September 13 observations 

Met a guy in the spa , I think his name was John . Turns out John had just retired as an architect. When I told him I was a caulker he looked confused . John had never heard of a caulker or caulking .He specialised in top end stuff ( don’t they all?). Says a lot about my work credentials over here and it says a lot about the way they build stuff.Walked past one of the many top end houses that are being built or renovated and was hit by a strong smell of hot tar . Turns out the plumbers were using the tar. Hot tar kettle piping , its often used on roofs . The point is ,this is old style but still done on some sites . I reckon this type of stuff may have ceased 30 years ago in Australia.Air conditioning is also no where near as prevelant . On a lot of these new builds I can’t see any sign of it . They’l sell a lot of these places in excess of 3 million dollars without aircon . There’s no doubt the masses inland won’t have this luxury . Creature comforts have become the norm in Aus but not so here . You’l hear ads on the radio calling out there site or exhibition with the added bonus of air conditioning, ‘so come on down . ‘ This place is fuckn hot , you want aircon . Ceiling fans are prevalent  and they do work but once again it feels old school . I think the large middle class in Aus has pushed a rise in living standards which has in turn modernised our building industry. Here the middle class is skinny , the market for creature comforts is skewed towards the wealthy , the rest make do . It feels Aus 70s and 80s . The fibro cement look is dominant and bloody ugly , but that’s the way they do it and on even your top end builds . Bricklayers are not needed .  10 m ladders are needed. You’l see painters and tradies swinging from their balls with a drill or paint tin . Yep  you’l see scaffolds and the rare scissor lift but the tradies over here do things the way we used to do it in Aus back in the day. I’m in California but sometimes I think I’ve gone back in time .