Picked up my foreign currency today from Travelex. Somewhat peeved that I am forced to buy $250 worth of foreign currency when $50 would have sufficed. I'm sure I didn't buy that much last year? Anyhoo, that great wad of cash now resides in to my now stretched-like-a-piano-accordian handbag. How uncomfortable it must be for a bloke to carry $250 in rupiah in his wallet! Can he even fold his wallet in half? Can he sit down with it in his back pocket without anatomical injury? Does he look like he has a tumorous growth on his buttock when he walks? Just wondered...
I always like to have my visa in USD & some rupiah handy as my flight over is a pink-eye flight, arriving at nearly 10pm - Damn you Jetstar for your lousy flight times - my first day in Bali is a night! This is opposed to the red-eye/tan-fading overnight flight on my return, again a little winner! You can always tell when a Bali plane arrives at Melbourne airport. Aside from the sight of beaded braids (why, girls, why? Bo Derek is in a nursing home now, isn't she? & poor Dudley 6ft under?) and daisies on their nails. The observant who are up at the crack of dawn & hanging around airports will notice hordes of young tweenies shivering in their shorts & singlet tops, desperate to show off their tanned goosebumps to their designated driver collectors at 8 in the morning. I, of course have no need for this blatant display for attention. My tan rarely makes it onto the plane! Those who know me scoff when I return to Melbourne as pale as I left it, unconvinced that I went to Bali & not Tasmania. Nor are they convinced by the accumulation of an additional million freckles, which incidentally an unkind God has deemed that though they should go forth & multiply in the sun, they are NOT to join together to form a tan under any circumstances! *sigh*
I am also on the hunt today for some new clothes. I know Bali has a very relaxed dress code but I'm not at all keen for my built in floaties being displayed in sleeveless garments. You may prefer the term tuckshop arms. Unfortunately the workout I get lifting my hand luggage into the overhead locker is only sufficient to make me sore, not build muscles. Maybe if I did it 100 times on the flight over - I could start Jetstar aerobics! No longer be bored onboard! Get fit & fly packages! Maybe not - I doubt I could get up from my first squat with any dignity.
Alas Bali is in sync with the rest of the world in undercatering for the 14+ woman. We are a huge market (no pun intended) essentially untapped & would love nothing better than to come home with a suitcase full of new clothes that do not resemble a a colour-blind Hawaiian ukelele player's Sunday best or a camp tent. I should clarify - I want clothes that I would be happy to be seen in when I get home. I do have a few past purchases in the back of my wardrobe labelled 'what where you thinking!', not donated to charity for the protection of the poor. Thus I must buy my summer wardrobe here before I leave. Even then, I don't wear half of what I take but I like to have a bit of choice, and it is a woman's lot to change three times a day when in Bali, isn't it girls?
I have also had my new sunglasses changed to polarized bifocals so I no longer need to chop & change glasses in shops to read the fine print (aka price tags). Yes I could have had the work done cheaper @ Optik Wherever, but I believe they send bifocals offshore & didn't want to have to wait to lounge by the pool with a good book. Relax & sloth, remember.
Cheers.