Trade Off

This morning I took Ella to see Kate and Bradley, who've moved out of the house they'd been sharing with Paula and into a rented flat of their own.

Kate's not happy.

The flat is on the first foor of a 1960's block complete with 1960's tiled entrance hall. There's graffiti on the walls and the stairwell isn't secure because the outside door blows in the wind; nobody has a key. Buildings like this have been torn down in Britain, and when they haven't, they've been refurbished, or else they're part of some inner city sink estate, not a leafy (and affluent) suburb like Randwick.

Last week someone was sick in the stairwell. The pool of vomit was there a week before the Cuban lady nextdoor finally cracked and cleaned it up. And then they had a break-in; kids probably. The intruders took the car keys and it cost them $500 to change the locks. It wasn't a great start.

"We've signed the lease for twelve months" said Kate as she showed me around. "The kitchen's alright, a bit cramped I suppose. And we've nowhere to dry wet clothes, which is going to be a problem in winter"

"No heating?" I asked

"Don't be silly" she said. "Heating? In Sydney? And no air conditioning either. We can't open the windows because there's no fly screen and anyway, the traffic noise is appalling. I haven't had a night's sleep since we got here"

"You're going to bake" I said

"Yeah I know. And in the winter we'll freeze. And in between it might be okay"

Kate's daughter is nine. She's sharing a bedroom with her three year old brother. Kate reckons she'd live like this forever before she'd go back to Britain. I'm not sure I could be so philosophical.

This afternoon we went down to Coogee for coffee. Ella had a spotty cookie though she was so tired from refusing her nap that she couldn't eat it and sat picking the smarties off the top instead. Afterwards we walked down the seafront to Grant Reserve, where the local council has just finished renovating the playground. The result is superb, and all this perched on the clifftop with the women and children's swimming pool nestled into the cliff face below and those coin-operated barbeques for those sunny weekend breakfasts.

Oddly, we bumped into Kate at the playground. "I've just picked Lucy up from school" she said. "We come down here quite often, I get the kids an ice-cream from Baskin Robbins over there and they have a run around. I mean, seriously Sarah, what would I be doing right now in Britain?"

"Well right now you'd be asleep" I replied. "But I see your point".

But what about the trade off? Perhaps it's different when you've actually made the decision, but the people back home would be horrified if they saw what she was putting up with, because to them, she's simply gone to Sydney; she's made it.

It's a world away from A New Life Down Under. I'm not sure how many others would want to swap.