Indeed, I have made it to Australia. After 40 or so hours in transit with three young boys we arrived in Perth – exhausted, jet lagged, and generally discombobulated. But we’re here. My wife’s company is putting us up for two weeks so that we can find a place to live and a car. Is that a lot of time? No. So we’ve been seeing as many rental properties as possible. And what does Tom do the minute he walks into a stranger’s house? You guessed it, check out the speakers. Let’s just say that compared to the HTiB systems I generally run into in the states, Oz is crushing us in the HT department.

The last time I rented in America, you had to find a place either in the paper or online, call the apartment manager, and set up a time to see the unit. Here, rentals are handled by real estate agents just like sales but, unlike sales, you can’t get an agent to show you around. You have to wait for an open house or, if you’re lucky, get them to arrange a private showing. What this means is that you are lucky if you can see three places in a day. Our best day we saw five.

Much like the US, Oz homes generally don’t have much in the way of home theaters. Oh, you’ll see your fair share of flat panels but you won’t see too many speaker setups. What surprised me is that when I did see speakers, they tended to be real speakers. They were floor standing, they had brand names like Dali but what they weren’t were little cubes. I’m not sure if this is some offshoot from the “Everything is bigger in Australia” mentality but I like it.

Now I understand that my sample size is pretty small and that our budget may be the driving reason why we are seeing real speakers but that’s ok. Whatever it is has made me like Oz just a little bit more. But with them shutting down the supermarkets at 5pm most days and a cell phone system that would make Danica McKellar cry, I’m in no danger of losing my bitter.

For those that are wondering when I’ll return to the podcast… As soon as possible. I have Internet for now but I can’t commit until we have our own place and our own Internet. This week will be an episode by listeners Tim and Hollis. With a little luck, I’ll be back, with Clint, next week. More than likely, however, it’ll be the week after at the soonest. So if you’ve been itching to throw together an episode, this is your chance.

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