Back in London. Just missed unseasonably cold weather – snow and sleet in the South – unheard of at this time of year. You go back in time when you arrive in London, losing 12 hours in British winter and 9 hours in British summer.
Aussie and British children in the Davis/Potts garden
Yesterday was spent flying. Another day in a tin can. But how miraculous that tin can is!
As we drove into London late last night, I was struck anew by the environmental differences between Oz and Britain: architecture – of housing, education and retail (in Britain packed densely together in urban localities due to greater population); vegetation – in terms of flowers, trees and shrubs in town and country; animals – domestic and wild. The food I stock up on today at the supermarket will be subtly or grossly different to Aussie grub. Australia has its own biscuits, ice creams and sweets, which we call lollies:
Lollies: Minties, Fantales (the wrapper has a bio of a star), Caramello Bears (koala), Freda Frogs, Cherry Ripes (cherry and coconut wrapped in dark choc)
Arnotts Biscuits (logo is parrot eating a biscuit): Mint slices (you take the minty dark choc layer off first with your teeth before you eat the less interesting biscuit), Tim Tams (cream between two choc biscuits) and Vita Wheats (you sandwich two together with loads of vegemite, like marmite and squeeze so that it comes through the small holes like worms).
Ice creams: Streets Paddle Pops and Golden Gaytimes (toffee vanilla ice cream covered in honeycomb and choc – Wilmot’s fav) – Weiss Fruit Bars.
Aussie sweets
Oz has lotsa space, so most houses are surrounded by a bit of land and a garage. Terraced houses are unusual, unless in downtown capital cities – a remnant of early British settlement. The mid 20thcentury red bungalow in Australia has given way to the cubic, clean lined or shaker abode in the third millennium. You generally only find these in affluent seaside destinations like St Mawes, Rock (Cornwell) and Salcombe (Devon) in Britain.
The Aussie bush framing Coledale station
80% of flora and fauna is Oz is unknown in other parts or the world. Wattle (yellow), bottle brush (yellow and red), waratah (red) and eucalyptus trees do not abound in the British woodland. Bluebells, wild garlic and nettles – beech, oak and silver birch – do. Delicate red breasted robins, wrens, thrushes, chaffinches and blue tits in Britain. Bit noisy, gritty sulphur crested cockatoos; willie wagtails shaking their tails; operatic kookaburras or colourful rosella/lorikeets in Oz. Insidious slugs and snails in Britain. Big reptilian frilled neck lizards in Oz. Silent grasshoppers in Britain. Deafening, noisy cicadas in Oz. Oz is blousy and big. Britain, understated and reserved.
Cicadas: The loudest insect in the world. We collected them and traded them at school. We’d transport them in shoe boxes. Green Grocer (the most common), Yellow Monday, Floury Baker, Cherry Nose and Black Prince.
Today I will unpack and go for a walk to help acclimatise. And then right back into the swing of things. I have a ladies lunch at Bluebird on Kings Road, Chelsea, in aid of Maggies – funding centres for cancer patients.
Diary of a Sloane Sheila 