Member Spotlight: Ricci (Part 2) - Becoming an Australian!
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Due to popular demand, we have a part two to member @Ricci’s story! If you missed part one, don’t worry, you can catch up here.
Buckle in and grab a cuppa, it’s time to hear all about Ricci’s first few months in Australia!
Without further ado, here’s part two of Ricci’s member spotlight!
‘To continue our immigration saga, having landed safely in Perth at 9.15pm on a Friday evening and exploring the CBD on the Saturday we found that there were a couple of things you absolutely needed to live in Perth, 1 - transport, 2 - a street directory and 3 - The West Australian newspaper (Not necessarily in that order). We first hired a car, bought the directory and newspaper, checked out the ads and took ourselves off to a car yard. We didn't want to spend a whole bunch on a car as we remembered we weren't looking to stay forever.
‘We found the car yard and started looking at what was on offer. Why oh why was everything called something different from England, and Australia had cars we'd never heard of. We must have looked more than a little lost as a salesman came to our rescue. We explained our situation and he must have taken pity on these totally pale, clueless Poms. He told us that for what we wanted we should be looking between 4 different cars in their yard. He then went on to describe the buying process, who knew that the amount written across the windscreen was only a guide and not the price you would end up paying? Long story short he did the negotiations for us and we settled on a Sigma, they agreed to tint the windows and do some mechanical bits and pieces and the car would be ready the following Friday. Learning that we had hired a car they told us to take it back and they loaned us a car for the week which was good of them.
‘We had agreed to pay cash, $3000, so the following Monday we took ourselves off to the bank to withdraw the money. We handed the teller a withdrawal slip and all the colour drained from her face, she asked if we were for real and then excused herself to be replaced by the manager who told us they didn't carry that much cash, he would have to order it and could we return the next day. What bank doesn't have any cash? This was a bank in the CBD so to say we were surprised would be an understatement. We found out later that there had been a spate of robberies so no bank held cash reserves. We went back the next day to collect the cash and the manager asked if we would like to have a security guard escort us to the car yard! We declined his very nice offer.
‘When we went to pick up our car, on the passenger seat was a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne, how nice was that? Even if we didn't have any glasses to drink from or a vase for the flowers?!
‘Consulting the West Australian, we looked at rentals. There seemed to be several that would do us nicely so we set off to find them. One we looked at stands out in my memory for all the wrong reasons! Remember, we had come from a brand new 4-bedroom house so were used to a certain level of comfort. The very first place we looked at was an older typical Australian house with a passageway leading front to back with rooms off it on either side. The front lawn was almost knee-high but nothing a good mower couldn't fix. The front door to the house was painted blue, similar to the NRMA ad colour. Nothing wrong with that but once inside the passageway was the same colour, OK, we could live with that and we went into the first room which was also the same blue and had a bucket in the middle of the floor where the ceiling leaked! The next room was the same, blue with buckets. In fact, every room in the house was painted the same and had at least one bucket or bowl to catch the water! We got to the kitchen at the back of the house and I whispered to hubby that I hadn't noticed a bathroom. We were directed down the garden! I refused to go and look; hubby went and came back rather pale and said I wouldn't like it. That scared me. Was that what living in Australia would be like? What had I let myself in for? Needless to say, we didn't take it.
‘We did find a suitable rental in the northernmost beachside suburb which we discovered later was a holiday destination for Perth people! We moved in with absolutely everything in the world we owned fitting into the boot of the car with a lot of room to spare! Even the freeway didn't go that far and the roads had only been blacktopped in the previous five years!! We often saw emus and kangaroos at the bottom of our street!! We were living the dream!!
‘The trusty West Australian pointed us in the direction of a Bed Shed that was having a sale so we toddled off to buy a bed that we needed urgently. Having purchased the bed, we were driving away when I suddenly told hubby to turn around and go back, we had the bed but absolutely nothing to put on it! Hubby refused to go back into the shop when I told him what I intended so off I went. I reminded the salesman that we had just bought the bed, then explained our circumstances and asked whether he had any bedding previously used for displays that I could buy at a discount. He took himself out the back to go look. He was gone for ages. I was just beginning to think I had embarrassed him and was getting ready to leave when he came back and said they had nothing the right size but ‘how about these?’ and from behind his back, he produced two sets of brand new, still in the packet, sheets sets. I told him that no, I wasn't after a new set and thanked him for his efforts, he said they were free. I replied politely that I wasn't after charity and was prepared to pay something so we settled on $15 per set. I was happy!
‘We found everyone we came across genuinely willing to help or explain things as long as we were upfront and explained our circumstances and confessed our ignorance. When our immediate neighbours found out how little we had they told the rest of the street and people came to our door with all sorts of things to make living easier, an exercise I have tried to replicate ever since. Many, many people will never know how they made our integration into Australian society as easy and seamless as it was. We were far too busy finding things out and exploring to get homesick and we had each other so what more did we need?!’
How beautiful is that, members? A huge thank you again to @Ricci for allowing us this insight into her life and family.
Buckle in and grab a cuppa, it’s time to hear all about Ricci’s first few months in Australia!
Without further ado, here’s part two of Ricci’s member spotlight!
‘To continue our immigration saga, having landed safely in Perth at 9.15pm on a Friday evening and exploring the CBD on the Saturday we found that there were a couple of things you absolutely needed to live in Perth, 1 - transport, 2 - a street directory and 3 - The West Australian newspaper (Not necessarily in that order). We first hired a car, bought the directory and newspaper, checked out the ads and took ourselves off to a car yard. We didn't want to spend a whole bunch on a car as we remembered we weren't looking to stay forever.
We all call Australia home! Image Credit: Shutterstock
‘We found the car yard and started looking at what was on offer. Why oh why was everything called something different from England, and Australia had cars we'd never heard of. We must have looked more than a little lost as a salesman came to our rescue. We explained our situation and he must have taken pity on these totally pale, clueless Poms. He told us that for what we wanted we should be looking between 4 different cars in their yard. He then went on to describe the buying process, who knew that the amount written across the windscreen was only a guide and not the price you would end up paying? Long story short he did the negotiations for us and we settled on a Sigma, they agreed to tint the windows and do some mechanical bits and pieces and the car would be ready the following Friday. Learning that we had hired a car they told us to take it back and they loaned us a car for the week which was good of them.
‘We had agreed to pay cash, $3000, so the following Monday we took ourselves off to the bank to withdraw the money. We handed the teller a withdrawal slip and all the colour drained from her face, she asked if we were for real and then excused herself to be replaced by the manager who told us they didn't carry that much cash, he would have to order it and could we return the next day. What bank doesn't have any cash? This was a bank in the CBD so to say we were surprised would be an understatement. We found out later that there had been a spate of robberies so no bank held cash reserves. We went back the next day to collect the cash and the manager asked if we would like to have a security guard escort us to the car yard! We declined his very nice offer.
‘When we went to pick up our car, on the passenger seat was a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne, how nice was that? Even if we didn't have any glasses to drink from or a vase for the flowers?!
‘Consulting the West Australian, we looked at rentals. There seemed to be several that would do us nicely so we set off to find them. One we looked at stands out in my memory for all the wrong reasons! Remember, we had come from a brand new 4-bedroom house so were used to a certain level of comfort. The very first place we looked at was an older typical Australian house with a passageway leading front to back with rooms off it on either side. The front lawn was almost knee-high but nothing a good mower couldn't fix. The front door to the house was painted blue, similar to the NRMA ad colour. Nothing wrong with that but once inside the passageway was the same colour, OK, we could live with that and we went into the first room which was also the same blue and had a bucket in the middle of the floor where the ceiling leaked! The next room was the same, blue with buckets. In fact, every room in the house was painted the same and had at least one bucket or bowl to catch the water! We got to the kitchen at the back of the house and I whispered to hubby that I hadn't noticed a bathroom. We were directed down the garden! I refused to go and look; hubby went and came back rather pale and said I wouldn't like it. That scared me. Was that what living in Australia would be like? What had I let myself in for? Needless to say, we didn't take it.
The days of relying on a newspaper are in the past. Image Credit: Shutterstock
‘We did find a suitable rental in the northernmost beachside suburb which we discovered later was a holiday destination for Perth people! We moved in with absolutely everything in the world we owned fitting into the boot of the car with a lot of room to spare! Even the freeway didn't go that far and the roads had only been blacktopped in the previous five years!! We often saw emus and kangaroos at the bottom of our street!! We were living the dream!!
‘The trusty West Australian pointed us in the direction of a Bed Shed that was having a sale so we toddled off to buy a bed that we needed urgently. Having purchased the bed, we were driving away when I suddenly told hubby to turn around and go back, we had the bed but absolutely nothing to put on it! Hubby refused to go back into the shop when I told him what I intended so off I went. I reminded the salesman that we had just bought the bed, then explained our circumstances and asked whether he had any bedding previously used for displays that I could buy at a discount. He took himself out the back to go look. He was gone for ages. I was just beginning to think I had embarrassed him and was getting ready to leave when he came back and said they had nothing the right size but ‘how about these?’ and from behind his back, he produced two sets of brand new, still in the packet, sheets sets. I told him that no, I wasn't after a new set and thanked him for his efforts, he said they were free. I replied politely that I wasn't after charity and was prepared to pay something so we settled on $15 per set. I was happy!
‘We found everyone we came across genuinely willing to help or explain things as long as we were upfront and explained our circumstances and confessed our ignorance. When our immediate neighbours found out how little we had they told the rest of the street and people came to our door with all sorts of things to make living easier, an exercise I have tried to replicate ever since. Many, many people will never know how they made our integration into Australian society as easy and seamless as it was. We were far too busy finding things out and exploring to get homesick and we had each other so what more did we need?!’
How beautiful is that, members? A huge thank you again to @Ricci for allowing us this insight into her life and family.
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