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Helllooo from New Zealand!
Well, I thought I would share a little of LC's life! At the moment it is Saturday morning and I've been to the dunny, got a cuppa and my vegemite on toast and am sitting here in my flat, still in my dressing gown! I'm still feeling a bit knackered so I click on winamp and tune into WVRR and blow me down, the volume was up too loud and nearly puckerooed my speakers.
I open ICQ and there's a few messages flashing at me and one is from a friend I haven't heard in yonks! She's got a bun in the oven. Good for her!
Another message from a bloke in OZ who is a bit of a dag. A message comes up in my NOT IN LIST and I realise it isn't something I want to read. He sounds like he's two sammies short of a sandwich.
Anyways, time to go into Outer Worlds.
I'll check the emails later cause I don't feel like reading heaps today. Beaut, no problems getting into OW today *ducks* I say my usual greeting and everyone are a box of budgies. That is the best part, the greetings and farewell's. lol. Well, if none of this makes sense, here is some kiwi slang to improve your vocabulary for DOWNUNDER next year. Wooohooo!!!
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bach: small holiday home, pronounced "batch"
beaut: great; good fun; "that'll be beaut mate"
bit of a dag: hard case: comedian; joker
bloke: usually a man, and often used when referring to a stranger as in; "There's this bloke down the road who sells greasies from his pie-cart for $1 a bag, which is much cheaper than that bloke who has a shop",
blow me down: expression of surprise, as in; "Well! Blow me down, I didn't know that."
boot: car trunk
box of budgies: cheerful, happy, very good
boy-racer: Young hoon in fast car with unbelievably loud stereo!
brassed off: disappointed, annoyed
buggered: exhausted
bun in the oven: pregnant
cackhanded: left handed, southpaw
caravan: trailer, mobile home
cardy: woollen button-up-the-front jersey (also cardie)
chips: french fries
colly wobbles: a feeling of nausea usually associated with nervousness; as in "bungee jumping gave me a dose of the colly wobbles"
cuppa: cuppa tea, cuppa coffee, cuppa milo
dressing gown: bathrobe
dunny: toilet, bathroom, lavatory
eh: pronounced as you would the letter "a" and often used at the end of sentences when expecting a response to a statement - it is not spoken as a question. i.e., "This would be a better gift eh", instead of saying, "Do you think this would be a better gift"? Using it this way has become an everyday part of our conversation. It is also often used as a substitute for "pardon"? or "what"? i.e. "eh"? - but neither "what"? nor "eh"? are really acceptable and you would probably get a lengthy lecture about polite language if you tried using it too often (you would from me anyway!) Suggested by Marlene
fanny: A warning to Americans, from an American, Jody Tompson : take care how you use this phrase in New Zealand! A "fanny" refers to female genitalia; fanny is not the same as bottom!
flat: apartment
good on ya, mate!: congratulations, well done
greasies: common term for fish and chips, probably because they usually are! (greasy that is)
gumboots: rubber boots, wellingtons, wellies
gummies: gumboots
hard case: joker; comedian
heaps: general expression to mean a lot, as in "miss you heaps", or try hard; "give it heaps"
hooray: the Kiwi "Goodbye"
hunky dory: or honky dory: everything's fine, as in "my life is hunky dory"
kick the bucket: die, cark it
knackered: stuffed; fagged out; rooted, as in "I am knackered"; "that bike is knackered" and surplus farm animals go to the "Knackers Yard"! (This word has MANY uses - few of them being optimistic!) From PN
loo: bathroom
mate: buddie (common term, and can be used even with strangers) as in "how's it going mate" for "how are you", but it is NOT used to the same extent as spoken in Australia where every second word seems to be "mate".
motorway: freeway
nappy: diaper
pack a sad: become morose, ill-humoured, moody. Also suggested as meaning "broken or died" i.e. the fridge "packed a sad"
pike out: to give up when the going gets tough
puckeroo: Something that is broken, buggered, rooted or otherwise dysfunctional. From Grant but with this addition from Jeff Law:- As a matter of interest, the correct spelling of 'Puckeroo' is, according to Reed's Maori Dictionary, 'Pakaru' meaning 'Break' or
'Broken'. I pondered over changing the spelling to the correct format, but decided against it, because the correct spelling bares little resemblance to the pronunciation as it stands today and the change could have
caused even more confusion ;-)
root: to have sex. A warning to folk from the USA! - A female visitor from the US
has this to say... My first time in NZ I made the unfortunate mistake of listing off my hobbies to a family that had me over for tea.... among my hobbies? "I like to root for the football team!"
(one of the boys said, "What, the WHOLE team??") Credit for this listing is on the page - but I'm not saying where!
she'll be right: not a problem, it'll be O.K.
sook: kindly description of someone who is being silly, or behaving like a softy or scaredy cat. As in:- "you're being a sook"... "just a big sook" and so on... More often than not the phrase is used as a term of endearment. Suggested by Pam.
suss: to figure out
ta: Thanks
tata: goodbye, usually when speaking to a child
take-aways: New Zealand term for "take-outs" or food "to go".
tiki tour: roundabout way to get somewhere; scenic tour
trots: diarrhea as in "having a dose of the trots"
two sambas short of a picnic: used to describe a person who is a "bit thick".
vegemite: spread for toast or bread. Indescribable, but missed by many expat Kiwi's.
Bill Tabb describes it as...
"A spread the color of dark molasses, the consistency of cold honey and the flavor of yeasty soy sauce. A flavor that is acquired, and quite good on warm soft pretzels here in California." (Actually, it's
a good description!)
wally: clown, loser
wet blanket: Someone who spoils the fun of others; someone who doesn't get into the "swing" of things, particularly at a social occasion
wop-wops: out of the way location
yonks: forever, a long time ago, ages; as in "I haven't seen them in yonks"
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