Some things are subjective, and some other things are just better in different countries. That's like, science, or something. Here are several of the things in which Kiwis surpass those smelly Eengleesh. Of which I am one. 1. Work CultureI've remarked on a bunch of occasions how refreshing it is to be doing a job that doesn't make me regularly want to hurl myself from a tenth storey window with nary a bungee cord nor a farewell, but the extent to which New Zealanders make workplaces pleasant still takes me by surprise. Offices come stocked with free fruit all week, the minimum wage is high enough that tipping is absolutely not-a-thing, and Friday 4-5pm is typically marked by sitting in your swivel chair drinking cider/beer/wine with your colleagues on company expenses. Seriously; workplaces have fridges stocked with booze. You'd expect some kind of catch like having to work weekends or fight Big Steve from legal, but it really is as awesome as running to the coffee room and grabbing a large pitcher of Sauvignon Blanc before home time. Bliss. 2. Sunday TradingLook- having a "24 hour" Tesco is all sunshine and sparkles until you hit 5.30pm on a Sunday, realise you're out of toilet paper, and have to furiously start digging out old copies of National Geographic instead because "HEY LOSER! It's only 24 hours DURING THE WEEK!". Not so in the land next-to-the-land-downunder, where long opening hours are omnipresent. Every day, for all your lavatorial supply needs. Do you know they run busses on Christmas Day? They'll all be dating communists by 2018, mark my words. 3. Coffee I guess?I am not a coffee snob. I was perfectly convinced that the milky hazelnut flavoured beverage I am so used to consuming at Costa was, in fact, coffee; but my more beard-wearing friends tell me otherwise. Allegedly the coffee here is great, although I'd wager the same is said for more or less every nation on earth except England and the United States. In any case what I can confirm is that the caffeine dispensing machine at work comes complete with hoppers for beans, and seems to grind them for you and then do the frothy milk thing automatically: no instant freeze-dried rubbish here, thank you very much. So that's something. 4. AmenetiesChildren under the age of 18, this is what used to be known as a "public toilet". Sadly this unusual architectural feature is almost extinct in the UK, probably because of spending cuts or the environment or liberals or Europe or something. However in New Zealand (and Australia, it must be said) they are apparently sympathetic to the traveller with occasional bowel complaints since any pathetic 4 bedroom hamlet in Nowheresville on Lost has, almost without fail, a 24 hour automated petrol station and one or more public lavatories. How they afford this without taxing people for blinking is beyond me. Maybe it's the reason all the rescue helicopters have to be funded by corporations. Eh. Swings and roundabouts. 5. SceneryI mean, it's alright isn't it?
2 Comments
Haze
24/2/2017 08:18:17 am
In keeping with the miserablist theme, I'd caution you not to get too carried away on number 1; where we've landed at the present is sadly very much in the minority as large NZ employers go. Check out the Culturesafe NZ facebook page. That such an organisation exists at all in a country this size says a lot...
Reply
Tracy A
12/6/2017 07:51:54 pm
Brilliant. Public toilets!!!! They had them in the UK in my day 😂.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Author28 year old computer scientist/physicist with major depressive disorder, a need to write, and a deep-rooted mistrust of beetroot. Categories
All
Archives
February 2018
|