Lily (above, saying goodbye a few days ago to her favourite great old gum tree on the farm) moves to Melbourne tomorrow — from the eighth most liveable city in the world to the second*. I'll miss her terribly, but understand perfectly why she's going.And thank heavens for frequent flyer points, occasional cheap airfares, and dear friends who'll put David and me up when we decide to fly over for a long weekend or a few days. It's out favourite Australian city too, so we're planning to visit.
Today, Lily had her interview at the Japanese consulate for a position on the JET program. She was so nervous, but said it went really well, and the interview panel were very friendly. Now she can relax and wait to hear if she's been selected — I think it's April when they get told.
:: Dreadful news from Christchurch in New Zealand — can't imagine how terrifying such a massive earthquake must be.
And a tornado — as in a twister — has hit Karratha in our North-West!
* If you didn't care to follow the link — The Huffington Post (US current affairs and comment website) has just released its 2011 list of the world's most liveable cities, a list it says is based on "a combination of environment, health care, culture and infrastructure".
Vancouver has been No. 1 for five years in a row. The rest of the top 10 are: 2 Melbourne, 3 Vienna, 4 Toronto, 5 Calgary, 6 Helsinki, 7 Sydney, 8 Perth, 9 Adelaide, and 10 Auckland.
Paris is 16th, Los Angeles 44th, London 53rd and New York 56th.
3 comments:
It's funny though that people don't necessarily want to live somewhere just because it's 'liveable'!! Wouldn't recommend here at the moment based solely on the awful weather. More fog, sleet, cold... not liveable at all!
Oh yes, these lists are always based on criteria that may not be significant to all people all the time.
As Australians we find them so fascinating because our five or six cities seem to rate so well when so many of us who live here dream about being elsewhere almost constantly, as a matter of course. Which I think comes of our convict past, compounded by our immigrant nostalgia!
They need to add drinkability of the coffee to those criteria...that might knock a few cities down a place or two.
:)
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