5 August 2010

Dinking. Yes... dinking.

Lou and Emma Dinking
So I learned a new word whilst in Melbourne. Dinking. That's New World Antipodean for 'doubling'. Here's Lou and Emma (Creative Director and Marketing and Development Manager of the State of Design Festival, respectively) heading off to a party after a night out on the day of my keynote talk at the festival.

Dinking. Funny how that rhymes with drinking. :-)

16 comments:

yewenyi said...

ha ha. Being from Melbourne I have always used that word and we always used to dink each other.

Unity Finesmith said...

In New Zealand it's only allowed if you wear a helmet (of course) and if there are proper foot rests ie. all the fun has been taken out of it and it sits in the 'too hard basket'!

In England, where I'm originally from, it's called a 'coggy' - no idea why.

ian_rm27 said...

mate! 'give us a dink'

A said...

Yep, I always said "I'll double dink you"! Love it! I'm in Sydney and if I did it now I'd probably get fined *sigh*

Amber said...

Im from Adelaide and it is very sad but true that dinky (how we say it) is not allowed and riding a bike is only allowed with a helmet on. It is pathetic as that has been their only attempt at 'making riders safe'. It makes me so angry. I love living in Europe where we ride everywhere helmetless and feel so safe. When I go back to Adelaide, I have to wear a stupid helmet or I am fined, I get abused by busdrivers and motorists for being on the road and dont feel safe at all. Hopefully, hopefully this will all change soon?

Brent said...

Hilarious! Here in the States, I've used the word in two ways: to tinker, or as an acronym, "double income, no kids." Wikipedia's entry on the word, however, has a series of colorful meanings from various English speaking countries, including "dildo" in England, "penis" in Canada, and Australia's two-to-a-bike:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dink

Be careful where you use it!

Anonymous said...

In England we've always refered to it as giving someone a "backy". Although oftern we don't have pannier racks so the person you're giving a backy to sits on the saddle, and you stand up whilst riding. Hard work! But not illegal!

Amsterdamize said...

Dinking, lol, so much better than "spring maar achterop" ("just jump on the back") or 'side saddle'. Yes, what I love most is that it's standard issue here in NL...now I feel I need to introduce 'drinking while dinking' (although Brent now has me pausing that thought) as a phrase. It has potential, as this combination is perfectly legal as well ;). Silly fear mongering, it's getting so old :p.

*Bubble wrapping my head, in case a satellite falls from the skies*

Anonymous said...

Dinking usually happens on the way to or on the way back from drinking!!!

But sure is a good idea to introduce the habit of drinking while dinking...

If you drink, don't drive. Quit driving, keep drinking!!!

Anonymous said...

I'll never forget the trouble I got into in Amsterdam by being an innocent tourist.

In Australia only kids dink other kids. When I saw some adults doing it I thought it was so amazing that I took a photo of a man dinking a lady. He was about half my weight and height, got off the bike and threatened to kill me for taking a photo of them. I deleted the photo despite my obvious weight advantage.

Later, in Edam at 11:00 at night when I was trying to find my way back to my boat, don't worry, ask me questions later, I found about 5 girls on one bike. By this stage I had realised that dinking was commonplace but I still hadn't seen this many people on a bike. Nevertheless, this time I did not take a photo. The girls were most helpful and welcomed me to Holland. Edam was so pretty at night I must go back one day.

karenoke said...

Don't drink and dink. Messy spill.

Anonymous said...

If you come to the states, I'll pump ya!

Beck said...

When I moved from NZ to Australia, dubbing turned into dinking, a dag went from being a charmingly eccentric to an irretrievably unstylish person and I turned from Rebecca into Beck with no input from me at all.

MELI. said...

i need a dink. nowwwwww

Anonymous said...

Aaaah! Memories of long australian summers dinking and being dinked! ;-)

hardcoder said...

we used to dink each other all round the neighbourhood, to and from school... good times :)