Also, why do merkins call the dunny a washroom? What do they wash in there?
(also, WTF US toilets having the bowl filled with water)
]]>Ute - that's a tribe of native Americans, that Utah is named after. Those things are SUVs, almost exclusively NOT used for sport or utility, but purchased by people who can't bloody well drive them, so they'll "be safe the next time they have an accident" (actual quote).
I still want a law requiring them all to have an ugle (the law must specify "UGLY") bumper adjustment, to lower it to the height of an ordinary car.
Water in the bowl - cuts smells, and adds humidity to the air. And don't you wash your hands, or maybe it's that its so Indiscrete to refer to it as a freakin' toilet. (America - move Victorian than the Queen was).
Merkin - that's an artificial bush for a woman. 'Mercans, or maybe 'Merkans, is what we is....
]]>Yeah. You're not from around here are ya'?
FWIW, NO, surfer music is not the same thing as beach music.
]]>Down here an SUV is a lifted, often 4WD, station wagon. I prefer to call them UAV, urban assault vehicles, although they're generally more popular with people who can't drive and think the assault vehicle will somehow keep them safe despite that. What they really need for safety is an old fashioned armoured car (modern ones are too tall and skinny so have the same problem as UAVs... they fall over if you try to turn a corner in one).
A ute or utility vehicle, on the other hand, is a small truck. Sometimes flatbed, more often with car-style sides around the tray. One of the few good episodes of that UK car show was them getting an old Hiace diesel and torturing it well past the point of insanity until it finally stopped working. Which was the "drop it 5m onto a pile of rubble" step.
I'd like a law that if a vehicle has "truk nutz" the owners actual testicles have to be inside them.
Hmm, more idioms... Australia is rich with them but like all such, they sink in after a while and you no longer notice. To continue on the car front, some of our cars run on gas too... but it's actual fuel that is a gas at room temperature and pressure - LPG or CNG depending on composition.
And of course football, which for obvious reasons means "American Rules Football" down where you live, and soccer in most of the world but one of the variants of rugby in the smart country. Likewise hockey, where shockingly there are actual "ice hockey" clubs in Australia as well as the much more numerous "field hockey" clubs.
]]>My mother used to remark that my visits home enlarged her vocabulary, or at least her working vocabulary. And not through my usage of the coarser vernacular {Sheesh, you people}. Admittedly I associate with over-educated literary types (loike youse) and she taught new entrants. I'm not going to suggest that five year old kiwi kids have bigger vocabularies than the average mercan but I sometimes wonder how big the difference really is. I fear a lot of people stop learning new words at about that age.
My grandparents were lifelong subscribers to "Reader's Digest" which meant visiting them was a chance to read a year's worth of those little books, complete with the 20 new vocabulary words in each issue. I'm sure that by the time I was 15 or so I would be excited if there was one new word in the issue.
]]>(moi? deliberately being difficult?)
]]>UAV? In their teens, my twins reffered to them as Stupid Useless Vehicles. One of them now has a very small one, but she needed a station wagon, really, and it's almost unfindable any more (the dealers get cooties when they hear those words, it's not "sexy").
When I lived in Chicago, I heard, on the radio, from a tow truck driver that when it snowed, they were the ones who were stuck in a field further off the road than regular cars. I also quoted for years an unnamed Ford exec, who said that the only time 90% of them go off-road was when they're drunk, and miss their driveway at three in the morning.
Now Hummers, esp. gen 1.... my instant reaction is "where's the roadside bomb?" You don't want to hear how I really feel about them, though....
]]>UAV? In their teens, my twins reffered to them as Stupid Useless Vehicles. One of them now has a very small one, but she needed a station wagon, really, and it's almost unfindable any more (the dealers get cooties when they hear those words, it's not "sexy").
But a good dealer will find one for you if you really want one. The American station wagon appears to have gone the way of the dodo, but you can still find small mini-vans that will suffice. Some of those are available with AWD (which is NOT the same thing as 4WD).
I think Volvo still makes & sells an actual station wagon here in the U.S.
When I lived in Chicago, I heard, on the radio, from a tow truck driver that when it snowed, they were the ones who were stuck in a field further off the road than regular cars. I also quoted for years an unnamed Ford exec, who said that the only time 90% of them go off-road was when they're drunk, and miss their driveway at three in the morning.
Before Covid locked me inside, I did manage to actually use my Jeep to go off-road. There's a beach here in North Carolina where 4WD is mandatory (they'll give you a ticket if you're out there and don't have it). There are wild horses (feral horses) out on the beach; descended from Spanish horses dumped off of ships along the various shoals of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. I like to go down there & photograph them. I've had one or two other mild off-road excursions as well chasing photo sites.
Now Hummers, esp. gen 1.... my instant reaction is "where's the roadside bomb?" You don't want to hear how I really feel about them, though....
If it makes you any happier, the military HMMWV is a piece of shit too. The only advantage it has over the old Army Jeep (which were actually manufactured by Ford) is it won't roll over if you have to swerve to avoid hitting a deer at 25 Mph (40 Kmph). The old Jeeps would roll over if you turned the steering wheel too sharply at only 5 Mph. Instead of rolling over, the military HMMWV just breaks axles if you look at 'em sideways.
As for the civilian version ... You do know that Hummer is American slang for oral sex? So you're basically driving down the street in a "blow job".
]]>Up here they cost twice what a basic version from another brand does, so they're more accurately an estate wagon.
They are very popular with the wealthier end of the market here, one friend has a his'n'hers pair. They're at least available in AWD if not all that way, and they actually work for things like rough gravel driveways.
One of the funnier experiences I've had is towing a Jeep Wrangler 4WD Exxtreme Edition with Extra Wanker Bits! .... down a gravel driveway with a unimog. Turns out that big floaty tires and heaps of grunt don't work well on loose wet gravel. After the second or third time it slid uncontrollably off the track/into a tree the wanker decided that using the mog to get it down the driveway beat the obvious alternative of rolling it down the hill. Obviously we had to tow it back up. But the vulva diver just drove up as though everything was normal.
]]>While a wagon – also known as a station wagon or estate – prioritises space for luggage, lifestyle accessories or other types of cargo, it can still carry the same number of occupants as its relative.
"to the estate, dahling, one has business there"
]]>Not ahuge list, but it's not like it's only one or two.
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