Halloween is a well-known custom in the US of A is it not? Is it widely celebrated and do the shops cash in big-time??
Look At Our Jake
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Yes, it is a well-know holiday in the USA. Children dress in custumes and go trick or treating ( usually visiting the houses in their neighborhood for treats- candy). Many store stock up on costumes and decorations. There is even one store- Spirit Halloween that is entirely Halloween themed. The last several years, there has been a trend to have a Fall Harvest theme instead of ghosts and goblins. Carving pumpkins is another feature of Halloween.
Much the same as here then, it's become quite big in the last few decades. Fall Harvest? not sure what that is. Carving of pumpkins not so in demand here. I give out lollies usually, but am lucky to get many takers!! think they all travel to the pricier suburbs!!
TanyaS Fall Harvest is just another term, wording- substitution for Halloween. Some groups feel that ghost goblins are not proper, or can be associated with evil. Thus instead of dressing up, they celebrate with parties and games- including carving pumpkin, bobbing for apples, hay rides.
That term has not reached here yet, or at least I have not heard it. Boo.
Even apple picking or pumpkin hunting had a hayride and something spooky would happen.
One year, it was great in the hayride. A man came galloping up in a black horse, wearing a black cape with eyeholes and holding a fake head. And rode along scaring everyone for a bit.
Even apple picking or pumpkin hunting had a hayride and something spooky would happen.
One year, it was great in the hayride. A man came galloping up in a black horse, wearing a black cape with eyeholes and holding a fake head. And rode along scaring everyone for a bit.
Have just re-read the Stepford Wives. Such a wonderful read!!! I have decided to meet, marry an American and move to the beautiful looking Connecticut...or somewhere in NE, I want to move to the States...love the look of it, CT looks a bit like Cambridge, New Zealand. All traditional, colonial, pretty, tree lined, lots of flat land, rolling green...!! oh, dreams are free!!! How to meet an available middle aged USA man...lol!!And we could travel to NZ every now and then...ha ha. I love the film version, the original one, of the Stepford Wives as well, so beautifully shot and well acted. Don't get why it was a flop at the time. I prefer it to the far more scary Rosemary's Baby.
I so wish Joanna had made it out and pulled down the whole show!! As if Bobbie would have changed like that...but it's only fiction. Levin is such a good writer!! Joanna in the end did not believe in her own fears and insight!! Just saying. rambling, sorry!!
I so wish Joanna had made it out and pulled down the whole show!! As if Bobbie would have changed like that...but it's only fiction. Levin is such a good writer!! Joanna in the end did not believe in her own fears and insight!! Just saying. rambling, sorry!!
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Two questions:
1. Why do you have to get married to move here?
2. Who would choose to move from New Zealand to America?
Both good points. True, I don't, I was just fastasing. But it's quite hard to get a Greencard. I know no one there at all. Two, I have always dreamed of living in America, but I may be rose-tinting it. All well and good with money and a good job, otherwise it can be pretty rough? Mind you, not that different here. NZ is getting crowded...funny, my two sons often tell me that to be born in NZ is like winning the lottery...!!
I've heard NZ is enviable, though expensive to setup in. Some Americans are sick of what America seems to be becoming and have recommended NZ as ideal.
Our real estate is overpriced, well, in Auckland, anyway. It never used to be, just in the last few years. Way too dear for piles of dreck homes. Go for small town NZ though, and its pretty cheap. Food prices here are expensive, especially dairy, but then our location is isolated. I think we just get ripped off, we pay tax on everything, moan, moan, but pretty crime free and safe overall. There are some gorgeous spots, I recommend Hawkes Bay especially, Cambridge, Rotorua, Nelson, Dunedin!! Scenery to die for, rugby, racing and beer!!
like anywhere in the West, without a good education, job, career, money, you are pretty much screwed. someone in my church group told me that in Ireland and Europe there is much more a sense of community and helpfulness...and far less of rich or poor but no middle class.
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
In Canada, too! (Well, considering we are just north of the US, it makes sense).
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
Hi Tanya
I love Halloween. I will bring out a few decorations this weekend to put in the windows.
Here is something I found in Wikipedia:
"It was not until mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America"
Andy (my husband) is from Scotland. They do not carve pumpkins over there, but he said he has seen carved turnips in Ireland
Girl, you need to get out of Auckland, the rest of the country is nothing like that place...
True FlakeNoir, true. The house and rent prices in Auckland are truly gangbusters and stupid, I looked at a two bedroom broomcupboard yesterday that they wanted $520.00 a week for, tiny bedrooms, tiny living, an ugly frontage...yes, the rest of the country is a mere paradise compared to the rich or poor Auckland! I blame our govt. Auckland never used to be this way...overseas speculators allowed to let rip on our housing!!! grrr. It's spreading beyond the Bombay Hills you know..
It's disgusting... and very sad. Auckland has always been more over-priced than the rest of the country, but this is now truly out-of-control crazy.
I find it hard to believe that so many people would pay prices like that just for location, it doesn't make sense to me. If it spreads much further south, John friggen Key can expect an irate Flake on his doorstep. It's insane... and gives NZ a bad name.
Yes, my Canadian neighbour, lovely lady, was telling me that it's worse over there, and that her Mum has had to move several times as the owners keep selling (she is renting), and that the last house went for three million dollars. Think she lives in Van Couver. So scary. First home buyers are being locked out in Auckland, something that was never ever the case before!! Sad!
Head south, girl--the grass really is greener... and we have more of it!
Yeah, I so agree. Key is part of the problem. Absolute piles of do-up junk are getting gazillions more than they should. Landlords becoming down right greedy and cheeky in their pricing and the homeless are ever-growing. Key doesn't care, multi-millionaire and ex Wall Street trader!! His super swanky Parnell doostep...imagine all the chocolate he could buy!!