Last week saw me going to my 1st ever rugby game in New Zealand. We were lucky enough to be asked to go and watch the Southland Stags ('us') versus North Harbour ('them'). Well what a fantastic day: we went for breakfast first to The Batch's sister cafe (Three Bean) and I had yummy eggs benedict with salmon (my new favourite breakfast of all time!) and the OH (Other Half) had a pancake stack with maple syrup, berries and bacon. We were both a bit dubious about the maple syrup / bacon combo but it really does work - if you haven't tried it then do. Then we were picked up and taken to the game. I certainly don't want to offend anyone when I say this but the experience at the match itself was strange. As someone accustomed to watching Wales on at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, singing and cheering, the camaraderie of the whole place and the passion that the rugby ignites in the Welsh race - it was quite different at Rugby Park Stadium, Invercargill. Not that the NZ'ers are not passionate about rugby - you only have to watch the Haka / the fans watching the AB's to know that is far from the case. But something was lacking as the boys raced toward the try line. As I looked around it was as if everyone was in front of a HUGE television and we were watching it on screen en masse. There were occasional bouts of shouting - mainly from a strong Welsh voice beside me: "drive it Southland!". Also, I want to stress that I didn't not enjoy myself, I had a great time - it was just, well...different. It will be interesting to watch Wales play in the RWC in NZ - to see if we bring the singing / atmosphere with us or if indeed it is contained within the magnificent walls of the Millennium Stadium. 'We' won too - in the final minute - so that was a real buzz.
My 'something new' that I have learnt since I spoke to you guys & dolls last is that we don't have bin men here. You have to put your recycle bin and your rubbish bin 1 metre apart on the kerb - both facing outwards. Then along comes the bin truck and it stops at each bin as a mechanical arm protracts, picks up the bin and empties it onto the truck. Amazing huh?! It would be interesting to find out how effective this is - time wise - against the '2-bins at a time' routine they have in the UK with regards time vs wages for bin men, etc. Maybe it's just me who thinks that would be interesting - but then I have always been interested in stats! (Yes I can see you all putting right-handed 'L' hand gestures on your forehead).
Well I can't quite believe that I have been here for almost 3 months already. Sometimes things happen and I start thinking 'my dad would enjoy this' or 'my mum would love to see this' and similarly about my brothers and of course 'the girls'. A group of women came into work the other week, drew up a load of seats to one table and were literally howling with laughter for a couple of hours. It was a delight to hear but it did make me think of the beautiful ladies that I call friends at home. I miss my dinners with the 'Oooodex girls' - I miss my morning natters with the NCC rabble (and of course the cake), I miss falling asleep after one too many at Amy & Jason's, I miss dinner & (too many) drinks and Mr & Mrs M's and I miss my BFF - and sometimes I just want to sit with her and have a rant over a bottle of wine (or 2). But enough of that - too much labouring on it makes me think too much and that's never good.
We have bought the car that I didn't jinx last time I wrote! It's a very nice red sporty number - with a V6 engine (I don't have a clue what this means, but apparently it's a good thing). The cars out here really hold their value - there's not so much of a 'get rid of it when it's 5 years old' culture out here like there is in the UK. I think it's good that people place more value on things such as cars but it does mean that for a 10 year old car you could still be looking at paying the equivalent of £6,000...that would be a very rare car indeed in the UK! Talking of cars, I walked passed a car the other day that had a sticker in the windscreen that had the McD's logo on it and it said 'Drive Thru VIP' - this piqued my interest. I assumed it was a joke sticker that implied that you served 1st (obviously this wouldn't be the case in a drive thru) so I got home and Googled it and the only reference I could find online was that it means you get free food! How bizarre. If anyone knows any more than that then please feel free to leave a comment educating me further ;-)
My vocabulary seems to be increasing over here as I have subconsciously adopted some NZ terms...for example, I now use the word 'wee'. Not in the sense of "I really need a..." (it's always been there for that) but in the sense of "It's just a wee muffin" ... "In a wee bit" and so on. I try so hard not to say it but sometimes it slips out. I am also currently battling the desire to say "ay" at the end of a sentence. In the UK we use "like" and “right” a lot - such as “I went to the pub, right” whereas here it's "ay" - "We could go there afterwards ay" - and it's very hard not to get into that habit. Our muffins in work the other week were pear and white chocolate whip - it meant that people who asked me what was in them had no idea what I was talking about when I responded. I pronounce 'pear' as 'pair' but of here it's more of a 'peeeuh' - 2 syllables. The same with the word Dairy - here they pronounce it 'deary' which is confusing until you get used to it, especially as what we call 'newsagents' in the UK are called 'dairies' here. There you go, more education for you all :o)
Another thing: they get away with so much here on the radio. I can't imagine Chris Moyles and the team being able to say half of the stuff that they say here. The other morning they had a phone in about the most risque place you've 'christened' for want of a better term. You'd never get away with that in the UK over breakfast - but also the words they use borderline on swearing in the UK but are acceptable here. It's all highly entertaining for us after experiencing the extreme restrictions on British Broadcasting.
Enough of the comparisons - I don't want anyone to think that I want to be back in the UK because that's not true. I absolutely love this country and the people in it - I just like to point out the differences for my fellow UK'ers.
It's Sunday morning here for me (actually lunchtime) and we spent yesterday driving around an absolutely beautiful place called The Catlins. We went to Slope Point and then into Curio Bay to see Porpoise Bay and the Petrified Forest. It is such a divine place and ideally we need to go there for a weekend so that we can see more of it. There are signs dotted around saying 'give the seals and sea lions space' and 'Never approach a dolphin, let them come to you' and 'Stay 10 metres away from the penguins' ...all this promise and we didn't see a thing - not even a dog. So we'll just have to go back a few times until we do :o) Then Wales were playing Argentina last night so we stayed up again for that - we won (yey!). Today's plans are to rest up by the fire - the OH has a cough & cold so he needs to rest up to try and get rid of it. My plan is to read my book and settle by the fire :o) It's pretty cold here at the moment - not below zero or anything but the wind chill can be biting. We had more snow last weekend - it didn't stick with us (we're too coastal apparently) but it caused some chaos elsewhere. Most roads into Invercargill were closed, as was Queenstown airport and Wellington for a period. The owners of the cafe had been away for a week and were supposed to land here last Sunday but they couldn't get back until Tuesday so it was pretty hectic but we were fine. It was lovely to see snow again through the window.
Not long until Mine & the OH's birthday. It used to be on the 1st day of Autumn but now it's on the 1st day of Spring...it's these kind of changes that you don't take into consideration when you emigrate 12,000 miles away. It's nice though - almost lambing season for us and we have seen some seriously adorable teeny tiny lambs already. I just need to bend my head around when I should be planting my Summer plants...
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