The Same But Different.

Greetings from Perth!

 

Where the skies are impossibly blue and everything seem to be cushioned by a huge amount of space, even the people on the street and the cars in the car park.

 

It's been a good seven years since I've spent a solid amount of time back home. My previous trips back have been whirlwind fly in, fly out affairs. This time, however, I'm here for a few weeks to do nothing but enjoy the privilege of seeing my family on a daily basis and reconnecting with the city.

 

It's interesting how revisiting the place where you grew up gives you a sense of how time both marches on and stands still. There are places that haven't aged a bit and stir memories of a younger you walking past the exact same view, lost in thought with what seemed like the world on your shoulders. With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps you realise that back then you were lost in a cloud of angst looking at the trees rather than the woods. Time and fate really did sort much of it out.

 

 

Further inland, the city is the same but different. I can navigate the roads where I used to live with ease but it's the buildings that line them that in turn dazzle me and make me a little wistful for the familiar facades that were part of my everyday life ... seven years ago. My old workplace is a construction site. The open air car park I got lost in on a daily basis is now a multistorey extravaganza offering even more places to forget where you've parked after a long day at work. The rest of the place looks like the foundations of some kind of mother ship with construction cranes rising high in the air and pylons and pits where there used to be buildings.

 

Elsewhere, there's a new sleekness in the air. The modest shopping centres of the past have turned into elegant arcades. While the new cafes look very big city, the service is still pure Perth - friendly and decidedly unhurried.

 

I haven't quite left my Sydney life behind. It turns out there's a branch of my gym close to where I'm staying. It's next to an antique store which is where I took the above photo. Old and new, side by side. It seems to be what Perth is all about these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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