Developing a fear of kettles is not convenient for someone who likes tea as much as I do...

So I've already mentioned this to a few of you by email, but: last week I burnt myself from the steam from the spout of my tea kettle when I carelessly was reaching across the counter and let my arm get too close, and while the burn wasn't too bad, it wasn't great, and it's actually feeling more sensitive now that most of the wound has cleared up and it's just fresh scar tissue, so I'm finding myself a little jumpy around kettles. And since I'm a tea addict, I'm making myself jumpy several times a day. Developing thrills for danger!

And on a completely different subject: regional slang. You know whenever you go to a new place, there are all sorts of different idioms and slang you can pick up. Now, I will never pick up this "How're you going?" business in place of "How're you doing" or "How's it going?" but one thing I am determined to pick up is the addition of "as" to adjectives, which is apparently more of an NZ thing but some Australians use it too. Apparently it comes from adding "as" to an adjective as an incomplete comparison. For example, as an exclamation of delight, instead of "Sweet!" you go "Sweet as!" like you were maybe gonna say "Sweet as candy!" but got lazy and figured people know what you meant (I figure people know what I mean when I just say "Sweet!", but I'm trying to pick up some crazy slang here). "Sweet as" is apparently the most commonly used one, but you could also go "I'm hungry as!" or "My feet are tired as!" or "That kettle steam's hot as!" or "That dog's rabid as!" You get the picture.

So when I come home Christmas-time all "I'm starving as! Where's my turkey?" - shut it with your "starving as what?" reactions - I'm getting culture here!