Monthly retrospective

Observations on the nature of things here in Tas: -

1. White cars - why oh why are 75% of the cars/commercials here painted white? Who knows! I can understand them not choosing yellow, or Nissan-pink, but there are other colours in the rainbow.
   
2. Advertising immaturity - more Pearl and Dean than Saatchi and Saatchi, most of the TV adverts involve the voice-over man shouting about the product. As if I really needed a deafening broadcast about polypropylene water butts.
3. Catalogues - it appears that retailers regularly produce a catalogue showing a small selection of their stock; think Richer Sounds or John Lewis brochures. But, rather than having an 'on-line' web-store containing a full stock list with prices supported by e-commerce facilities, they scan their 'catalogue' and shove a PDF copy on their site. Crappo.
   
4. Seasonal veg - the small population of Tas, and probably Oz overall, results in limited buying power compared with, say, Tesco or Sainsbury. In contrast to the fairly stable prices year-round in the UK, the quality and prices of fruit and veg here rises and falls in line with the seasons.
   
5. Cold houses - not sure of the figure, but we guess 90% of the houses here don't have double glazing or thermal insulation or central heating. They tend to have a wood burner and/or air conditioning units that either heat or cool. With Winter and Spring temperatures not much more than the UK then houses can get cold. One more reason to build our own.