Thursday, May 14, 2009

Things that keep catching me out

We've been in New Zealand for nearly 18 months now, and some things keep catching me out, particularly regarding the seasons. I know the facts, but they haven't quite clicked in my head yet. This is the type of thing that I'm having trouble drilling into my thick skull:
- June/July/August are not "summer"
- Easter is not in spring
- Hallowe'en is not in autumn
- there is no holiday to break up the long winter
- my birthday, traditionally in autumn, has suddenly moved to spring
- daffodils bloom in August
- leaves fall off the trees in April

and one other thing which kept tripping me up when we were looking for a house to buy:
- south-facing properties are no longer a good thing. North-facing is what you should look for if you want a nice sunny home and garden.

Weirdness.

3 comments:

Skry said...

Don't forget the order of the light switches on the walls - they catch you out all the time :D

laura said...

What's wrong with the order of the light switches in NZ?

Jenny said...

Nothing at all - this issue is particular to our house! One panel with four switches in a square block controls the outside lights and the living room lights. EVERYBODY who visits us gets the switches wrong, and I get them wrong myself on a regular basis.