October 30 - Take 1!

Less than 24 hours ago I was leaving the motel near the airport. Strangely we saw the wrong side of Australians.

The Bear had booked a cab the night before...to pick us up from the motel at 7am. Right on time a young Indian looking cab driver pulled up and loaded our suitcases into the boot. We hopped in and were about to head off when another cab pulled up. An Australian driver got out and peered into our cab. He looked at the cab driver and stuck his head right in the window. He looked at our cab drivers computer thingy that sits up on the dashboard and then looked over to us in the back. He asked us if we “were right with this”. The Bear answered “yes...why wouldn’t we?” It so much what the Aussie cab driver said....it was how he said it. It reeked of racism and we felt the need to apologise to the cab driver on behalf of all Australians.

We arrived at the airport three and a half hours before our flight. That gave us time to check in and go through security and customs. The Bear set off the alarm at least 3 times and had to remove his watch, his wallet and his belt before he could go through properly. Once he successfully passed through security he was approached by a security officer who requested a “pat down”. This was a little more than checking for traces of drugs – it was a full on pat down/frisk search. I felt that this was hideously unfair and requested a pat down too! The officer politely declined and told me that a female officer would have to do that if it were necessary. I respectfully stated that this was not necessary and put the offer out to him again. Again this was declined...with the officer saying there were too many camera’s. This was blatant discrimination don't you think?  *sigh*

Clearly I was in for a different sort of day. I went to use the bathroom before going through customs and was surprised to see the ladies bathroom empty with a long line of immaculately clean toilets. I had my choice of around 12 cubicles so decided I would use one smack bang in the middle. I was again admiring the cleanliness and the pleasant music that was being piped through whilst I was having my tinkle.....so imagine my surprise when I found the toilet paper dispenser empty. Given that I had left my handbag out with the Bear, I couldn’t even try to fish for an old used tissue! I wondered what the odds were of being able to “drip dry” within 30 seconds, but figured this would be going against the theme of the day. I yanked my dacks up half way and was just about to unlock the cubicle door and make a bandy legged dash to the next cubicle when another patron came in. I listened to see if she might have gone into a cubicle on either side of me. I figured that someone wouldn’t mind if I called out and asked for a few sheets to be placed under the stall wall – however the woman entered a stall right at one of the ends. Not keen to be caught literally with my pants down, I decided to wait the couple of minutes until the other patron had gone. Needless to say of course she wasn’t just there for a wee, and I listened to the "William Tell Overture " whilst tapping my toe impatiently. It was clear that bugle bum wasn’t going to wrap this up in a hurry, so whilst she continued with natures calling, I yanked my pants back up half way and did the bandy legged dash to the next stall. And yes....there was ample toilet paper in there!