Differences
People don't hate rabbits here
You can't buy envelopes at the post office
The one-fingered salute is a mini-wave done with the index finger while driving
Regular supermarkets make you pay for shopping bags
Not many asians (no PIs)
You can go to Europe for the weekend
They exclaim over how windy it is, when it isn't gale force
Lots of Polish people and shops
A big river runs through it
Buses between city centres are frequent and inexpensive
Flying can be cheaper than any other form of transport
Beau gets paid more to work a Sunday
Getting paid once a month is the norm
You can't buy cheap measuring cups and spoons
They didn't have WWII, they just had the Emergency
Tea is *huge*
Deciduous trees
Asian food supplies are hard to get
The only home baking I've had is my own
No car and fear of driving one in town
No Onesie pajamas!
Chocolate is generally sweeter (not necessarily better)
Jaffa cakes are affordable :)
No one I know has Rockband
A lack of family
There is only one real temping agency and it is not as good
Credit cards are not automatically offered to you when you join a bank
They haven't really heard of drinking games, the main one goes "here is a drink... drink it" apparently just the first few people we happened to talk about this with denied knowledge of drinking games. "I have never" is universal
I'm an expert on everything NZ
Stone walls as opposed to barbed wire fencing
When answering the phone people make comments about how far I've come
There is no starbucks in town
added
If you weren't born in Cork, you can't say you're from Cork
You can park on both sides of the road, ie you're driving along the road, you see a park on the other side and you drive over the RH lane and park.... facing the wrong direction!!!
Eurovision (this year's Irish entry is Dustin the Turkey. He's iconic here, kinda like Thingy)
Similarities
Left hand driving
Cents
Both embarrassed by and proud of the weather
Lots of people have been on holiday in Australia
Buses don't run to time
Country roads are horrifying
Beau gets more work out of town
English isn't ;)
People complain about politics and the increasing price of everything
Job vacancies is a popular section of the newspaper
Mail merge is a magical thing that I have control over and many others in my office don't
I know people who will play board games with me and lend me Beautiful Katamari
I am asked to go shopping with others
I know a librarian at the central library
I befriend people with small children
I have a flatmate who makes me dinner regularly (around once a week)
One-way streets to confuse out of towners
Buskers (Cork has a scary marionette guy and some South America pan pipe guy who plays stuff to Celine Dion? These are surely a match to living statue and the juggling dude)
Friends get worried by the idea of you walking alone through town late at night
when out, men tend to drink beer, women tend to drink wine
Sale racks are my friend
Saturdays and school holidays mean many teenagers in town
Sheep and grass feature prominently in touristy things
Teenage girls wear too much make up and outfits that boggle (like seriously, why spend all that time on your hair and make up and then wear a track suit?)
Chinese, Thai and Indian are popular restaurant types
Kebabs are easy to obtain fast food
All day breakfasts
Obesity, binge drinking culture and carbon footprint may be found in many a newspaper headline
added
Minority Jokes, different minorities, same put-downs (eg, what do you call a XXXX in a suit? A defendant!)
I will probably add to this list as I think of other things or if people say stuff in the comments
Point of Fashion: time to find a drycleaner
Current Obsession: surreptitious photocopying