Interesting things

Here are some interesting things we have noticed whilst being here - we will try and write a blog for what has happened this past week soon - please also look for the blog immediately prior to this one as it is also new.

Everyday over here you see something funny or strange just because of the sheer number of people over here and also the sheer number of people you see everyday. Last week I saw this lady walking a little white scottish terrier on my way to work. With the footpath being quite narrow, they had to walk in single file, so the lady went first, and the dog towed along behind her, and you could see she really had to tug it along. When there was nobody walking the other way the dog moved from single file to walking beside the lady.
I also saw a guy riding a bike with a basket on the front, with a little dog in it barking furiously at all the passing people and cars on the road! He must have had such a headache by the time they arrived at their destination!
Around here there are quite a few people who bike to work, but the funny thing is, although they are saving the planet by biking, they are harming themselves as the pollution is quite bad, but heaps of them wear these gas mask type things.

A few other things that I have noticed:
At the chemist down the road from our house you can buy flea treatments for your cat

They lock the door at the laundromat at 8.30pm to stop homeless people sleeping in there – I didn’t realise this until the other day (during the day) I went to the laundromat to dry our towels, and it smelt really bad and I couldn’t work out why until I noticed the homeless guy asleep on the bench. He eventually got up, but he just stood watching everyone doing their washing – I guess he misses the usual goings on of life...? I find the whole homeless people thing really hard to handle, especially when you make eye contact with them and they ask for money. There are quite a few around generally outside the tube stations.

One thing I love about the Brits (see I do say nice stuff too) is that they call things like they are ie ATM's are called "The Hole in the wall", and their Eftpos cards are called "Chip and Pin" because it has a chip and a pin! (they have no idea what you are talking about when you refer to it as Eftpos!)

One thing we have really struggled with over here is the lack of businesses that accept Eftpos. I think we can blame NZ for making us so reliant on our eftpos cards that we never carry cash, and you can find yourself in some very sticky situations over here if you have no cash and only your card - you might as well have no money!

I think I finally understand now why everyone in NZ says “the brits love kiwis – they think we’re good hard workers”. I find this really funny, as I have noticed the large number of cup of teas had at my work – a sure sign that people aren’t doing anything :o), and also the extremely specific roles people fill. A good example of this is when I was working with that disabled lady and I had to take her to a course that she was enrolled for. It was offsite so we had to catch a taxi to the venue. As we left the course at the end of the day, we went through reception, and I asked if the receptionist could call us a taxi – a standard practice in NZ – she honestly looked at me as if I had two heads! Nope, obviously not part of her very limited job description – even for a disabled lady! I could’t believe how rude she was! So I had to flag one – no small feat for a Kiwi girl who had never had to flag a black cab before! That leads me to another point, anyone that works in customer service or some aspect of customer service is either rude or completely indifferent towards you – you are just a number. You become so used to this that when you do get a friendly, joking person, you are so taken aback you have to ask them to repeat themselves in case you were imaging things! I now understand why people say they are surprised at how friendly everyone in NZ is!

We have also noticed that Personal Assistants (PA’s) over here get paid quite hansomely in comparison to home. PA’s can earn more than people such as myself in science – even with a Masters!
The British find Kiwi’s and Aussies overly friendly – ie they think that you are hitting on them (didn’t happen to me but that’s what they said about my Aussie work mate!)

Also we have been learning a few terms/sayings that the Brits say:
"British term" = Kiwi equivalent

"Rough" = Hungover - "You're looking a bit rough" or "I'm feeling a bit rough"
"Muppet"= A dick head - "Don't do that you muppet"
"Asians"= Indians
"Orientals"= Asians
“Rubbish” = Crap
They also always use words such as Mad (said Mard with a british accent) ie Crazy
and Fab (Farb with a british accent) ie we'd prob say awesome
Haha we have also been talking about getting a wireless router for our computer, and we nearly wet ourselves when our flatmates started referring to it as a rooter!
We have also been trying to teach our flatties a few Kiwi words such as Puku, Kia Ora, Rangi,