Sparklyladybug.com.au






Switzerland seems like the place to be...

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Apparently every year Mercer, an HR company, gathers heaps of information and does a survey on 143 cities around the world. They rank the cities on cost and quality of living. You can look at the lists here. A few cool things I noticed...

  • The top 5 cities in North America for quality of life were Canadian...interpret as you might but I think that is pretty sad for our little American neighbours...
  • I'm soon gonna be living very near the second most expensive city in the world
  • Despite the fact that Sex in the City would have me believe that New York is a very expensive place to live, it only came 15! I'm guessing they don't factor in increased access to expensively beautiful things which might up the cost of living
  • Calgary is the number 1 city! Well, for health and sanitation anyways....followed not too far behind by Ottawa...
  • If you want a good quality of life, go to Switzerland, Zurich and Geneva are at the top of the list for quality of life. (they ranked 7th and 9th for cost, guess you gotta pay for the good life somehow...)
  • Melbourne is a pretty unremarkable but good place to be...17th for quality of life, 43rd for health and sanitation and it doesn't even make the expensive city top 50.






Home for a Rest...

Sunday, June 03, 2007
The other night I was beading...a little too close to my computer I think. First a tiny bead just under the space bar...highly annoying. But the next day it was magically gone much to my relief. However now you may notice a distinct lack of comma's in this entry...I think my little bead has found a new home. So a big apology to all the grammar Nazis out there!

My flight home is booked...all done! I'll be back on the 12th of July...or maybe it's the 13...I leave here the 12th anyhow. I'm pretty happy...I'll be home for a good month of visiting and funness before moving on. I am sad to leave the cool Aussie kids but such is life. Anyhow...I know i'll be back for a visit...

And! It's summer...yay! It's been kinda cold here lately (I know all you Canadian Kids are laughing at me now)...it's been about 10 to 15 degrees in the day...nice in the sun but freezing when it's raining as it has been doing a lot of. I'm looking forward to warm weather and bbq's and summer stuff.

Speaking of home...and not that I follow sports much...but Ottawa is in for the Stanley Cup! Go Canada! So good luck to them...be nice to get our Stanley Cup back in the country! For those of you who don't know the Stanley Cup is for hockey (ice).

Interesting lesson learned a few times over here in Australia...when people talk about hockey they are talking about field hockey. The number of conversations where someone tells me they are going to play hockey or see a hockey game and I excitedly reply "Really? there is an ice rink around here?" to quickly learn that they in fact mean field hockey. Strange land here...