Stone in Hand Weighs Two in Bush

*Melissa*

Things are a bit wonky here. If you were to ask me my height and weight, I would promptly respond 5’3 ¾ , and 110 lbs (okay, that’s my goal weight, anyways). And that’s because I’m from America, the last stubborn country who refuses to give in to the rest of the world and switch to the metric system. So being here, I would expect nothing else than to be given confusing numbers in strange measurements like kgs and meters. But this is not the case.

Many of you may not know that only 30 years ago, Australia ran on the imperial system. Distance was given in miles and yards, people and things were measured in inches and feet, and you bought your baking goods in bags of lbs and ounces. It wasn’t all that long ago that AUS gave in the peer pressure of essentially every other country in the world and started teaching kids to think in more practical measurements.

This fact is particularly useful when talking to the older patients who ‘rock up’ to the imaging department, and you’re spared the odd looks if you let your American shine through by asking them to shuffle a few “inches” to their left. But it doesn’t prepare you from dishing out the odd looks when you ask questions requiring a response in measurements.

Let’s put it this way: Stones are something you throw at old factory windows, hands are something you use to type blog postings, and a foot is something you walk with…. Oh, well that last one is ours, isn’t it?

But seriously, I have never heard such a mixture of measurements – does anyone really know how much a stone weighs? Or how many inches or feet or what-have-you are in a hand? And have you ever tried to continue your workout routine at a gym that only has weights in Kg? It really does your head in! (and by the way it makes you feel puny going from lifting 45 lbs to 20kg!!)

I like to think that being able to think in metric measurements is akin to being able to speak another language – to be able to look at something and think “oh, yeah, that’s about 18 cm”. And, hey, at least Chad and I will be a little more prepared for when the US finally succumbs to the metric pressure!