Americans have Black Friday (which I only heard of this year!); in Australia we have Boxing Day sales. Perhaps they’re in America too, but we don’t have Thanksgiving, so there’s no post-Thanksgiving-holiday sales.
Actually Boxing Day is a public holiday: only the main city stores are open for the sales. Thank goodness for that — I like my day-after-Christmas rest. I have little choice but to stay at home, go to the beach, a park, or something like that.
We ventured into the shops today to grab some bargains. We’re not especially into sales. In fact, I usually avoid taking my husband to the shops at all because he hates it and goes a bit weird. However, this year my tactic for presents was to ask for gift cards so that I could save up enough for an iPod nano. Hubby’s grandma wanted to buy him trousers for Christmas and I got a bit of cash for some clothes too. I’ve also been itching to get some sunnies, since mine were stolen in June (it’s bright Down Under!).
Hubby got his trousers; I got my iPod nano; I found some sunnies that were 50% off $59.95 — category 3 and polarised lenses. The sunnies scanned in at $14.95! 75% off! As well as a few DVDs and CDs and clothes I think we can call it a successful shop. It was also nice to get up at a reasonable hour and have many hours of daylight left. 😛
But I just read somewhere that Boxing Day is also the day when people return dysfunctional goods that they bought before Christmas!
But of course, I’m sure not everybody returns their goods 😀
Oooph, you’re brave to go out to sales like that. I went to a mall on Black Friday one time. Never again! It’s crazy and people are so mean and rude. It’s unbelievable.
Hehe, I sure enjoy hearing what you call things in Australia. Sunnies are sunglasses I’m assuming? We call trousers “pants” in the U.S. (or do trousers mean “shorts”?) And I’ve read jumper before somewhere on your blog too… is that a sweatshirt or a sweater? Course, you may not be familiar with my words! I’ve had a similiar conversation about local terms and phrases with a blogging friend from the UK. It sure is interesting all these names we call things!
pelf – that would be sad if your Christmas present was broken! I don’t remember having and haven’t heard of that, but I’m sure people do return faulty goods on boxing day or the day after.
LaurenMarie – Haha, yes the different “wordage” is funny.
We do call them pants, to me pants covers all legged clothing (shorts, jeans, trousers) even some non-legged, such as underwear. Don’t call trousers “pants” in Britain though – it’s strictly underwear! By trousers I usually mean long cotton pants, as opposed to jeans.
Yep, jumper is a sweater (not sure what the difference between sweatshirt and sweater is). Jumper usually covers a thick top made of cotton, wool, fleece, polyester, whatever.
Sunnies are sunglasses – you don’t call them that?!
we don’t have boxing day here but i remember it when i was schooling in England.
seems like you got nice bargains. i did go out on black friday this year to get some stuff but like LaurenMarie said, never again! the lines were circling around the store and had to wait hours. there were some people there that camped out the night before too.
heh! yes, wordage IS funny … i remember writing a blog about it last year… http://thefoologs.com/i-say-to.....y-tomahto/
Kristarella, ah, ok “Trousers” = “Slacks” in the U.S., at least in Sunny So Cal 😉 Generally, a sweater zips up the front and a sweatshirt is a pull over (no zipper) and is made of sweatshirt material (like sweatpants, or jersey/cotton material that pills on the inside after several washes). We also call sweatershirts “hoodies” if they have a hood.
Foo, I went and read your article. That was entertaining! I say “soda” or “Coke” and I’m from Southern California. It’s very weird to hear people call it “pop.” Someone mentioned the thing where you ask for a coke and the waiter says “Is Pepsi ok?” That’s a branding issue. I’ve heard that Coca Cola sends out secret shoppers to see whether or not restaurants are properly protecting their brand.
LaurenMarie – classic! I would probably know what you mean if you said slacks. My mum used to call them that, but because only she and my Gran used that word I only relate it to women’s cotton pants, usually ones with pleats in the front.
A jumper is a sweartshirt then. A sweater with a zipper is a jacket. We’ve adopted that word hoodie aswell, but I think I’d be happy to call a jacket with a hood a hoodie as well. It’s getting confusing!
Foo – I remember that post, it’s a great collection of that sort of thing.
Boxing Day sales, eh? Do you fight over items in honor of the day. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one!
Happy New Year!:)