Short changed... literally, this time

As I may have mentioned in previous posts about the supermarket, we tend to attract... dubious types. The kind of people you tend to cross the street to avoid are the kinds of people I have serve on a regular basis (with a smile, of course).

Anyway, I had one of those the other day and his shopping came to $6.50*. I told him the price and he put $5.50 down on the counter so I told him he still needed another dollar.**

Begrudgingly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of 5 cent coins and dropped them on the counter for me to count out. After I'd counted a dollar's worth, I pushed the rest back to him saying "You can keep the rest."

Then he left without taking the rest of the money, so I called out "Don't you want your change?"***

He came back and stood next to me (not on the customer side of the checkout - he invaded my personal, staff only space!) and, while breathing down my neck, carefully counted out the change. The he dropped it all on the counter again, tapped me on the shoulder and said "There's a tip," and walked away!

WTF was that all about?


* Unsurprisingly, these people never buy large amounts of stuff. What is surprising is the kind of stuff they buy. eg: One sausage and 4 packets of batteries over a series of trips within about 10 minutes of each other.

** This may sound harsh but this job has taken away most of my sympathy for such people (along with my faith in humanity).

*** See? I'm not a total bitch.

Tips and tricks to pick up checkout chicks

As we all know, in this modern, fast paced world there is precious little time to pick up in bars, clubs and and cruises. More to the point, when attempting to pick up a girl in one of these places, they have the frustrating ability to be able to move away when you get too annoying. Enter retail workers. Not only are they paid to be nice to you for the time your purchases take to scan, they also are not allowed to move away unless you actually a pull a knife out. What better place to play The Game?

So, just a few tips on how to melt your checkout chick's butter:

1. Be over the age of consent - or at least look like you are over the age of consent by doing something about your pimples, pulling your pants up so they cover your boxers and buying something other than packets of chips and bottles of soft drink.

2. Don't be so over the age of consent that you have now entered the realm of "creepy old man".

3. For the love of God, do not attempt to be suave by reading her name tag and then addressing her by that name as often as you can. It's creepy, it makes her uncomfortable, it's unfair because you're not wearing a name tag and it might also be wrong because she borrowed one from a friend after leaving hers at home.

Once you have these basics down pat, you're pretty much set. Essentially, the best way to pick up someone in a supermarket is to not be the kind of person who tries to pick up someone in a supermarket. Bit of a catch-22 there- but what can you do?

To do list

At the cinema we often send people vouchers and things to their emails which they print off and bring in when they buy their tickets. In itself, this is not all that amazing. But when I was sorting through them at the end of my shift, I noticed one of them had a To Do list on the back.

It read:

Beer
Toilets
Bathroom
Kitchen
Bedroom
Sweep
Mop
Water
Clean Fridge
Stains

I love Australia. Where else do people write 'Beer' at the top of their To Do list?

Supermarket scandal

Or rather, the lack of one. I am super excited ladies and gents because yesterday (my first day back at work) I served a blind person and a deaf person at my checkout (at different times, of course) and I wasn't accidentally insensitive to either of them! Snaps for me!

Also for the first time, I got to use my second language at work. My boss was so impressed when I said in my interview that I spoke Italian and she said it would be good because of all the tourists etc. who come into our supermarket. So it was good to finally be able to use it. (I'd been starting to think I'd have been better off learning Chinese)

Anyway, there was this guy with an Italian accent, I asked if he was from Italy and he was, so we chatted in Italian. But, it turns out he's been in Australia for 40 years! He asked me how long I'd been here
"19 years."
"And how old are you?"
"19."

So, here's a question, who should be welcoming whom?

Home again

I wonder what the opposite of culture shock is? Because I think I've had it.

When I arrived in Oman (I suppose because it was my second visit) things did not seem at all strange and the fact that I was suddenly surrounded by men in long white robes put me at ease, rather than on edge like it did on my first trip. So, there was that, first of all - I went to another country and felt quite comfortable. But then, when I got back home, I couldn't get out of that Middle Eastern mindset.

It's summer time here and we're in a bit of a heat wave but I felt I was being horribly inappropriate for going out in jeans and a tank top. What's up with that? This is Australia and I'm an Australian - we invented ugg boots for crying out loud!

But, yeah, after the first two days of fighting with my newly acquired super-modesty, I think I'm finally getting over it. I spent this morning rediscovering T-shirts. I'm even considering going up to the shops in my knee length skirt.

I've gone native

Well, I've worked out how to get the cars to stop beeping at you. Wear just as much clothing as the local girls. It didn't take a lot of working out, I suppose. But I was sort of resistant to the idea. I've tried to do everything but head scarf to see if that would cut it - it didn't. It's all or nothing here, it seems.

But I tell you, now that I have started, I don't think I can go back. Now when I leave the house I get hijabed up and the results are: no constant beeps from cars and better service in shops. Everybody wins! Also, I'm rather enjoying the challenge of keeping with the "local look" it's sort of like playing culturally sensitive dress-ups.

Things I notice in the Middle East

You know how sometimes if you're wearing a short skirt and walking by the side of the road, you might get beeped by passing cars? Well, it's the same sort of thing here but you'll get it for a wearing a T-shirt. (Not a tight T-shirt either, I felt I was fairly modestly dressed all round.)

The other thing is that, despite the fact Australia is a Western nation and has a free-trade agreement with the USA, it is a lot easier to find various American processed foods here than in Aus. Which strikes me as entirely unfair. I have had stock up on pop-tarts while I'm here because Mum and I share them as a guilty pleasure while watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls.

If you don't know what pop-tarts are (I'll confess I know about them mainly because of Gilmore Girls) this is an example:



Sweet sugary goodness without an ounce of health in sight.