Australia

The British seems to be eternally attracted by Australia, in the same way as children keep thinking about sweets and chocolate.

In school, classmates talked about going to Australia for gap year, working, surfing, enjoying sunshine, and speaking English in a different accent.

At work, colleague felt like spending a week or two in Australia, enjoying sunshine, having barbecue by a beach, and going round deserts. The more keen souls even thought about moving to Australia for a year or two of work, presuming having the same pastimes as those going for holidays.

On TV, programmes sending people to Australia to 'taste a new life' or 'buy a beautiful holiday home' are intermittently popular. People like comparing various aspects of life and social aspects (sports, culture, way of life) with Australia - just like comparing one's progress with classmate/colleague/neighbour of a similar background.

Not to mention 'The Neighbours', the Australian soap opera which has glued British to the front of television, and caused much stir when it was treansferred away from the BBC.

While there are many reasons to make sense of this degree of obsession, it still appears slightly over the top to me as an onlooker. Apart from it being on the hemisphere and that the weather and rural areas are more exciting, the language, culture, people are not distinctively different from Britain (contrast with Asian cultures or European cultures). Why the buzz and the fuss?

After 10 years, I am still not close to being a British.