A beer a day keeps the doctor away...

G’day all,

Welcome, to any new followers of my blog. If you are new to this, I advise you to set aside half an hour of your time and start from the beginning of my Blog (the Thailand entry at the bottom of the page) and work your way up to this entry. To my regular followers, it has been just over two weeks since the last entry and after some abuse on my facebook page from ‘Captain Kutch’ (Chetan for those who don’t know him) I felt it is time for another entry.

In my last blog, I had a big clash in my timetable which was annoying me, I was drinking lots of beer and I had just been to prison. Well, I’m glad to say that the clash has been sorted and I’ve settled into a routine, I’m still drinking lots of beer and I haven’t been back to prison! However, one thing I failed to mention at the end of the previous blog is that Beni (Dilip uncle and Ina auntie’s daughter) had just arrived home from a long holiday in Kenya!

So the day after Beni returned home (26th July) she slept most of the day with jet lag and I went to the monthly Oshwal satsung meeting with Dilip uncle and Ina aunty. I went with the thought that I would meet lots of people my age there, however this wasn’t the case. All the youngsters are still in school and none are older than 17 and anyone over the age of 20 was at least 27 upwards. It was extremely boring and I somehow got myself roped into doing a 4km run for charity (although I haven’t heard anything since about it)! However, I will not be going back to one of these Satsungs in a hurry!

The following day was a Monday which meant the start of a week at uni. My clash was finally sorted so I could establish some sort of routine. However I was horrified by how packed my Mondays were (and still are), probably served me right for changing modules so many times! In Nottingham, I had 8hours of lectures in a week, at UWA I have 6hours of lectures just on the Monday!!! I know you medics, dentists and pharmacists are wondering what on earth I’m complaining about but 6hours in a day is a lot for me! The day was extremely long and as you can imagine I was exhausted by the end of it but the day finished on a really positive note with a really interesting and enjoyable lecture (yes they do exist) on African history.

The next few days weren’t very exciting, just the normal days at uni followed by dinner, a few beers and some mindless Aussie TV at night. However, my weekend began on a Thursday that week (and the following two weeks) because of no Geography tutorial, so on Thursday I went shopping with Beni and Ina aunty and managed to finally get some sunglasses for only $30! In the evening, I left the house to go to my mates’ flat warming party. It was hosted by two fellow exchange students who were from Holland and both called Alexandra. It was a good night, where I met a lot of new people and consisted of a lot of beer, a talk about the state of Africa, Kanye West’s musical genius/arrogance and a rap battle with some Americans (I’ll leave that bit to your imagination, those of you who know my ability to remember lyrics may have some sort of idea).

On the Friday (31st July), I didn’t really do a lot during the day but in the evening I went with Dilip uncle, Ina aunty and Beni to their family friend’s house for a barbeque. What I didn’t know is that these family friends where Punjabis and obviously love a drink! So as you can imagine, it was yet another evening filled with beer drinking! It was actually a really interesting evening, I met an old white man with a really strange accent so I asked where he was from and he made me guess for ages but it turned out he was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Australia 20years ago. I had a long conversation with him about the third world; reading really does enhance your knowledge! The actual barbeque was very disappointing with no veggie food, apart from a cold pasta salad, so I went hungry for the evening. However, i came home had a bowl of cereal and sat down to watch the cricket before heading off to bed.

The next three days weren’t very exciting, I was at home over the weekend just watching the cricket and a few films and then the dreaded 6 hours of lectures on Monday. As for the films I strongly recommend ‘Inside Man’ and ‘Man on Fire’ – both are Denzel Washington films, to be honest you can’t really go wrong with a Denzel film. I also watched Notorious, I’m advising you, don’t watch it and don’t waste your time with it!

After my marathon Monday, I was looking forward to my one lecture on Tuesday (despite the fact that it was 2hours and was at 9am!). The day turned out to be a very odd day! The lecture finished after an hour and instead of heading home i went to.... wait for it... the LIBRARY!!! It’s the third week of term, exams are nowhere near and still I went to the library, something I would never do in Nottingham! I spent a few hours there and was actually really productive! After my library session I felt it was time to relax so I went to the EMAS (Electronic music appreciation society) DJ and Production lesson. It was a bit of a waste of time because it was done as if it was a lecture and people actually took notes in it! However most of the stuff they were teaching, I already knew from watching Nihal on the decks! However at the end of this lecture we got to have a go on the decks and I’m proud to say that my mixing was on point (only with music I knew, as soon as they gave me trance to try I was awful!) The following day at uni was also a bit strange. In the morning i saw people playing football (soccer for any foreign followers) so I went and spoke to the guy who was running it and he told me that I couldn’t join in because it was actually a sport science module (what a doss of a module)! However, walking past them towards the end of their ‘lecture’ he asked if I wanted to join in for 15mins. With an hour between lectures I wasn’t going to say no! So I played football with these Aussies and they are truly awful at football! Anyone that has seen me play football knows that I’m nothing more than average but these Aussies thought I was amazing; I walked away with a cheeky grin, wishing I had hustled them or something!

On Thursday (6th August) I had the day off again but I ended up doing work at home, I really don’t know what has come over me since being at UWA, I guess it’s a positive though. In the evening we went out for a very average Chinese meal. Dilip uncle, Ina aunty and Beni were not impressed so I don’t think we’ll be heading back there in a hurry!

On Friday, I had a long lie in and it was only a few hours after I got up that the drinking began. It was Beni’s friend’s birthday so she told me to come along with her, and I’m glad I did. We started drinking at 4.30pm and didn’t stop drinking until just after midnight. We went to a bar called Brass Monkey and then headed on to what is fast becoming my favourite place Little Creatures. I ventured away from my usual Creatures Pilsner to Creatures Pale Ale and it was a great decision! The beer was so good and I consumed a lot of it, I won’t say how much because it will mean a lecture from mum when i next speak to her! We also had dinner at Creatures; I was actually quite impressed with their pizzas! We headed off to another bar afterwards which was really bad and they played the same song 3times in the half an hour that we were there! We were meant to head to a club after this bar but the birthday boy decided to call it a night so we all headed home and I was in bed by 1.30, a bit too early!

I woke up surprisingly early on Saturday without a hangover (drinking almost a litre of water before bed helps). I went shopping to a different mall with Beni and Ina aunty without the intention of buying anything but again in true Mihir fashion I ended up buying clothes! However, it was money well spent I felt, I bought two shirts for just $70 all together, that’s less than £35 for two shirts! I was at home by myself in the evening so I watched a childhood classic film – Richie Rich and then I watched a shocking batting performance by England, we were apparently trying to save the 4th test, I’m afraid that 82-5 isn’t the way to go about saving a test match! Bring back Mark Ramprakash for the final test is my suggestion!

On Sunday I went with Dilip uncle and Ina aunty to Marina for a few afternoon drinks, there were two guys performing live music and I think Dilip uncle and Ina aunty were pleasantly surprised when they performed The Eagles – hotel California and I started singing along to it (yes, my music taste does extend beyond the likes of Jay-z, Skepta, Skream etc). Dilip uncle and Ina aunty headed home and I stayed there to meet Beni and some of her mates for a few more drinks. After these drinks we headed home for dinner and to watch us lose the 4th test despite some exciting batting from Stuart Broad and Graham Swann!

Yesterday (10th August) was another 6hour exhausting day at uni and today, I went to the library again!

Seeing as this blog post is quite a bit shorter than the previous entries, I’ll leave you with some thoughts that I have been pondering. Obviously being new to a country I have noticed a lot about culture of Aussies and others. It made me question in my head how accurate are the stereotypes that we have of other cultures and even races? Infact why do we stereotype at all, surely we should experience their culture before making a judgement at all! I’ll give you some very small summaries of some things I’ve noticed, and you can decide for yourselves whether or not you agree with them.

Aussies – Love a beer and love a barbi but don’t really like to party that much. Their fashion sense is very European (skinny jeans and bright coloured clothes etc) apart from boys wearing UGGS. A high percentage of Aussies you would consider to be ‘good looking’. They tend to be very friendly people. Not every Aussie is athletic and amazing at sport. Aussies will eat any meat going.

Americans – More friendly and open to people than I initially thought! They always want to party but cannot handle their alcohol at all! American girls can be annoying!

Asians (Chinese and Japanese) – The best dressed people around but stick in their own groups, don’t mix with others.

Europeans – Very friendly, seem to have a lot of respect for us British. They’re probably the most interesting people I’ve run into.

Freshies – Really friendly but know how to get on your nerves (I know they don’t do it on purpose)

British - ?

I hope all is well in England,
Miss you all,
Until next time, G’day and Goodbye!

Mihir