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Albany-Perth, 12-13th August 2011

“Hey I know you! You are that guy from the news paper!” the cab driver told me on the way to Albany Airport for my flight back to Perth. Albany is a relatively small country town with only about 35,000+ inhabitants or so and its two local papers the “Albany Advertiser” and the “Week-ender” are the “must –read” papers for the locals I found out. It is a small community and every-one knows every body and everything that is happening. I had my little moment of fame…

But I love Australia and right now (with what is happening in the world, the economy, the riots, etc) it is properly the best place to be! Travelling around the world the way I do I guess I have some authority to compare and have an opinion and to me Australia is the place to live. It is organised it is safe, it is (economically) stable. Note I say live not necessarily work. Certainly in my profession as lighting designer Australia does not offer the same project opportunities as the fast developping countries like China, India and so on. So I end up “living” here but “working” overseas, but operating from Australia really balances life for me.

My trip to the Southern Region showed me again the huge contrast between Australia and overseas. First the people density…there are in the whole of Australia about as much people as in Shanghai, China alone, about 20+ million people! Can you believe it? And Australia is nearly as big as China! There are people up North with there next door neighbours living 500 km away!

The lifestyle here is relaxed and the greeneries, landscapes and seafronts are really nice and pleasing to the eye. On my morning walk today I again felt blessed being able to enjoy the fantastic climate, blue skies and apeasing site of the “contryside”. A few people walking their dogs and most of all smiling and greeting you (not doing so is nearly an offence, but oh so typical for big cities!), hardly any cars…its peaceful and relaxing. I kind of understand people wsihing me happy holidays whenever I go down under! Shortly I will be back in Singapore, Mumbai, Jakarta and Shanghai….busy cities, people everywhere, who have no attention for you, rudely push you aside, honking cars, and mostly concrete buildngs everywhere!…I love Australia 🙂

In Light Watch today just some mood shots of the surroundings I wake up to in the morning or come back to in the evening. Peaceful landscaping and nature, residential streets, the blue skies and what you don’t hear the sounds of birds chirping all around you….. These are just pics snapped with my Iphone as I walk around, low quality but just enjoy the colours and the light….