PerthNorg

Perth on sale to the Brits

Scanning then news headlines this morning I came across a news story that has been picked up by the UK pres about a British ex-pat selling his life in Perth on eBay after a marriage bust up.

Ian Usher, 44, reckons that after his bust up with his wife, he wants a clean start and is auctioning his marital home, his Mazda car, a jet ski, a set of kite-surfing gear, bodyboards and a mountain bike among other things. Which he's called the "Aussie lifestyle".

What most of the reports failed to mention is that the auction will only start June 22, in the meantime Ian has set up a blog www.alife4sale.com to pimp his 'product'. This is the more interesting part of the story for me, because Ian is effectively selling Perth and its attractions to the Brits in a much more effective way than Lara Bingle could ever have done. From his blog:

16 Mar 2008

Each year in March, Cottesloe Beach hosts "Sculpture By The Sea". Late yesterday afternoon, I headed to the coast with a couple of friends, and spent a couple of hours wandering around the amazing mixture of unusual and interesting sculptures on display, both on the beach and on the grass terraces above.

Turning the beach area into a sculpture park brings visitors from near and far, and last year over 100,000 people visited the show. I like the unexpected aspect of this event. A very unusual mix of people sun bathing or swimming in the ocean, young children ignoring the 'no touching' signs to play with this somehow odd looking playground equipment invading their beach and passers-by, fully dressed but often bare-foot, taking pictures and commenting on the thoughts of the artist. What a cool thing to do to - take your shoes off to go to a museum.

Cottesloe Beach is a beautiful place and many people turned up for the event or to enjoy the warm evening sun. Afterwards, like many others, we ate fish and chips, sat on the grass terrace, sipped a glass of wine, and watched the sun slowly sink into the Indian Ocean in a spectacular display of orange and pinks.

Ian has been interviewed by the Independent and the Sun and made its rounds on most of the major UK papers.

I see no mention that you can't actually already live in Perth to bid on the auction. So if you're up for a bargain, the bidding price is expected to start at $1.