Leaving on a [Many] Jet Plane[s]

H and I are saying hooroo to Australia and moving on to our next home overseas.  This means that I'll have to catch-up on my severe backlog of Australia postings from someplace other than Australia.  It also means that I get to play excited bathroom game in the Dubai Airport.  Excited bathroom game involves guessing what's behind each stall door: toilet or squat hole.

Full points are given for a correct blind guess and 75% of points are awarded for a correct guess based on observing who is exiting the stalls.  Half points are awarded based on observing who is entering the stalls as a lot of times Westerners will reveal the squat locations by gasping and shaking their heads when they push open the stall door, resuming their place in the queue to wait for the next available stall, or simply saying, "this is gross."

Another fun area of play for excited bathroom game is seeing just how many women will emerge from a single squat stall at one time.  I'm not quite sure what they all do in their together.  Maybe assist with holding up one another's voluminous burkas?

Thank goodness we have an eleven hour layover.  I couldn't bear to have a limited timeframe to play in.

So toodaloo kangaroos, I'll check-in once I arrive on the other side of the globe...literally.

Perth Shopping- Gag Me

I need a new pair of shoes for work, really badly.  I’ve been wearing my current pair for the past four years, including every work day of the past two years.  I’ve worn them barefoot, in +40˚C weather, and through deserts and occasional flooding.  The sole of one is peeling off, the heel of the other is ripped, and they smell really bad.  So bad that I’ve taken to washing my feet every evening when I get home (Which shockingly enough makes me miss the two bidets in the last house.  Yes, I do know what bidets should actually be used for.  And yes, I have only ever used them to wash my feet).

It’s not for want of other shoes that I’ve taken to wearing this pair everyday.  While my closet in Perth has many fewer pairs than my closet(s) in the U.S., I do have other options.  But none are as stylish or as comfortable.  I really just want to buy a new pair of the same shoe.  Of course, Tory Burch shoes are not sold in Australia, at least Western Australian; if they were, they would probably cost three times the price.  So I have taken to scouring the handful of ‘nice’ stores in Perth for a substitute pair of work flats.

In the months, almost year, that I’ve attempted to shop in Perth, I’ve grown to appreciate the shopping that we once had at our fingertips living in the Middle East.  While it was just like home, except with no tax and slightly higher prices / less frequent sales, apparently the shopping at home is pretty spectacular.  I noticed that the inventory at David Jones has basically not turned over since we got here and found two ok pairs of shoes for about twice as much as I would consider paying for them.  Perhaps the stores have not yet realized that the Australian dollar is actually around parity with the U.S. dollar and adjusted their prices accordingly.  The salespeople have been at best absent and at worst condescending, ignorant and unhelpful.  Shockingly enough, I am still wearing my stinky, yet stylish, shoes.

Smelly feet are one thing but the unchanging, bad inventory is making me depressed.  H and I just did yet another walkabout in David Jones, the ‘nice’ department store in Perth, and were underwhelmed by the merchandise, let alone the pricing.  Never have I seen so much polyester in what is deemed to be an upscale department store.  Out of date styles by years, not just seasons, cheap fabric and bad cuts abounded.  And I’m talking about what was for sale, not just what the salespeople were wearing.

Fingers crossed that the shopping will be better in our next location.  Although the men there are known to wear 'skirts.'