Odd things I've noticed since moving!

[Jen78]

So, over the last few months there have been a few things I have found a bit odd and different over here. Nothing important but things that made me go 'oh, that's odd'. I thought if I'd share mine, people can join in with what they thought!

1. Traffic lights go straight to green from red.

2. Shampoo and Conditioner generally come in separate bottles. I've only found 1 cheap 2-in1 from The Reject Shop.

3. There's a shop called The Reject Shop!

4. To get prawn crackers you either have to deep fry them yourself or go to a Chinese Restaurant, you can't buy them as crisps.

5. Sweets are called lollies.

6. Crisps are called chips, but so are chips. Chip chips are referred to as hot chips!

There are probably more but its late and I should be in bed! Would love to hear what other people found strange.

Jen x

 

[qprdan123]

yeah, and what do they call flip flops??

[Jen78]

Ooh yes, that made me giggle when youngest was packing for camp and on her packing list was 'thongs' !!

[qprdan123]

we lived in NZ for 8 years, they are Jandals there....

[Rossmoyne]

When we first arrived in Oz I had problems identifying.....

Courgette is called Zuchini

Aubergine is called Eggplant 

Duvet is called  Dooner

... and I have often thought that we need to have a dictionary of terms so everyone understands what is being talked about,

 

[dunnyboy]

Yes, traffic lights go from red to green.... but Perth drivers still sit waiting for a colour they like before moving....

capsicum....... still a pepper in my books.

light bulbs.....globes

 

[2871094]

The oddest one for me is 'manchester' which means bed sheets.

[dunnyboy]

And the term  'Manchester' came about because that was what was written on the side of the crate when it arrived from the UK.

[Tigerbalm]

Morning tea is an actual thing. 

I get laughed at every time I say "route"and don't pronounce it "rowte"

I also got laughed at today for saying "off licence" instead of "bottleo"

Wood fired pizzas seem to be the USP in every single pub, bar and restaurant 

Great post Jen!

[Jen78]

Oh, and I don't think I could ever call a vest top a 'singlet'!

[dunnyboy]

On ‎26‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 21:36, Tigerbalm said:

Morning tea is an actual thing. 

I get laughed at every time I say "route"and don't pronounce it "rowte"

I also got laughed at today for saying "off licence" instead of "bottleo"

Wood fired pizzas seem to be the USP in every single pub, bar and restaurant 

Great post Jen!

Haha... don't go routing around...

[qprdan123]

Whats the crack there with pronouncing data?, is is it dartar?.

 

[Jen78]

Yes, or I'd spell it dahta! Hubby's struggling with this as he uses it in work he just says it our way!

[2871094]

Prow-ject, not project.

Dayboo, not debut.  I particularly have difficulty accepting that one.  I mean what next?  Men-noo instead of menu?

Smoko, though I don't hear that used much.

[ali]

New country - new language lol

[Rossmoyne]

I love all the little idiosyncracies of language.... makes life interesting.   

[ali]

9 hours ago, Rossmoyne said:

I love all the little idiosyncracies of language.... makes life interesting.   

Me too.

[JaseandAnne]

So, for me in the Motor trade, I get a lot of the Darta one, I have to remind them that the android in Star Trek was Data in DAAAARRRRTTTAAA .

Brake discs are "rotors" here and if some thing is on factory back order its Ex-East because thats where it will arrive/come from!

I work with a Kiwi and a south african, as well as Aussies, so I get some funny words for some things from them. although they both say Data!! 

[2871094]

Difficult to write but I'll try;

So poms tend to extend into 3 syllables and call it Man-dure-rah, but then we're told it's pronounced with 2 syllables (sort of) as Man-dura.  OK then, so I applied this to Min-darie, but apparently it's Min-dar-ree.  It seems the pattern is there is no pattern.

Is it me, but has anyone else noticed any new poms calling it, just for a short period before adjusting, Joon-da-loop?

[dunnyboy]

project pronounced pro- ject

suprising how many calls we make, and the eastern states cannot pronounce Baldivis..... they say it so it sounds like Bol- divvies or BALD- IVYS

 

That Nicky Chapman was great at mispronouncing name places on want down under.

[2871094]

GPO is not general post office apparently.  It's a general power outlet.  AKA a plug socket.

No twin and earth cable.  It's TPE or thermoplastic elastomers.  (I had to look that up.)

Plumbing copper is based on old imperial sizes 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch and very heavy gauge by comparison.  It's sold in metric and imperial size depending where you go, but it's really imperial.  UK pipe is definitely made metric.  Plumbing is a very different game here.  Also no sleeving of copper pipes through walls or in concrete that I've seen yet.

Electrician's aren't compelled to test the earth readings on circuits protected with RCD's.  Sadly there is too much emphasis on RCD's being used to make crappy circuits compliant and not enough emphasis on good workmanship.

Older houses often have exposed live cable joints where the tape has come off over the years.  Do not go crawling in the attic without turning off the power.  (No Aussie sparky today would joint cables like this, by the way.)

No ring main circuits.  All radials.  Be very concerned if you see 20 amp or bigger fuses on your power outlet circuits.  Really should be 16 amp.  (My house had 32 amp!)

Electric power cupboard sited by your front door accessible by anyone.  Bear this in mind if you have security cameras as they don't work when the burglar switches off your house.

House roofs generally have a much shallower pitch compared to typical UK houses.  Makes them rather useless as storage spaces, especially where big air ducts are in the way.

Aussie houses like metal roofs, but if you get a normal concrete tiled house, there probably won't be any sarking (felt), so leafs and crap will be all in your roof space.  This also makes them even more useless as storage spaces.

Gas pipes are fine to run in a cavity wall (illegal in UK).  Water and electrics also run in cavities.  Discouraged in UK.  Where cables are chased into walls, no mechanical protection applied, i.e. sheaths, conduits.  Cable just pressed into a groove and plastered over.

Full wet plastering rare.  Mostly gap filling of plasterboard.  Quicker and cheaper.

Stored cold water tanks very rare in normal metro area houses.  This is good in my opinion.  Can be very different if you're off grid in the bush.

Washing machines go in the laundry, not the kitchen.  This is good.  Many do like their top loaders still.  This is bad.

Everyone has an electric garage door.

Post box in the middle of your lawn.

Lack of footpaths in older suburbs. Everyone drives everywhere.  Shopping precinct car parks are often lethal for pedestrians.  Severe lack of provision for walkers.

Asbestos fences on old houses, metal on new.  No timber fences.

Everything stained from the bore water retic.

People rarely park on the road in regular suburbs where houses have drives and garages.  And if you do expect complaints from the neighbours and possibly the bin lorry.

Overhead domestic street power lines almost everywhere.  Some areas (Subiaco) finally realising the benefits of burying their cables, but it's expensive.  Whenever there is bad weather, someone always gets power cut because of the vulnerable overhead network.  (It also looks awful.)

Low quality single glazing to the point where you think you left a window open to find it is actually closed.  Even newer houses.

Dust, proper dirt type dust, all over your furniture from outdoor and poorly filtered air constantly falling through your evap cooler vents into your house.  Doesn't matter that the cooler isn't running.

Metal door frames that you will never be able to relocate when renovating.  Plus the paint chips off, and door hinges are welded to the frame.  Makes swapping a door a bit trickier as you have to make the door fit the hinges rather than the door-and-hinge-set fit the door frame.

House thermal insulation.  What's that?

Drains in the floor of you bathroom and toilet.  These are not for washing the floor.  They are for overflow of sinks etc.  Note that older baths, sinks, toilets did not have overflow outlets.  Today they do (mostly) so you don't actually need the floor overflow drains now.

Never park or camp under a gum tree.  They randomly drop huge limbs and branches as part of their natural life cycle.

Weird weekly price cycle for petrol.  Cheapest day at the moment seems to be Monday, but it has been Wednesday and Thursday in the past.  Why they have this cycle is unclear.

Storm water from gutters go into underground 'soak wells' to return the water to the earth and retain the natural balance of moisture in the ground.  In UK, such water is often (not always) taken away to sewer (and you're charged for it).  Soak wells can get blocked up and can cause problems when they do.

Houses are built on concrete 'rafts' rather than on footings and foundations.  Perth's sandy geology enables this technique as sand doesn't compress much. However it's not uncommon in older houses to see settlement cracks.

All houses are generally bungalows, and where conversions of these bungalows are made to make them 'double storey', they are often a timber-framed one-roomed tit on the top that overheats in summer and freezes in winter.

 

[Warnbro]

The one that always gets me is "marone" for the colour maroon.

I was faction head (team captain) of the "marone" team in primary school. I always used to refer to it as maroon faction and the Aussie kids would always correct me and say "marone". Purple faction was called Purple, Orange faction was called Orange. But for some strange reason, Maroon faction was "Marone"??

But the band Maroon Five is not referred to here as Marone Five and people stranded on desert islands are marooned and not maroned?

I have never got it, I never will.

[Rossmoyne]

I had a big chuckle at that  @Warbro...... Malaga is another one that makes me chuckle too...... Named after the city of Malaga in Spain, it is pronounced Malarga!   

[ali]

2 hours ago, Rossmoyne said:

I had a big chuckle at that  @Warbro...... Malaga is another one that makes me chuckle too...... Named after the city of Malaga in Spain, it is pronounced Malarga!   

My hubby's interview and they asked "do you know where we're located" and he said Malaga (as he would in the UK), as which they laughed and said Malarga

[dunnyboy]

Was watching the news the other evening...Cambridge is now Cam-bridge.... we came from Buckingham in Buckinghamshire in the UK, it gets pronounce with a large emphasis on the HAM here.