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| Super moon from home in NZ |
Today I interviewed an 85 year-old neighbor woman who I will
hire to help with the gardening.
She was
born on the South Island near Napier and told me she grew up in the
wop-wops.
“
Wop-wops? What is that?” I asked.
“Oh” she replied “it’s just what we always called the bush.
We lived about 40 miles out of town.”
Next question of course, “Did you have a
sheep farm?” “No, my dad worked for the forestry and we had a vegetable garden,
a few animals and pretty much lived off what we grew.” She continued, “Mom
would go into town once a month or every few weeks and get flour or what we
needed, we’d use the flour and then make the flour sacks into sheets.”
Her bright blue eyes flashing she shared with
me some of her family history. Grand parents
came from Scotland in the 1800s and settled near Napier. Most Scottish immigrants in NZ settled near
Dunedin. Even my mature gardener said it’s hard for her to understand their current
brogue. Can’t
wait to spend more time with her. What a
treasure!
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| Howick Village small park |
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| La Roche Bush Reserve |
The Kiwi slang is creeping into our everyday language and is
fun to
suss out. I’m planning to
plant
courgettes (zucchini) in the
garden.
It’ll be nice to have them for
tea (dinner) with a free range
chook (chicken) now that the
sparkie (electrician) has replaced the old worn out
HOB (range top) and said
she’ll be right.
I of course responded “
Ta (thanks)” and had nothing to
whinge (complain) about.
But
my sweet husband, who is NO cross-dresser, must wear a
jumper (woolen sweater) to work when it’s
fresh (cold) out.
Lots of families
have a
bach, pronounced batch,
(cottage) at the beach.
And finally I
can go to the dairy (corner store, superette) for a few items at just about any
time of day and they needn’t be a milk product.
It really is fun being here. We are not stressed, there are few, if any, concealed weapons and every day is a vacation of sorts. We only watch the news if we feel impelled to and thus don't even watch The Daily Show or Colbert anymore. I guess I really watched those two to get a more objective news coverage and to get a dose of humor to soften the blows of US interpretation of world news.
There are problems here, but they seems to be manageable. The biggest political issue right now is the 'leak of information' from a political party to a right wing news reporter. The outraged public is calling for the leaker to resign. This seems so minor to us in comparison to the million dollar campaigns in the US. The election is Sept 20th and the street signs have only been up for a few weeks. Yeah to shorter campaigns and less money siphoned into them!
J
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