uk+kiwi

[QUOTE=StevieB] Yes. And since you mention it I have to sit on the fence a little bit with this one since I have an Italian RC Grandmother whose son, my father, rebelled from a life of daily mass to the point of not having his own children baptised, and I am thus relaxed enough not to be stressed out by what one could consider minor religious differences when looking at the overall picture?!

Am Loolah

[QUOTE=uk+kiwi] Getting back to PC when we had a childrens' nursery in Londinium (Am now Roman) we were told we couldn't celebrate Christmas it had to be a Winter festival/Easter had to be a Spring festival. If we chose to do that for our (sorry) majority English middle class kids aged under 3, we would also have to do every other religious festival in the world. We also on the weekly menu had to introduce these children with no teeth to multi-cultural foods, chinese, indian etc - they wanted baked beans mashed up!
We had to spend I think (talking 8 years ago now) about £200 on puzzles displaying multi-cultural families, families not made up of the "bog standard" 2 adults/children (get my drift and please, please, don't forget the "boy" doll, complete with appendage.

So was no great suprise for me to come home from a girls nite out one evening to find hubby had rebelled and created illuminated display in bay window of african/afro-caribbean female doll in compromising position with European/Caucasian male doll (just after Hugh Grant & Desiree thing!)

StevieB

[QUOTE=Am Loolah] Crazy ain't it? Why can't we just be 'The Human Race' and leave it at that. I'm sure ginger cats don't have prejudice against black and white ones...what's wrong with the world?...oh..that's right..all the above!

theguitardoctor

[QUOTE=StevieB] Hear Hear ! But..........

Our pet snake is a complete racist...he'll only eat white mice ! Tried him with a spotted black and white one and he looked at it like "F*** Off, I'll bite your hand if you try and give me another one of them!".

Needless to say, that mouse went in the bin and we have to get only completely white mice now!

Haven't caught hime wearing a pointy hood or burning any crosses as yet, so there's hope for him still.....

StevieB

[QUOTE=theguitardoctor] LOL...thank (insert religious deity) for the Doc, Lighten the mood! Maybe I don't give chicken breast a fair go, as I prefer the dark meat!

theguitardoctor

[QUOTE=StevieB] I'm a breast man myself....!

Jude J

[QUOTE=theguitardoctor]
speaking of food, I was a bit suprised at the bland food in NZ comment. I haven't found that at all! Some things taste different, like bacon, but most of the food is excellent. When we first arrived we ate out at least 3 times a week cos the food was so good and cheap!
Who else that's here already doesn't like the food? And what is it that's not good? Just interested.

sky

Don't like the sausages (gagging smiley)
If you buy the right bacon it's really tastey but then I like smoked bacon, I always bought it rather than the plain yucky stuff in the uk.
Lurve the pumpkin .. I made pumkin scones again the other day and sent my hubby to work with a job lot for the girls he works with and they'd never had them before which I was a bit surprised about.
My sons girlfriends mother (did you follow) made chocolate yorkshire pudding the other day and we come from yorkshire and I've never heard of it ... bet it's nice though, may try making it.

Jude J

Oh yes the sausages! We eat the gluten free ones due to hubbys health and they are ok.
I love pumpkin too. It was funny when we first got here. We went for dinner somewhere and hubby ordered the roast. He asked me what the orange squares were and I didn't know. He didn't eat them and when the waitress cleared the plates he asked her what it was. She thought he was joking! I then told her that in England we only used pumpkins to make lanterns at halloween, and that we didn't know it was edible
Only thing with it, the skin is so tough and hard to cut I dont bother with it myself but love it roasted or in soup.

kwprwn

I dont buy the sausages at the supermarket, we get them from the butchers and they are much nicer than the prepacked ones at the supermarket, they arent as rubbery, and I swear they increased to twice the size of the raw one when cooked

I dont like the pumpkin, but hubby does (being kiwi by birth) and he also loves the kumara ( i can take or leave that) . I wouldnt say the food is bland here, its all personal taste and this is coming from someone who is particularly fussy about their food

uk+kiwi

Love both pumpkin and kumara . I would also guess that pumpkin as food came way before jack-o-lanterns! For some reason I don't think pumpkin is that common in the UK, unlike in NZ & USA, but we always make soup if we carve one out at Halloween. But the actual carving - now I could take or leave that!

spackster

Unfortunately we dont do pumpkin or kumara, but what we did find last time we were over are Pam's marinaded mussels, they were to die for, also the size of whole fish and they are so much fresher.

Batty

Most people will say the way they hate the way the UK is going all PC but then in the same breath say that the way people talk here embarrasses them or makes them feel uncomfortable. D'you not think that this is why things will become more PC here?

I like the humour here - I like the way they say whatever comes into their heads and if you want to get embarrassed or uncomfortable, well it's up to you. It's a personal choice whether or not you want to let something upset you. Instead of people making complaints about inappropriate comments why don't they just give the perpetrator a dig in the ribs? Or somewhere more 'appropriate'?

And, as for the racist comments.... I had an encounter with a group of young Samoan people last week where one asked me for $1 for her bus journey. As I went to get it from my purse one of her friends said "don't ask THEM". That DID upset me. I have never acted differently to a person of another colour - mostly because I don't notice - and to hear that coming towards me! Sh!t I've veered between understanding how non-white people must feel when they're subjected to racism and anger that this 'child' looked at me and branded me as something called 'THEM'. I think I'd rather be called Asian. Or a Paddy!

I think that Asian people are called that because most people don't know which country exactly they come from and not because Kiwis are racist per se.

Tooanfrom

You my trusting friend have been "had"--how many times can you ask for just a $ in an hour? Beats working for a living!

uk+kiwi

Yes probably. I like the humour also, I just noticed unlike previous visits how un PC it was in that people do just say what they think which is considered totally acceptable. Occasionally it did make me feel uncomfortable since I just thought it was so different to the way people speak in England, but no-one else was bothered so I didn't let it bother me either. Just a bit more like Aus than I had noticed previously. And also 'caus the UK is just going ridiculous. Good to have a balance I think.

Sad about the $1 bus fare. But good that you were happy to help.