then to Darwin where we picked up The Ghan.  A 3-day, 2-night train ride will take us through the outback to Adelaide.

The train is quite elegant.  There are 33 carriages.  The train itself is almost a mile long.  

We have a private room with its own bathroom.  The couch turns into 2 bunk beds at night.  

All our meals, snacks and drinks are included.  So, as soon as we boarded, we were off to the lounge for some bubbly to celebrate the trip.

The train is called The Ghan, as originally Afghanistan camels were used to carry goods on this route.  Once they had more modern types of machines, they let the camels go free, and now there are 1 million camels roaming around here.  George is anxious to see them!

Included in the train tide are some stops with excursions.  About 4 hours after the trip started in Darwin, we stopped in Katherine.  We chose an excursion called "outback experience".  We went to a big ranch.  The cowboy showed us how he "breaks" a horse, then how he trains a horse to round up cattle.

Then, the cowboy showed us how he trains his Kelpie dogs to herd the sheep and cows. He is also a musician, so sang some songs on his guitar.  It was very interesting, but beastly hot.  

Most of the people on the train are our age or older, although there is one young honeymoon couple.  All are Australians, except us and a lady from Ireland.

For dinner, I chose croccodile sausage as an appetizer.  Good!  Main course was veggie lasagne.  George had barramundi, the popular fish here.  

While we were eating dinner, the staff made up our beds for a cosy night's sleep.