General Chat

Before decimal we had pounds, shillings and pence.

NZ went decimal 12 months after Australia, Huia.
We were living in NZ at the time and on holiday in 1966 in Australia so I had an indoctrination into decimal currency. Don't remember quite when we went metric, but I think the cars at the time had speedos with both metric and standard.

Some time ago my youngest son was working in Boston. Got caught doing 70 miles on the tollway. When he presented his licence (Australian) the traffic cop let him off with the statement "Oh you work on kms in Australia, don't you' . Son didn't enlighten him that he knew he was speeding.

Huia, the Aussie dollar is looking very good at the moment. Might be time to think about a visit to Auckland again. I have 2 grandchildren in Auckland, one expecting our third gt.grandchild VERY soon. Her mother is going over next weekend to visit and help out, her sister is going over a little later, so they should have a house full.

Latest news. Grandaughter had son at 5.04 NZ time in Auckland name Micah William, weight 8lb,13 oz.

NZ went metric about the same time as Australia. We used to have LSD. I have got used to the prices, but I still refer to a pound of butter (actually 500 gm, which is slightly over a pound) and do my cooking in lbs and ounces (or cups and spoons). And my height is in ft and inches and my weight (dont ask) in stones and lbs, wouldnt know what I am in kg as I have old scales. I prefer to do my dressmaking in inches, less likely to make a mistake than in cm or mm. I have got used to distances in km since that is how the car reads it, and litres at the pumps.

They really should have waited until all us oldies were dead before they changed.

Huia (no spring chicken)

Hi Beth, our decimal currency started in 1971, I had just started a new job as a waitress in a new posh hotel, and it was hard explaining to customers about their change, they couldn't get the hang of it at all some of them.

Did Australia always have dollars before decimals?
I think we kept the pounds and pence to be similar to our old pounds and pennies.
Know what you mean about the price of the petrol!

Lizx

Here in Australia we have been metric for about 30 years. Decimal currency started in 1966 (I think) and translated 10 shillings to a dollar. UK used the pound as their decimal system and it was confusing when we visited there. I donated a 5 pd note to Westminster Abbey thinking it was $5.

I do quite a lot of sewing and have had a tape measure with both measurements otherwise I'm lost. That's old age catching up. Still measure in miles but with the price of petrol I just shut my eyes and pay it.

Beth

To change Litres into Gallons divide the Litres by 4.54 - this will give you Gallons.

Eg. 40 Litres divided by 4.54 = 8.81 Gallons

I can just about imagine a metre of fabric or whatever, it is around 39 inches, so 50cms is almost 20 inches, but start quoting cms and mms in other numbers at me and I get so confused!

I had to work in kilos rather than lbs and ozs at the Red Star office on the local Railway station before my son was born, so can roughly work out equivalents there, a kilo is the same as 2.2 lbs.

Lizx

Oh dear age gonna show here :-((

Even though I lived in countries which were totally metric I still convert to imperial in the UK.

Those that know I am an athletic nut - think of me during the olypmics cos I still have to mentally calculate the field event results into feet and inches! When I am watching multi screen I will have my converter on my laptop open...lol (sad I know).

I also moan at the price of food when converted to LSD.

Some of my friends and I still talk of 2 bobs, half crowns etc., aaaah nostalgia :-))Sue x

You may be right Karen. English would seem to be the natural choice (most spoken of all the EU languages world-wide, but they want conformity in most things, so why not that?
Best wishes Happy days

huffed and puffed did he!! well I bet he couldn't work your bill out without the aid of the till or add it up in his head!!!

i went into a hardwere store last week enquiring about some wooden floor and i gave the young lad the mesurements i needed in feet and inches saying sorry i dont understand meters ect "WELL I BET YOU'RE NOT STILL WORKING IN POUNDS SHILLINGS AND PENCE ARE YOU" came the reply i tried to explain that decimal money came out while i was still at school but he just huffed and puffed and asked someone else to work it out!!

When are we going to have a european language - or is that too embarrassing for the French and Germans. (I write as one of the "loonies" who support UKIP)
Happy days

Karen as far as I am aware it is gallons all over (never think about it, just fill car, company pays), think it is US gals (about 3.8 litres) at approx 6 Dirhams 70 fils per gal. Crazy when they no longer use less the 25 fil coins.

Oh Lorraine, don't even think about Euros...
I'm still having problems with the change from feet and inches. pounds and ounces!!

Sally, when I first came down to England (1966)... I also went into a shop and asked for 'half a stone of potatoes'.
The woman behind the counter said " we don't do them in half stones, we only do 7lb bags and 14lb bags" ;-0)
I took a 7lb bag and could hardly control myself before I got outside and laughed out loud! ;-0)

Deanna X

ooops keith.........shouldve said 70kgs tops......plus parachute = about 77

see what I meant, about confoosing?

Euro's are great. No problem when travelling, especially in Europe, and your not losing money exchanging currency and then losing out again when you get home changing it back. Plus the Euro is very strong at the moment so you get good value

I havent a clue. I'm glad we still have £'s and p's . i dont want us to switch to euros

Over here it is all metric apart from the petrol, 135km to Dubai, about 83 miles.

well where does petrol at €1.39 per litre leave you? Don't know what that is in £'s per gallon........

if they changed the road signs over here i'd give up. what would be next???

Here in Ireland we are totally metric. We drive in kilometres, road signs are kms and distance is kms, we buy petrol by the litre [expensive however it's measured].
Foodstuff is in grms, liquids are in mls......... funny how Guinness is still sold by the pint.....lol.. Let's face it a 1/2 litre of Guinness please just doesn't have the same ring as asking for a pint

woow thats steep i thought £1-19 was bad enough