One of my sisters reminded us all (via email, of course!) that yesterday, 16 January 2006, was the twentieth anniversary of our arrival in Australia. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten all about it until she mentioned it! Mind you, I don’t think we’ve really ever made it a point to celebrate this date.
What do I remember about the journey?
We went to the airport in a borrowed people mover. I remember it was raining and the music playing on the radio was Benci tapi rindu “I hate you but I miss you†(it sounds better in Malay). A mushy love song that for years afterwards would remind me of that last drive to the airport.
Back then the airport was still the Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Subang (Subang International Airport). I don’t remember anything about it. The international airport in KL has since been moved to Sepang. What’s happened to the old airport, I wonder…
I can’t remember anything about the flight, despite it being the first time I had ever been on a plane.
We arrived late at night, and the Perth airport smelt funny. Now I know it was the smell of eucalypt.
At first I couldn’t sleep, and finally dozed off listening to ABC Classic FM.
What do I remember of my first impressions of Perth?
That first night the temperature seemed cool, but thereafter the days were really, really hot. After all, we’d arrived in the middle of a Perth summer. I’d never experienced anything like it before. Hot, and so dry it felt like all the moisture in your body was being wrung out of you every time you stepped outdoors.
I hated everything. Bear in mind I was a sulky 15-year-old who resented leaving all her school friends behind.
The shows on telly were horrendous – it seemed to be non-stop Wheel of Fortune. It was the first game show I’d ever seen, and it didn’t make sense. I think John Burgess was the host then. He was so smarmy!
We didn’t have many books in the house (yes, I’ve always loved reading), except for newspapers, a few Reader’s Digest Condensed Books, and a couple of novels by Australian authors. The one that sticks in my mind is Ash Road, by Ivan Southall. It’s about three boys who inadvertently cause a major bush fire through carelessness, and the consequences of their actions. I loved the book. Everything about it, the descriptions of the bush and the people, made me start to realise that Australia was very different to anywhere I’d ever been. Come to think of it, I haven’t read that book in years. Must re-read.
It’s funny, but the fact that we’d left Malaysia was really brought home to me one sweltering afternoon, when we went with our Dad to buy ice cream. I wanted a Split and couldn’t find anything remotely like it. The Split I was used to was a somewhat milky confection wrapped in a red (berry-like) or green (fake citrus) coating. At the time I couldn’t find anything that would do. And what on earth was a deli, anyway?
None of the people seemed to speak an English that I could understand. The Strine was so thick as to be incomprehensible. It was disappointing and quite unnerving, because all my life I’d assumed I could speak English. It didn’t help when we started school, and my English teacher was Scottish – first Scottish accent I’d actually heard! When she got me to stand up and read (I guess she was wondering if this Asian kid could even speak English. Or read!), all the kids remarked that my accent was American! Aiya!
And now?
Although I wasn’t born here, I’ve now lived more than half my life in this country, and Malaysia certainly isn’t home any longer. It hasn’t been for years, and that fact was reinforced to me the first time I went back there, in 1992. As Pim says, you realise you’ve become a foreigner. The last couple of times M and I were there, we were tourists, we relied on the maps in the Lonely Planet guide to navigate our way around the places we visited!
I feel very at home here, more at home than anywhere else. Heck, when I go to Sydney or Melbourne, I realise how much of a Perth person I am. Still, there continue to be times in this country when others will treat me as a foreigner. I suppose I will always look different. It’s okay. I relish the opportunities I have to break stereotypes: I speak English perfectly well, thank you very much. Yes, I speak Chinese. And Malay. Where is my family from? Oh, Osborne Park. Malaysia, many years ago now. My grandparents are buried in Pinnaroo. My husband is a nice Dutch Australian man. I have relatives all over Perth, as well as in Bangi, Three Springs, Singapore, Rockhampton, Groningen, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Amsterdam. I vote. I love Australia, corny as that may sound.
Categories: Perth, Australia, WesternAustralia, family, anniversary
10 Comments
I’m sure we had ‘Split’ icecreams in the 80’s. You must have gone to a real dodgey deli 😛
Congrats on your 20th anniversary in Australia. Would love to be staying and working in Australia, particularly WA. 🙂
I’m going to out myself here… by telling you that i remember the flight very well. I was freezing, despite the Qantas flight attendants giving our entire family blankets. I was excited but terrified at the same time, and in hindsight, i wonder if (and have a sneaking suspicion that) our parents might have been a touch nervous, too!
A comment on the accent: i remember early on our parents returning from a shopping/errands outing and their bemused responses to the fact that no one could understand them when they tried to buy a key chain (keyring).
“We kept saying, ‘We’d like to buy a key chayne‘… but the lady behind the counter just couldn’t understand us. Finally, she said, ‘Oh, a key chaaaaaaayne!!!”
This subject deserves a post from me, too. Perhaps if i manage to find some time this week… I have to say that your sentiments about Australia echo mine, i.e. i think of it as home, although sometimes i do get confused and refer to London as home as well. Whatever, Malaysia certainly doesn’t feel like home anymore – i haven’t even been back for a visit since leaving (last few years were spent always flying through or over in a hurry to get from Perth to London or vice versa).
Well done to our sibling who shall remain un-outed for remembering the date!
Hahahaaaa, enough is enough, let me out myself too! I am the sibling who reminded CW and cherryripe of our 20th anniversary! (I wonder if anyone already guessed who your siblings were?)
I also hope to write more on this topic sometime this week, but I’m knee deep in a crappy chapter that should’ve been finished ages ago, so I’d better keep working.
I’ll just say for me, the flight was horrendous. I felt air-sick the whole way to Australia, and was too scared to eat or drink anything for fear I would throw up.
Actually, I still have a blanket from our flight to Australia in our linen closet. Somehow it ended up with me, after all these years.
Oh and CW, your idea to write about our blogs (your comment on previous post) sounds cool. I’m most interested to see what you come up with.
OK back to work.
I wish i can migrate to Australia too where cars and houses are so much cheaper than they are in Singapore 🙂
You’ve come a long way CW. I am glad that everything worked out nicely for you.
I had only guessed the connection between CW and cherryripe a while ago, but the third sister remained elusive till yesterday…
This is very cool. I am wondering: who is the oldest sister, and who is the youngest?
M: maybe.. but I do remember noticing that certain things that we took for granted in Malaysia did not exist in Perth in the late ’80s. Like Grape Fanta. And 7Up.
Thank you Isaac! WA is a wonderful place! Thanks for leaving a comment too 🙂
Cherry, I have no memory of the flight. Maybe it was so traumatic I’ve repressed it?? I remember that keychain incident. I think part of the problem was that, in the Australian idiom, a keyring is more common than a keychain.
tfp, I don’t think I was airsick, but I don’t remember. I doubt it, though, I have never been airsick.
Hello Michael, thanks for leaving a comment 🙂 There’s much, much more to Australia than cars and houses 🙂
Thanks, Israd!
Anna, you can’t guess who’s who? 😉
I’m not sure…I think you are the oldest, and cherryripe the youngest, that’s my guess.
Hahahaha, Anna, guess again! 😛