GABIT attendees thread

[Chelle DB]

timtams are available on amazon.com. dark chocolate is the best.

I'd have to disagree...tho the mint ones which are dark chocolate are delish...but my fave is the originals or the latte ones which we don't have anymore. And the white ones are nice too...as are the double choc...oh thank goodness we have none in the house at the moment...is making me hungry.

[lame moose (mocha)]

DIDN'T REALIZE THEY CAME IN DARK CHOCOLATE MINT. (oops) gotta find some to try.

off to amazon .com

[Chelle DB]

DIDN'T REALIZE THEY CAME IN DARK CHOCOLATE MINT. (oops) gotta find some to try.
off to amazon .com

Yep, and rum & raisin but I don't like the r&r ones much.

[NZNeep]

The mint and rum & raisin ones are limited edition. Rum and raisin has always been a favourite flavour in my house so they are a win and I *love* the mint ones. The best ever were around for a few months in 2005 when I was in 7th form... dark chocolate and chilli. Just a little bit of heat from the chilli, but it was enhanced if you did a tim tam slam with a hot drink.

Now I have discovered a hot chocolate with chilli, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg... so good.

[Trindajae]

Laurie, they do sell Tim Tams in the US. Pepperidge Farms has the distribution license, though sadly they treat it as one of their seasonal products so it's only available for about half the year (the cold half). But they're manufactured here and they just don't taste the same. Every once in a great while when I've got the money to pay exorbitant prices, there's several import companies that warehouse the stuff in various places (one I've used before has a warehouse in Seattle, even) and I get myself some Tim Tams and my favorite brand of ginger beer. But the shipping is usually almost equal to the cost of the stuff I'm buying, so I mostly only do it when I've started to forget why I thought it was fantastic in the first place.


Hey Neep... what's seventh form? I figured out what sixth form is, but I've never heard of seventh. Can you explain how it works over there? For context, we weird Americans tend to number years from the beginning of mandatory schooling around age 6, though it's very common for students to attend kindergarten or pre-kindergarten as young as 3. "Elementary School" covers up through about age 11 or 12 with 5th or 6th grades (varies by region), followed by "Middle School" (ages 12-14, grades 6-8) or "Junior High" (ages 13-15, grades 7-9), and "High School" (ages 14-18 and grades 9-12 in the regions that have middle schools, or ages 15-18 and grades 10-12 for a "Senior High School" following a "Junior High School"). It's not until the end of 12th Grade that you get any sort of diploma or graduation certificate, though legally you can stop at age 16 in most states. Though private schools can and do frequently vary from that, with some private schools covering everything up through the end of Eighth Grade in one school before sending their kids to high school.

Um, rereading all of that... it's confusing. Here's a chart because I like charts! (But I couldn't figure out how to get it to put in a proper table, so the extra punctuation is to keep spacing between the columns.) Know that there's some difference in ages when kids start each grade. For example, I turned 7 only a couple of months after school started, so I was 7 for most but not all of First Grade.

Option 1:
Age...........Grade.....................Type of School
4-5...........Pre-Kindergarten.........Elementary School
5-6...........Kindergarten
6-7...........First Grade..............(Legally mandated to start school for First Grade)
7-8...........Second Grade
8-9...........Third Grade
9-10..........Forth Grade
10-11.........Fifth Grade
11-12.........Sixth Grade
12-13.........Seventh Grade............Junior High School
13-14.........Eighth Grade
14-15.........Ninth Grade..............(Senior High School in some places)
15-16.........Tenth Grade..............Senior High School
16-17.........Eleventh Grade
17-18.........Twelfth Grade
(The successful completion of Twelfth Grade and graduating from high school is the first level of education that's acknowledged as having any sort of value, job-wise. Dropping out at age 16 used to be socially acceptable, but that's not really the case anymore. Kids that do stop schooling at 16 typically either end up stuck in fairly crappy jobs or they go back and get the adult equivalent of the qualification, the GED. I can't remember what the acronym stands for at the moment, but it works much like a normal high school diploma except for possibly a small amount of social stigma in some places.)


Option 2: (The one I went through)
Age...........Grade.....................Type of School
4-5...........Pre-Kindergarten.........Elementary School
5-6...........Kindergarten
6-7...........First Grade..............(Legally mandated to start school for First Grade)
7-8...........Second Grade
8-9...........Third Grade
9-10..........Forth Grade
10-11.........Fifth Grade
11-12.........Sixth Grade..............Middle School
12-13.........Seventh Grade
13-14.........Eighth Grade
14-15.........Ninth Grade..............High School
15-16.........Tenth Grade
16-17.........Eleventh Grade
17-18.........Twelfth Grade

[ames]

We can get TimTams at Walmart in their "international foods" section, although apparently it doesn't taste the same. Can't really comment on that, as the one actual TT from AU I think I've had would have been years ago. I'm much more familiar with Penguins (no, not the same, albeit similar) ... which we sadly can not acquire here in the local Wally World

Chelle, I'm sure we could arrange to get some of the North American ones to the chocolate party at AT6 for you to taste test ... but don't look at me -- any spare space I've got is dedicated to bluey goodness! Mmmmmmmmm........

Trin, I know how you feel. Everytime I go into either of the local British shops (or the Scottish bakery) I cry a little. All those wonderful treats sitting there on the shelves, at 4x the price they would be back in the UK. The best part are the items that have their price in GBP written directly on the packaging. I automatically do a rough conversion ... and then double it to come close to what the shop is actually charging in $Cdn ... and then lament the fact that no, I am NOT desperate enough (YET) to pay that much for prawn cocktail crisps, or proper Cadbury's chocolate, or IrnBru. Yet. LOL

[llp]

Hey, I'm tired - been unpacking box after box after box....never an end to it! And you have never been able to get Tim Tams here at the stores. Maybe at a few specialty store, but never the grocers.

[llp]

Laurie, they do sell Tim Tams in the US. Pepperidge Farms has the distribution license, though sadly they treat it as one of their seasonal products so it's only available for about half the year (the cold half). But they're manufactured here and they just don't taste the same. Every once in a great while when I've got the money to pay exhorbitant prices, there's several import companies that warehouse the stuff in various places (one I've used before has a warehouse in Seattle, even) and I get myself some Tim Tams and my favorite brand of ginger beer. But the shipping is usually almost equal to the cost of the stuff I'm buying, so I mostly only do it when I've started to forget why I thought it was fantastic in the first place.

Oh yeah, what is the name of that place. Maybe they have a store near by....I can pick some up. I could even send some to you and it would probably cost a lot less!

[Trindajae]

Oh yeah, what is the name of that place. Maybe they have a store near by....I can pick some up. I could even send some to you and it would probably cost a lot less!

Pretty sure they don't have a store, just a warehouse... And I can't remember the name of the Seattle place... the one I ended up using is in Ohio. http://www.simplyoz.com/ For local stuff, you'd be better googling for it.

[NZNeep]

We have several options for preschool... childcare, kindy or playschool.

At 5 we start primary school, that's year one.

At around 11 years old (year 7) we start intermediate, although in my area they are just part of the primary schools.

At around 13 (year 9) we start college (high school) and most go through to graduate after year 13 (the equivalent of your 12th grade I guess, since year 1 starts where your would say kindergarton).

A lot of us still referred to "forms" although those aren't the official names any more. Form 1 (around 11 years) was the start of intermediate. We have nationwide exams in 5th form, 6th form and 7th form- so you can graduate having achieved Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3. Level 3 is basically University entrance, but sometimes really good level 2 marks can get you in.

[Celandine]

Back to Gabity stuff and a question for the G4: Any idea when we might have available the info on ticket sales? One month before? Two weeks before?

Just trying to figure a few things out and having the price for tickets as early as possible would help tremendously!

Oh, and why TUESDAY for sales? Argh. I'd hate to call off work or schedule off that day just to sit around the lappy waiting for the countdown. I guess it'll depend on times as well. From here, it's a good six hours time difference, I believe. Might work if the time is early enough.

[SEREN LWCH (MAL)]

Oh, and why TUESDAY for sales? Argh. I'd hate to call off work or schedule off that day just to sit around the lappy waiting for the countdown. I guess it'll depend on times as well. From here, it's a good six hours time difference, I believe. Might work if the time is early enough.

Tuesday? I hope it is in the evening UK time then! I'll most likly be at work until 8am and not able to get online until around 9am...Plenty of time though

[lame moose (mocha)]

a little off topic, but does anyone know if season 4 of sancyuary will be available on itunes once the season starts to air in the states? is there a date for s-4 yet in the uk?

[Jumble]

a little off topic, but does anyone know if season 4 of sancyuary will be available on itunes once the season starts to air in the states? is there a date for s-4 yet in the uk?

The UK is still holding it's breath on that one

[Trindajae]

A lot of us still referred to "forms" although those aren't the official names any more. Form 1 (around 11 years) was the start of intermediate. We have nationwide exams in 5th form, 6th form and 7th form- so you can graduate having achieved Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3. Level 3 is basically University entrance, but sometimes really good level 2 marks can get you in.

We've got national assessment tests every two years or so. I don't know anymore what age they start at, but it was around age 8 when I was going through. The tests aren't good for anything except the school ranking tables, though. The only exams that are worth anything are the SAT & ACT (Always pronounce the letters, don't read them as words. Which one you take depends on region, but they're mostly the same-ish), both of which students take in their final year if they're planning to apply to university. Some really nerdy students (like me) can opt to take another test in their second-to-last-year which is technically used to apply for a scholarship for uni, but it's a national competition and I'm not *that* good, so I just took it as practice for the SATs. (The PSAT costed around $15 to take, whereas the SATs were much more than tha. (They're down to more like $50 for the SATs and there's a waiver process if a family can't afford that.)

Are the tests over there something that employers would care about? The SATs are only good for colleges and universities here, employers wouldn't care.