irnbru14

Work related differences from the UK.

I was in a constuction Health & Safety course thing not long after I got here, and the guy started talking about Dogmen and Dogging, I giggled because as far as I am aware Dogging is something dodgy done in car parks at night back home, what they actually were talking about was a Banksman (and Banking) who is the guy who conducts crane lifts and should back out reversing vehicles etc...

Plasterboard is called GIB (short for Gibraltar Board, so a trade name been attached to the product).

A joiner is a carpenter and a carpenter is a joiner...

And I got funny looks when using the word Ironmongery...

cappuccino

Ah, traffic lights. Took me a while to get used to not having amber between red and green!

Mgee

PerkyNana. The name always makes me think of a mutton-dressed-as-a-lamb granny who's just had her t*ts done. But I guess this is just a testimony to my own weirdness

walkietalkie

Admittedly I haven't actually taken the plunge and moved out to NZ yet but I have spent several months out there for the last few years and there are a few things that took a bit of getting used to.

Firstly the deer farms, until I visited NZ I had only ever seen deers in woods and forests, so to see so many penned into fields was a little weird.

Also the way all the roads are so straight, and how it takes about an hour and a half drive to get anywhere.

Oh and of course pineapple lumps......but they are sooo yummy!

southerner

Like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpj2oVJhYjM

Am Loolah

That's spooky, saw this ad again this evening having not seen it for a while and thought "ooo, must put that on BE, that'll make the folks back in the UK giggle ..." beat me to it!

Matewx

Can we tidy our posts please??

walkietalkie

Haha I love that advert.

Also love this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA

there was also the Chupa Chups advert with the puppet but I can't seem to find it on YouTube.

Am Loolah

Yes Mother ...

sr71

How about togs?

Genesis

The ad for Toyo Hilux where the bulls end up shagging in the truck and on the way to said union they call a ram a 'sheep shagger'...priceless!!

Weird for mainstream TV ads!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But bloody great!!

Bellasmum

Since the reprimand from Bev I have been looking carefully for weird things and I found two. Not sure if the man picking his nose in Queen Street counts as he clearly wasn't a born Kiwi.

BUT what I found that is really "weird" in my book is the All Black shop in Queen Street still has in large letters ....

"All Blacks Champions of the World"

Afterall 1987 is a long time ago !

Another that comes to mind (prompted by the traffic light comments) is....

People who know that the orange light means slow down who speed up when they see it.

I could you lots of "weird" old practices from the dark ages still around in govt departments due to a lack of 2009 electronic resources but better not seeing as I work there.

Wooly_Cow

....and the sandwich bread isn't thick enough for sandwiches which fall apart in the lunch box

Wooly_Cow

So I’ve been here about a year…here’s my list of what’s weird (sorry for any repeats)

• So barefoot in winter is of course weird but even worse is people you go around in just socks in the wet. (I know it can be a poverty issue but a lot of people I see in Welly…it’s a lifestyle choice
• Blanketman – he ‘kindly’ made a detour from one side of the pavement to the other last week, just to cough on me – nice!
• The sweetness of everything – including sausages, sausage rolls, and cakes loaded with so much sugar the rush lasts hours! – no wonder they say ‘sweet as’
• Adverts on TV for ‘free lowering spring kits with every set of mags’ – hmm I thought they wanted to discourage ‘boy racers’
• Adverts that say ‘ get some great New Zealand Pork’ in the ad break of ‘The Great Sperm Race’
• Like has been said before farming stuff adverts in prime time – yes of course it’s a farming country but just how many more sales of ‘all in one wormer’ or ‘ Coxy’s wire fencing’ are they going to sell?
• Pineapple lumps – why?
• E numbers – the other day I googled the E numbers on an average pack of sweets (sorry lollies – that’s weird too). 4 were not use in Europe and one was plain dangerous!
• A nation of ‘petrol heads’ that all go around driving automatics!
• Saturday parking – it’s free but you can only stay 2 hours – huh ?
• School donations that aren’t ‘donations’ but are fee’s
• Netball – it ISN’T a proper sport – it’s a load of grown woman, too old for short skirts throwing a ball around
• Kiwi soccer – Paul Ifill as a major player – nuf said
• Petrol prices – everywhere is the same – is it the law or something?

There’s loads more but that’s enough for now

Trev and Jayne

ha ha, just seen this thread which is hilarious. Ive been here 6 weeks now and noticed a lot of these things. I find the rave about heatpumps wierd, arent they just air con/heating units that even countries such as vietnam and cambodia have! Why is central heating and insulation not the norm here? Also, i've heard I might get funny looks if I say router and not rowter!

Not complaining though, I like the wierdness, I know a few kiwi's and aussies in the UK who find our obsessions wierd!

keep it going