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Jump to navigationJump to searchHalf a World Away: Surviving the Move to a Land Down Under by Alistair McGuinness (view source)
Revision as of 09:18, 10 June 2015
, 09:18, 10 June 2015no edit summary
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Sometimes you read about a particularly exciting time in an author's life but later you find yourself wondering how they're doing, how life worked out for them. Since I read [[Round the BendHalf a World Away: From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, Searching for a Search for Life After Redundancy Gap Year Travel Adventure by Alistair McGuinness]] about eighteen months ago I've often wondered how he and Fran were doing in Australia and I was delighted when ''Half a World Away'' landed on my desk. When we left Ali and Fran they'd had an exciting and eventful year during which they'd travelled through Central and South America and then on to Africa, but they were planning to settle down in Australia. Don't worry if you haven't read ''Round the Bend'' as both books read well as stand alones and you can always go back to the first book later, can't you?
Ali and Fran decided to settle in Perth in Western Australia and living within a few kilometers of the Indian Ocean does sound idyllic, but McGuinness is realistic about the downsides of the life as well as the upsides. Yes, the summer weather is wonderful and it's great to have glorious beaches so close, but initially it was difficult to find a house to buy at a reasonable price. Buying land at one point was a bit like being involved in a gold rush. The lifestyle is wonderful, but finding a suitable job is not always easy. You could end up, as McGuinness did at one point, working in a chicken processing plant or as a FiFo worker. That's one of the workers who fly in and then fly out of the work site, doing eight days on and six days off - with the consequent effects on family life.
