Learning curve

TODAY, my thongs are killing me.

No, I haven't overdone it on a hot wash and am suffering from a case of severe undie shrinkage. It's my ... as you call them back there ... flip flops.

For two weeks, I've flippety flopped my way through airports, shopping centres, chemists, used car forecourts, beaches and even places of interest. The thing that's getting to me most just now is where to get something a little more substantial for my ageing trotters.

"Back home" I knew exactly where to pick up any provisions, whether it be a loaf of bread or a new purse, a postage stamp or the latest CD.
Here, I don't know my Target from my Coles and every store is a new one.

I plucked up the courage last week to take off with the car keys and head down the road to the supermarket for some shopping. An hour later, I was back. With ice cream melted and tinnies all warm, I had to confess to the family that I'd spent just five minutes in the store. The rest of the time was spent trying to negotiate my way along highways and freeways in a vain attempt to get back to base.

My map reading skills are pretty basic and my built-in sat nav system is a non-starter so the sooner I'm left behind my own wheels to get on with it, the better.
All the roads look the same and I'm having huge problems finding my way around. I sit there like the Queen being chauffered from pillar to post and it often comes to blows when the map on my knee is looked at with blank eyes. I'm proud of the fact that I DO know my right from my left but when it comes to cartography, I aint the best.

One thing HAS been proved to me in the last week though ... that men CAN multi-task like their female counterparts. Although it's not exactly washing up while making lunch while taking a phone call and checking on the children, my husband can drive and map read simultaneously while I just look up at him from the passenger seat, all doe-eyed and helpless.
He's the best!