Random Musings

Supersize Me- Australians worry that they are mere ounces away from the obesity problem the United States has. I don't see it, in the Central Business District anyway. Young, skinny and clad in designer fashions. Or, is that what is meant by "well-presented" in every employment classified?

There must be 2.8 restaurants per person here in Perth. All different kinds and ethnicities. Does anyone cook at home, anymore?

Now, I love post offices in general. The stamps in Malaysia glow in the dark! (are those safe to lick?) The post offices here are retail havens. Stamps are almost a sideline to all the cell phones, toys, DVDs, phone cards, games, stationery, etc. Australia Post regularly rotates its stamp design stock, so one has to act quickly to get Harry Potter movie, The Simpsons, Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe stamps. As you can see, you don't need to be real or dead to be licked & fixed around here.

So why, after so long, do I still get surprised to see people walking around barefoot all the time? All those signs in the U.S. stores and restaurants stating "No Shirt, no shoes, no service" simply don't exist here. No place is a barefoot-free zone. Sometimes I feel rather prudish walking into the shopping center with shoes on my feet. They remain tied, anyway.

In order to stream line the cost of government, WA has the idea of "amalgamating" sections of suburbs. Jaw drop. Long established suburbs like my own are seriously balking at the idea of jettisoning their community identity to save paperwork for the state. Can you imagine the uproar if this was suggested in any metropolitan area in the U.S.?

Woolworth's. Found everywhere but in the U.S. In Mexico, it is the store you remember. In Australia, it is a chain of grocery stores. Same font and logo. Odd or homey?

Vegetable shortening does not exist in Oz. People here use butter or lard. Just have to have your Crisco? Look in the International Gourmet Foods section of the high-tone department store...right next to the chocolate Pop Tarts.

Evidence that the sun hangs out here in its spare time: It seems like there are as many skin cancer clinics here in WA as there are heart hospitals in Columbus or convenience stores anywhere.

Thursday Late Night Shopping: a 'family event' and the only evening, by law, that stores are allowed to be open until 9 pm here in the 'burbs. Downtown Perth gets Friday nights and extended weekends (including Sundays.) I'm not sure I understand it, either.

I'll muse more later...