Crossing the Tasman

On the Queen’s New Zealand Birthday I received the news that my work visa for Australia had been approved and that put a whole new set of wheels in motion.

These last two weeks in New Zealand has been absolutely hectic with trying to make arrangements movers, getting the children (two cats) boarded and prepped, selling off those things which cannot go to Australia and last but not least working my time out with NZTA.

As it usual, my new employer; Theiss Pty Ltd wanted me to start yesterday and thus one just had to go with the flow and fair play to them, they have arranged flights and temporary accommodation with a dash of speed as well, which meant that we could concentrate on getting the personal side sorted.

I must make some comment as to how smooth the visa process went. The whole process was done from the comfort of my desk chair except for a quick sojourn across to the radiologist for some chest x-rays, otherwise I had very little to do and it all happened electronically and they kept to the six weeks as being the forecasted period. A kudo for the Australian Immigration Authorities.

Going to Adelaide cold has something quite exciting about it and what we know of the place is what has been gained from scouting through websites and various blogs and forums. Notwithstanding the crazy nature by which this has all happened it would seem that Adelaide is quite an interesting place to live and we have some new and exciting adventures to undertake.

And then of course there is a small matter of language. Now having been across many continents I have experienced a wide variety of cultural colloquialisms or slang and there are some new ones which will have to be added to the personal dictionary;

Arvo

This is short for afternoon. 'Drop by this arvo,' means please come and visit this afternoon.

Snag

The raw type sausages usually cooked at a BBQ. They can be made of pork, beef or chicken.

Chook

The term chook means a chicken, usually a hen.

Loo or dunny

These are slang terms for toilet. Although I don’t see one using that in polite company

Fair dinkum

Honest, the truth. 'Fair dinkum?' when used as a question means, 'is it really true?'

To be crook

To be sick or ill. I wonder where the origin of this lies?

So it is off across the Ditch and a whole new adventure begins. 

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Take care wherever you are