CBean

How would everyone compare their weekends in New Zealand to their weekends in the UK? I get that it's what you make of them, but just wondered what your typical weekend consists of?

IF we end up coming out next year we will be living somewhere along the Kapiti Coast, so I guess a lot quieter than the cities themselves

PennyA

My weekend in UK was great. Fantastic weather! Most other weekends consists of being indoors but THIS was an exception

Choccie

Hi

I have to say I really struggle with weekends here in NZ. Yes we can go to the mall but that only uses up 3 hours including getting there and back and that would be hanging it out!

It still amazes me that when we recently went for a meal in CHC they locked the doors about 9pm and closed at 10.

We've done all the usual places - Hanmer, Akaroa ect to death so they don't really offer any options.

Really looking forward to getting back to UK and having some choices.

Snap Shot

UK

Friday, collect groceries after work.

Saturday am short lie in then off to BMF circuit training, home for change of clothes then home made soup for lunch and read Saturday Newspaper. Afternoon spent shopping or gardening or d.i.y. or surfing the internet whilst chatting with my husband. In the evening we make and eat a nice meal. Go to pictures or a meal out occasionally.

Sunday lie in, then collect newspapers, then go for a walk, come home for lunch and read newspapers. Chill in the afternoon. Cook Sunday dinner late afternoon, husband does the ironing while I do my make ahead cooking plus make his packed lunch for Monday etc. Roast dinner with wine while watching The Antiques Roadshow.

NZ

Friday, collect groceries. Usually in the morning as I don't have a job. Well it gives me something to do.

Saturday am short lie in, breakfast, collect newspapers. Then him and me go for a 10km run as there's no BMF equivalent where we live in NZ. Other circuit training just doesn't make the grade for us here. Home for a shower and change. Have home made soup for lunch then read the paper/surf the internet. Talk to each other. Spend the afternoon redecorating as that's our current project. Can't really go shopping as the shops close at midday on a Saturday. I can't believe I've actually said on a random Saturday, 'we'll have to be quick or we'll miss the shops'. It's like shopping in 1972. We go out for a meal or to the pictures rarely.

Sunday am lie in, collect the papers, go for a walk. Home for lunch, rest of home made soup. Chill in the afternoon. Later I'll put the dinner on, he does the ironing. I do my make ahead meals for the week etc. We have our roast dinner with wine while watching the antique road show.

In summary what changed ? Well I don't have a job presently, albeit presently has being going on for months. We don't get to do circuit training anymore and we miss it.

I didn't want/would let any changes when we moved to NZ. I'm just aware of what we don't have and what we miss.

MrsFychan

we have kids only think that has changed really is that we don't visit family at the weekends now but kids have more play dates, we don't just go to swing parks we can go off to a number of beaches instead.
apart from that all rather the same, same crap just different scenery

Tom1983

UK weekends

Saturday morning - Golf or lie in
Saturday afternoon - Either attend a Wednesday match, drive to the Lakeside, Bluewater, go into Central London, another round of golf, or relax at home watching Jeff Stelling and the boys
Saturday evening - A few beers at the local pub (only if the BNP weren't having a meeting), an evening on the wii or a night time tv session.

Sunday morning - Long lie in
Sunday afternoon - Dagenham market, drive to Grays/Southend (or get the train), golf if I haven't played on saturday, prepare sunday roast meal
Sunday evening - Watch whatever football match was on sky, perhaps include spanish football, watch any recorded programmes that I missed during the week

Sometimes though, weekends were spent either at family or friends

New Zealand weekends

Saturday morning - Golf
Saturday afternoon - Northlands, Riccarton, Palms, Hagley Park, Botanical Gardens, City Centre, Sumner or stay in and relax (weather depending)
Saturday evening - Rugby, few beers, entertain the son

Sunday morning - Morning run, feed the young one breakfast, back to bed when he sleeps
Sunday afternoon - Prepare roast dinner, take young one to one of the parks close by, or a walk on Sumner/New Brighton beach
Sunday evening - entertainment with son, bed by 9

Sometimes we have friends over sat/sun afternoon.

Not a major lot has changed for our weekends apart from choice. Being in London, we did have an awful lot of choices as to what to do on a weekend. Here, not so much but there's the beaches which are a huge attraction for us. One of our favourite walks along the promenade to the Scarborough cafe. I hope they get that paddling pool sorted

I do sometimes miss a Wednesday match but given some of our supporters are a bunch of mentally retarded pricks, it's actually enjoyable not being there. The deluded ones that think Wednesday are massive or the ones that after a game abuse a player if he had a bad game. My last football game was watching Wednesday lose 5-1 at Stevenage Borough, ironic that there were a lot of twats there that match. It made me feel glad I was going and being away from them

Golf I still have, that's something that'll never go away. I cannot go without an enjoyable round of golf at a weekend.

vetnurse1

UK
Sat- go to local market, buy veg and fruit for the week, possibly go to Nottingham or Leicester city centre for a bit of shoping. Food shopping (no rush for this as open til god knows when), walk dogs for miles over country footpaths. Nice Chinese or Indian take away
Sun - car boot sale or antiques market somewhere, roast dinner, nip to B&Q, walk dogs.

NZ
Sat - go to Pak n Save, then New World to get stuff I like that I can't find in Pak n Save. Sometimes then have to go to Countdown to find stuff I like that New World ran out of (it was lettuce yesterday, can you believe??). Walk dogs. Take away - making sure to order before 8pm in case local take away decide to shut early. Also make sure you don't mind variations of butter chicken and chinese full of cauliflower and broccoli.
Sun - chance a garage sale (usually shite), go for a swim, do some cooking, walk dogs on beach. Nip to Mitre 10 Mega and decline fund raising sausage sizzle because the sausages are just...weird.

I apologise, I am little 'over' being here today.

barnsleymat

What do you mean?

My weekends in England consisted of every Friday night in town running the live music club night I ran for 6 years drinking until about 4 in the morning watching bands and listening to our DJ's surrounded with all my mates supping pints at £2.50 or drinking the bands' riders!

I'd drag myself out of bed the next day to be in the pub for 12noon before another gallon of lager before heading down to Oakwell to watch Barnsley play and then spend the evening and all day Sunday nursing a hangover.

With going out to the pubs being so expensive we rarely go out for a night out so my Saturdays usually consist of going and watching my cousins youngest playing football on the morning and I normally catch one of the first team football games in the afternoon with a 10k run inbetween then we normally take the dog somewhere on a sunday and do DIY jobs. GOD I'VE TURNED INTO ALAN PARTRIDGE!

Far less exciting but now I'm not constantly suffering with hangovers I can easily run a half marathon plus I feel much better. But I do miss the British nightlife scene, I'm not into all this going out to a restaurant carry on like so many of my workmates, it just doesn't feel right.

Bo-Jangles

UK
Friday Night - after work drinks, meal, theatre or at some do or social event
Saturday - housework, shopping, cinema and dinner out or with family or neighbours
Sunday - late breakfast out somewhere / visit family or head out for a walk and pub lunch / diy or gardening

Regular weekends away in UK / Europe and little lastminute.com breaks


NZ
Friday Night - food shopping, dinner, TV
Saturday - housework, avoid shopping at all costs, sometimes go to library / hairdressers or whatever else needs doing / window cleaning / gardening, cook dinner or make food to take to friends house for dinner and sometimes when funds permit we splash out on the occasional pizza delivery.

Sunday - ironing, cook breakfast, gardening / DIY store for something else that needs doing or fixing, occasional outing for an ice-cream / walk along the beach, cook dinner. TV and family phone calls.

Rarely manage to get out of the house far less go galivanting around the country or overseas.

TommyLuck

It won't be so much how my weekend changes;

Saturday; Cooking breakfast, playing a team sport (a couple of jars after), going to the supermarket.

Sunday; More breakfast, Any of what I didn't do on Saturday perhaps replacing a team sport with a bike ride, gym session or recovery session from the previous days exertions.

Both days interspersed with being a Dad, usually taking along the nipper to watch me play sport, or in truth playing with the kids of the other Dads in the team with the same idea.

Although what I can do here is play AND watch live sport. And on the same day. Difficult in the UK if the amateur team you play for and the professional team you support both kick off within a few of hours of each other, if not at the same time.

Also riding a bike is seemingly more pleasurable in Auckland than it is in London, plus it's not as flat and therefore more testing.

Anyway, it's more about how my wife's weekend changes;

Being able to go and see life long mates whilst I do the above, or convinced said life long mates to join her at the gym, at ours, theirs ... You get the idea.


Funny that you mention the Wednesday fans Tom ... If it makes you feel any better, the closer I got to the end of my season ticket for Spurs the more relived I was to have no choice but to give it up.

Sitting in and around some fellow fans was a real chore. How anyone bothers paying that sort of money to sit around, often in the freezing cold and moan and be miserable is beyond me!!

bassking

Haha! Know that feeling!

Weekends here in Auckland are pretty similar, just probably go for dinner a little earlier as restaurants aren't open too late (unless you're a fast food fan). I've never been out late enough for a bar or pub to close. I've just got back from a month in London and glad to be living in Nz.

Catchafire

It was 2001 that I left the UK, but I will try to compare the two, just for you.

UK

Friday - Meet my mates down town, get bladdered, go to cheesy club or for a curry.

Saturday - Go down the pub mid day, big brekkie for lunch and a couple of pints, go home, get ready for a epic night out. Go to a club (a good one like Gatecrasher), take a load of pills, dance my arse off, go home with Brazilian twins.

Sunday - Lie exhausted in bed, as Brazilian twins make me breakfast. Head down the pub. Chill out Sunday evening, listening to Kiss FM and the Sunday selection.

NZ

Friday - End of working week, after we have put the kids to bed, either the wife or myself cooks a lovely meal, with a couple of bottles of wine.

Sat - Off fishing or hang with the kids if my wife go horse riding.

Sun - If it's Summer, then BBQ on the deck, put the Sauna on and outdoor bath, and count the stars in the Milky Way

So two very different way of spending the weekend. But really happy to doing what we do now.

TommyLuck

Top post.

I guess one has to go thought, and enjoy, the pre-2001 weekends to appreciate what you have now.

It's a different life, right? Not better, nor worse. However, just as satisfying.

Catchafire

Exactly mate.

My clubbing days are over now, as is the drive to succeed in a ruthless sales environment. Since 2001 I have travelled the world, lived out of a backpack, been poor by many peoples standards and loved every minute of it.

NZ is NOT the UK, as many threads have highlighted recently. It really up to the individual to make the most of their lives, no matter what part of the world it may be.

marblep

My weekend in the UK consisted of going shopping, regardless of whether I needed anything. Then, because it is the absolute hub of culture, I'd spend the day at art galleries, or watching the latest movies. And then! of course, the restaurants were the best. We'd eat out and never need to eat again for a week. Yep. UK is the best. Can't wait to go home.

Tongue in cheek. Oh, yes, some of us Kiwis have a sense of humour.