P2L

Shepslady you're alive!!!!!!!

You've been AWOL for ages. How's life treating you??

shepslady

Wow nice that someone noticed. Thanks.
Lifes been great I have a new grandson bon on New Years Day, Noah Matthew & he is adorable. Lives in Nebraska with my son & his wife so dont see much of him but get loads of photos & online videos & that litle tyke has completely stolen my heart.
Hope to be making a trip home to NZ in the next month or two so cant wait for that....look out NZ I hope your ready for my return!!
Hope life has been treating you well too!

Campbells

As "they" say... Don't sweat the small stuff.

I remember pre-NZ being very active in this forum, was great, but, you would hear folk saying that they were going back to England because they couldn’t get Heinz beans or whatever it was in NZ. I mean, come on.

If you are going to move to NZ and their accent and sayings and going to get to us I think a lot of folk are setting themselves up for failure here.

If the glass half full? Is the zebra white?

It is good that all these Kiwi saying are up here so you can understand that the Kiwi is different, well hello.

Another positive way to look at things is that if you come over here with kids the Kiwi kids are not going to torture your kids because they talk funny ( to the Kiwis). That says a lot as they are just mini-Kiwis.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Campbells

One lump or two ?

cyndi

Congratulations on the grandson shepslady. So your son is living in Nebraska, (poor soul) where abouts? Managed the great escape from there 14 months ago. Don't miss anything about it especially the weather, loving it here in NZ.

shepslady

Thanks......yep hes living in Omaha Nebraska & he seems to like it real well. Ive been there twice & can honestly say its NOT a place I would want to live. When I went to visit with the baby we woke the first morning to ridiculously freezing temperatures then the second morning we got snowed it. I dont know how they live there, I though Indiana was bad enough but Nebraska makes this place feel good
Congrats on moving to NZ, especially coming from Nebraska....where in NZ are you?

cyndi

We're in Ashburton, about 1 1/4 hrs south of Christchurch, certainly not a touristy town although they are trying, It's grown a ton since we've been here. Coming from Nebraska as you'll know the Canterbury plains suit us just fine & we're thoroughly enjoying our new lives here. We used to be about 2 hrs west of Omaha beside a small town (about a third of the size of Ashburton) called Aurora. You may see it on the map it's beside Grand Island. We had an acreage back there & live in the sticks over here too. I honestly can't see us ever living in a town we like our space too much.

Our 15 yr old son is in Venturers here, he was in Scouts back in the States & although he loved Scouts, he absolutely loves being in Venturers here. They have done so much, a 3 day tramp around Hanmer Springs, a weekend up at Akaroa, a weeks tramp down in Queenstown, & forever up in Christchurch doing different activities. Spent a weekend last month up at Clearwater raft racing against other Venturer groups & at present his lot spend just about every evening at Lake Hood building (well trying) to build their own raft for the next lot of racing. If you could see the pics we've taken so far of this adventure you'd die. We've never laughed so much in our lives. I had a sore belly through laughing the other night. He's the only "foreigner" in the group & the other kids just took him in like one of their own.

Like you though we have a kid in a different country, our daughter is in the US Army serving in Kaisershlatern Germany, everything crossed that that is where she'll stay too. We are so excited as she'll be here on the 10th April for 16 days & will have her 20th birthday over here too. God I can't wait to see her again it's been almost 2 yrs. I'm dreading taking her back to the airport though.

RobClubley

Back on topic

Have you noticed the way a lot of kiwis pronounce words that end in wn, grown, known etc.

They seem to emphasise the 'wn' more than the English so it sound more like growan, knowan etc.

shepslady

Sorry to get off topic so will send Cyndi a private message but to get back to your comment. You very well may be right but to "our" Kiwi ears thats not how we hear it so could be your "English" ears that hear it like that huh? Is it really a big deal

sky

It was just an innocent remark about 'kiwi ways of saying stuff'

sky

I work with the general public all day now and have noticed that too Rob also I have to really slow down when I'm talking to folk or else they just look really confused and blank lol
May be more to do with me having a Leeds accent too though as it's a pretty quick accent anyways. I've been asked loads of times if I'm from Ireland by the kiwis and I never imagined a Leeds accent would sound similar to an Irish one.

southerner

These kiwi ears can hear it. Nobody said it was a big deal, just an observation, and probably a very interesting one too, for those about to move here.

RobClubley

I find I have to slow down too - my accent is Wakefield and I too have been accused of Irishness

Small world! Where in Leeds are you from? My wife grew up in Beeston which is where we lived for the four years before moving to NZ

RobClubley

Sorry, didn't mean to seem rude or offend you with my comment.

And no it's no big deal at all, just an observation.

sky

Morley

We lived in Caldergrove in Wakefield for a few years too