my son.
Yes, you’ve read that correctly! The reason I’ve been so absent here on Shantiwallah is that I have been away in Thailand collecting my 20 month old son.
It hasn’t been easy as we don’t have a very good system for adoption here in New Zealand. We tried to start the process back in 2007 when we were still in Japan but the NZ government won’t work with citizens abroad, so we came back. From January 2008 we have been working with the authorities to get a mound of paperwork the size of Mount Taranaki completed and verified by all the right people. It was finallly sent off to Thailand last year where things were set in motion for us to go and collect our wee lad. We left Auckland for Bangkok on the 10th of July and visited the orphanage, coming away with a special little package, on the 14th and have been getting to know Mr. Poom* ever since.
It’s been a long journey with lots of bumps, but we are so happy to have him home in New Zealand, even if he does resent the New Zealand cold as much as I do!
*Not his real name as we are not allowed to identify him on the internet. We only have guardianship for now until the adoption process is complete sometime next year.
Sociology.
Is there still time to cash in on the Royal Wedding?
I am fascinated by how people act in different circumstances. There is nothing like a celebrity event to bring out the lovers and the haters. Of all the street parties mentioned on TV that day, one was a group of anti-royalists who were claiming that, “You don’t need a Royal Wedding to get together with the people on your steet and have fun.”. Is this not irony? It was BECAUSE of the Royal Wedding that they were having their party, even if it was an anti-event. Why didn’t they just have it on a different day?
Anyway, I have been busy with other things (I know, selfish me) like typing like a frenzied, typing thing in order to take advantage of an incentive at one of my jobs. The need for money has both made my typing quicker, and worse at the same time. You’d think I’d get better with practice. I should really take some lessons. Or is “the writer who can’t type properly” part of my identity now? Speaking of identity, another thing I’ve been doing was being interviewed by the lovely MaryAnne over at A Totally Impractical Guide to Living in Shanghai. It was quite fun and very self-reflecting for me. I don’t know if anyone else got anything out of it, but I enjoyed it and I got to be up there with a bunch of other cool people. Check out her whole series on expats. Cool stuff.
There have also been a lot of cool things happening over at Pocketcultures. The team is really big now, so the sun never sets on us! Something I love are the collaborative posts that the team is putting out now. This recent one about Naming Traditions in 13 Different Countries is really packed full of interesting information. I’ve had a couple of teacher friends say they will use it in the classroom and, indeed, it is a good resource.
Auckland is now being thrashed by winter wind and rain, boo! But that’s OK. I’m spending a lot of time chained to my dear computer. I have been working on a massive project that I hope comes to fruition in just a few more short weeks. I am not ready to divulge the details yet but it’s going to be exciting and will be of interest to lots of you (I hope!). I am so impatient, I really want to get this thing going. But I want it to start off well so, alas, I must carry on tweeking. Hmmm, perhaps I will start dropping hints soon. Or was that one?
New Zealanders have a lot in common with Chileans. We both go about our daily business in parts of the world seldom heard about in the international press. We are subject to the often extreme elements that exists in the deeply southern parts of the Earth. On the Pacific Ring of Fire we both have volcanoes and long coastlines, fjords and deserts. Within the last year Chile has had a major earthquake, and then New Zealand followed suit. While New Zealand was miraculously and unexplicably fortunate not to have lost any of its citizens, Chile was sadly unlucky in the number of casualties. We read our newspapers with the kind of sadness and understanding that those who live under the constant threat of earthquakes feel for those directly affected. Rebuilding continues for both countries.
On 5 August 2010, in the San Jose mine in the in Chile’s Atacama Desert , a collapse trapped miners underground for 69 days as the world watched and held its collective breath for the final rescue. When the last person was back on the surface, New Zealanders celebrated as everyone in the world did. My friend had her overdue fine waved at the public library when the librarian found out she was Chilean. Chile was the lucky country on this occasion.
Last week on 19 November New Zealand was, once again, to follow in Chile’s footsteps as an explosion trapped 29 miners in the Pike River Coal mine. Rescue efforts had been difficult and slow going, as to be expected, until yesterday when a second blast occured. It is now certain that there are no survivors and today New Zealand mourns the men and hopes for the day when they can be brought to the surface for a proper goodbye.
West Coasters are often characterised as being hardened, no-nonsense, rugged individuals who simply ‘get on with it’ despite living in such a harsh environment. But in this, of course, the families will be feeling the pain as much as any one human being would and my heart goes out to them.
Rest in peace
Conrad John Adams, 43, Greymouth, New Zealand nationality
Malcolm Campbell, 25, Greymouth, Scottish
Glen Peter Cruse, 35, Cobden, New Zealand
Allan John Dixon, 59, Runanga, New Zealand
Zen Wodin Drew, 21, Greymouth, New Zealand
Christopher Peter Duggan, 31, Greymouth, New Zealand
Joseph Ray Dunbar, 17, Greymouth
John Leonard Hale, 45, Ruatapu, New Zealand
Daniel Thomas Herk, 36, Runanga, New Zealand
David Mark Hoggart, 33, Foxton, New Zealand
Richard Bennett Holling, 41, Blackball, New Zealand
Andrew David Hurren, 32, Greymouth, New Zealand
Jacobus (Koos) Albertus Jonker, 47, Cobden, South Africa
William John Joynson, 49, Dunollie, Australia
Riki Steve Keane, 28, Greymouth, New Zealand
Terry David Kitchin, 41, Runanga, New Zealand
Samuel Peter Mackie, 26, Greymouth, New Zealand
Francis Skiddy Marden, 41, Runanga, New Zealand
Michael Nolan Hanmer Monk, 23, Greymouth, New Zealand
Stuart Gilbert Mudge, 31, Runanga, New Zealand
Kane Barry Nieper, 33, Greymouth, New Zealand
Peter O’Neill, 55, Runanga, New Zealand
Milton John Osborne, 54, Ngahere, New Zealand
Brendan John Palmer, 27, Cobden, New Zealand
Benjamin David Rockhouse, 21, Greymouth, New Zealand
Peter James Rodger, 40, Greymouth, British
Blair David Sims, 28, Greymouth, New Zealand
Joshua Adam Ufer, 25, Australia
Keith Thomas Valli, 62, Winton, New Zealand.
I was writing up a list of Kiwi words and phrases when I started to think about some differences in the way words are used in English speaking countries. I went to school in the United States but I moved around every couple of years so I never developed a hometown or regional accent. Living in England and doing my undergraduate degree in my personality-forming 20s (not to mention the fact that my husband is British) means that a lot of the things I say are very coloured by British English and culture. Now that I’ve been in New Zealand for so long I also have a good smattering of things I say and do that are truly Kiwi. My language use is as mixed up as my accent and, on occasion I read or hear something that reminds me of this fact. There are millions of these little instances but here are four.
One.
Kiwis say, “Big ups” to someone when they want to tell them they’ve done a good job at something. I thought this was a Kiwi phrase until I noticed an American, David Miller on Matador Network, write it in a comment. The difference was that he wrote “Big up” in the singular. I wonder why the difference. I guess Kiwis like to give more than one.
Two.
In England people use the word ‘brown’ to mean skin that has been coloured by the sun. For example,
“My you are looking brown. Have you been on holiday?”
“Yes, we’ve just spent two weeks in Spain.”
But in New Zealand, brown usually refers to skin colour based on ethnicity. So, when I said to a Chinese friend that he was ‘looking nice and brown’ a whole group of people looked at me like I was mad.
Three.
The Kiwi summer is marked by many occasions to get together with friends at a beach, park or back garden and cook things over fire in a metal box. We refer to both the occasion and the metal fire box as a barbecue as in,
“Come over to my house for a barbecue on Friday night”
“Choice. What should I bring*?”
And
“Could you put more sausages on the barbecue? John’s coming and he eats heaps.”
American’s (and, it seems, Canadians), however will call the metal box a grill and can also use it like a verb as in,
“Should we cook the steaks on the grill?”
And
“Come over. We are grilling out.”
As far as I’m aware I’ve never used “grill” as a verb because even if I was to talk about cooking something with a grill, which doesn’t even make sense in this context as a grill is a part of the cooker (uh…stove) with high heat only coming from the top, I would say something like,
“I’ll just put this cheese on toast under the grill for a few minutes until it’s golden and bubbly.”
Four.
One last thing. I was once doing some work in Laos with a team of people, one of which was from Hawaii. We immediately got on/ clicked (it’s an island thing) when we found out how many things we did the same in New Zealand and Hawaii. New Zealand is the largest Polynesian nation after all. They wear slippers while we wear jandals, but the biggest difference was that here in New Zealand we call everyone ‘Bro’, whereas they call everyone ‘Bra’. Again, I wonder why so close yet not the same.
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* You always bring a bottle of wine or a pack of beer and usually your own meat or veggies for the barbecue and/ or maybe a salad to share. Just in case you wondered.
