What's That,What's This, I know that, Huh? ©

I am going to look at the differences and similarities of where I live and where I am today.
In Ottawa we have no cable cars but we do have bendable buses.
Yeah it’s something to see when on one.
How often do you get to see the ass end of a bus while going around a corner?
We used to have cable cars in town but were replace 35 years ago.
They have trains here that take people throughout the suburbs and the surrounding towns.
Back home we just got our first train that takes people from one end of town to the next and from there they can transfer to a bus for the last leg of their trip.
Here in New Zealand they have a great history with trains as I recently found out while watching a program on TV.
Trains is what tied this country together, any country for that matter but they make it work here at a profit.
Wellington especially has it down pat and they are enjoying the freedom of travel and commuting throughout the region.
Here is something new as far as busses go.
You only pay for as far as you want to go.
If I need to go to say Johnsonville which is a kilometre away it would cost… let’s say a dollar but if I want to go to the centre of Wellington to would be 3 dollars even though I would be on the same bus.
Back home I would pay a flat rate of $2.50 to go any where and get a transfer to get on another bus providing it was going in the same direction.
In Wellington there is no transfer you go as far as you pay for.
Living in a city on the Pacific or any large body of water for that matter new to me as well;
We do have 2 rivers going through Ottawa and a couple of ponds but they can’t compare to the baby blue water that stretches farther than the eyes could see.
The Harbour is beautiful with boats and ships racing off in every direction.
In Ottawa we see the logs racing down river to the paper mill and the stench from the mill.
There are differences in some of the words we use and what we call things.
Like for instance.
“What is for dinner tonight”?
“We are eating a chuck”.
“I am not eating anyone called Chuck. Lisa maybe but no CHUCK”!
“No dear, a chuck is a chicken”.
Deep relieving sigh.
Chippies are chips not Hippies with chips on their shoulders.
The accent is easy to get around because I have been talking to Lisa for some time now but I did run into a problem at the Dairy which is a convenience/corner store.
The man behind the counter we nice and polite but he was of Indian extract with and Indian/Kiwi accent that left me bug eyed and wondering what the hell he was saying and if I really did ask to buy the store off of him.
The down town core is a web of streets going in every direction with no real pattern.
In Ottawa it’s all equal squares and the main street separates the whole city.
They do have most of the fast food outlets we have back at home, not that I am a big McDs fan but it is comforting to see something familiar.
There is still much for me to see so I can’t really compare much more but I am sure I will find something that will be new and odd to me and much that is the same.
We did go to the butchers and the fish market the other day and they still stink here as they do at home.
So that would be a familiar thing too.
So I will leave it here until next time.

Have a nice day


Walker