The Tan Cannon

I've moved to a country where the temperature has sat above 30 degrees pretty much every day I've been here. It's hot. Really hot. The sun is intense. I'm wearing spf 50 sunblock to stop my pale Scottish skin from getting cooked. Yet, some people feel the need to tan so intensely that there's still a market for sunbeds.

They're not called sunbeds though. This, my friends, is a tan cannon.

Groceries in South Africa

Today I decided to learn about shopping. I was in for a treat! First of all they don't just have normal dingy Spar here in South Africa - they have the SUPERSPAR version:

They don't care about artificial colours and flavourings:

Jam comes in a tin! 

The wine is interesting. I got a five year old bottle of swegignon for £4, and this awesome bottle as a bonus:

Dessert was up to the American standard of inducing diabetes - rare to find one of these!

Of course everyone needs a good supplier of reading material:

and desktop accessories:

Next time I'll report on the South African driving standards. God help me.

The significance of now

There are several types of "now" in South Africa. Oddly none of them actually mean now, it seems. First of all a brief definition of "now", according to google, who know everything.

now

naʊ/

adverb

1. 1.

   at the present time or moment.

In South Africa, you can say:

• Now - which means soon, but doesn't actually mean now.
• Just now - which means "next time I'm going that way" or "next time it suits me", but not now.
• Now now - which means "pretty much never". In keeping with the previous two, it also doesn't mean now.

I don't think that means what you think it means

Today was my first full day in South Africa. Although everyone speaks English (and a whole bunch of other languages besides) there are some subtle differences which I'm going to have to learn.

For example, I visited my first shop today and was asked at the checkout "Do you want a packet?". I asked her to repeat and again I heard "Do you want a packet?". To save embarrassment I decided to go with "Oh, sorry, yes. Yes please." and upon receipt of the packet I'd learn what it was. Good plan.

Do you want a packet? = Would you like a bag to carrier bag for your shopping?

Next lesson. Traffic signals are not traffic lights or signals. They are robots. In South Africa it makes perfect sense to say something like "Go along the street until you've been past two robots, then turn right". Nobody panics.

Other things that have confused me today are:
Can you borrow me 50 cents?
This just means please give me 50 cents. Sometimes this is for change at a shop, and sometimes people just want a charitable donation.

Can I worry you?
You can try! This just means can I ask you a question.


I'll continue my cultural learnings and report back.