With a thong in my heart on Jandal Day
5:00AM Friday December 07, 2007
By Andrew Koubaridis
Jandals are quite versatile, but today they can double as workwear. Photo / Dean Purcell
Ever wanted to wear your Jandals to work? Well, today you can as New Zealand celebrates its first-ever Jandal Day.
Kiwis are being urged to kick off their shoes and slip on their thongs to pledge their support to surf lifeguards, who are holding their inaugural appeal day today.
Hundreds of businesses throughout the country have registered to take part, involving about 60,000 people, but that figure doesn't include thousands of individuals taking part.
Californian Matt Fiori, 30, yesterday told the Herald he'd never heard the term Jandal. He calls his favourite footwear flip-flops.
"I love them, I wish I could wear them all the time."
Mr Fiori said he had one pair but tended to wear them out, saying he would "wear them till they died".
They were "very popular" on the beaches in California, he said.
And it seems he's in good company. Surveys show Kiwis love their Jandals so much that 80 per cent have a pair, and more than half own two pairs.
Jandals are considered so Kiwi that 90 per cent of us even consider them a national icon.
Money raised from Jandal Day will go towards public education, increasing the access of lifeguards to beaches and purchasing equipment.
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No comment from me!
My husband buys leather ones and wears them til they fall apart.
8 comments:
These must be the same shoes we call "flip-flops" here... And WE love them, too! I've had leather ones, but the plastic ones are inexpensive and comfortable... My six-year-old loves them SO much, she'd wear them out in the snow, if I'd let her. My youngest learned to love them when she turned two (they were the tiniest, funniest little shoes you've ever seen-- hot pink, of course).
xo CGF
Yes - they are flip flops. Everyone here wears them! I even confess to having a rubber pair stashed away at the beach. They ar good beach wear as you can take them off so easily and they can be jammed into a backpack.
However - they can also cause you to trip - definitely not good to wear tramping in the bush!
Speaking of tripping... I had a tragic flip-flop accident as a child, when I tried to jump rope while wearing my favourite pair. I wound up scraping a good portion of my knees, hands AND face off on the pavement!! I was a walking advertisement for Polysporin and Elastoplast for about two weeks.
But, luckily-- no scars, other than the emotional ones!
Imagine how much worse it would have been if I had been jumping DOUBLE DUTCH...
Owww, I can picture it. Not the attire for skipping in.
And you used to skip double dutch too. The skipping language must be international - unlike sewing equipment!
We call them flip flops here in the UK too - although we don't have very much summer in which to wear them. I hate them - they hurt my toes too much so I go for birkenstocks or similar.
I have just noticed you love Edward Rutherfurd books too? I feel the same as you, Sarum and London are the best, but I also have enjoyed Dublin - still got to read the follow up as I'm two thirds through Deathly Hallows and can't put it down!
Gail
Hi Tismee - sometimes they are known as flip-flops here too. In Australia they are called Thongs. In NZ a 'thong' is a piece of womens underwear!
I am reading Dublin at the moment but have stalled a bit and lost the thread.
I am going to reread Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet over the summer - read it years and years ago so it will stand a rereading.
My son has just bought 'A Thousand Spendid Suns' written by the same author as 'Kite Runner' and I have my eye on that one too for the summer!
Deathly Hallows was one of the best of the series I thought.
I'll have to look out for those. I found Russia quite difficult to get through and even now can't remember much about it. It was all the long Russian names - all sounded very similar and I found it hard to form a relationship with any particular character. Very interesting from a cultural pint of view though.
Forest was quite good, and I knew a lot of the places mentioned as I lived not far from there for a few years.
I haven't read anything of Ken Follet so that will be something new to try.
I too stalled with Russia. And I think it was the names and somehow the continuity was lost.
You would probably enjoy Pillars of the Earth.
London just came alive to me after reading the book of the same name. The history is just amazing.
One of our sons lives in London and another son is joining him early next year. Time for me to visit again I think!
I was there last year, he lives in Richmond, and grew very familiar with the local area.
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