I Say Pickle, You Say Gherkins

I've only been here two weeks and for the most part, I'm understanding everyone okay. Sometimes I just smile and nod or laugh along even though I have no idea what they just said. Sometimes it's just a matter of pronunciation or if they used a completely different word that I may or may not have heard before. So as I come across these interesting use of words, I've been jotting them down on a little notepad that I've been keeping on myself. Here's what I've come across so far:

• a bulb is known as a globe
• clothes pins are clothes pegs
• weed whacker is called a whipper snipper (our neighbor called it that when we ran into him the morning after Anthony used it in the backyard)
• liquor store here is a bottle shop (we have one just at the end of the block, in the states the residents would have been in an uproar whereas here they're in an uproar if there isn't one nearby!)
• post office is a post shop
• tires are spelled as tyres
• cell phones are more often called handsets
• the radio going over the traffic called car accidents as a smash
• textured rug is called a shag (although I'd use that one carefully)
• sleeping bag or bedroll is a swag
• sausage is called a snag
• heard pickles called gherkins
• afternoon is for some reason called arvo
• ground meat is called minced meat (although they don't seem to differentiate minced with really minced to the point it's like paste....I know because I found out the hard way)
• a tall dresser in a bedroom is called a tall boy

As I collect more, I'll share them with you. 


Good arvo to ya!


- julie