We do things differently here

Buying bras. Underwear is sold here in a variety of places; dedicated stores, clothes shops, C&A, street stalls - nothing unusual I hear you say. Very true. However the fitting of bras is normally done in privacy, hopefully assisted by a trained assistant.

Not so much here.

As we are officially coming into winter here the locals have taken to wearing thick woolly jumpers. So, imagine you're wearing a thick woolly jumper, you decide to buy a bra, what would you do? Well, one enterprising woman decided that trying the bra on, over the jumper in the street would be the ideal solution. The mind boggles.

Traffic. BsAs is built on a grid system (like New York) and most of the smaller streets are one way. It's a system that seems to work well. Now, in Britain when you're stuck at the traffic lights you're likely to be approached by someone offering to clean your windscreen, in Italy you'll be approached by someone asking for money or trying to sell newspapers (in Egypt you never get stuck in traffic). Here you are entertained by men juggling - balls, indian clubs, etc - wearing clown's clothes and with painted faces, and they are very good.

Shopping. There are several large supermarket chains here; Disco, Coto, Norte. The price on the shelves depends on which part of the city you are in; thus the prices are higher in the richer areas and lower in the poorer areas (Tesco take note - people travel to the nearest cheap(er) area). I don't bother as I don't have a car and the really wealthy send their maids to do the shopping. The supermarkets are open from 8am to 10pm seven days a week.

Once in the supermarket, you have to avoid the shelf stackers. The problem is they seem to think you, wandering around (relatively) aimlessly and shopping, interfere with their stacking - customers really are a nuisance!

In addition, when you get to the checkout, the cashier packs for you. Niiiice, you think, until you realise they have the unfortunate habit of packing whichever three items come to hand together in a carrier bag and then starting a new one. Doesn't matter how you load the conveyor belt, you always end up with ham, apples and soap in one bag; bananas, cheese and washing up liquid in another, and bread, onions and eggs in a third.

Very annoying to have to carry five bags home when two would have done. I already have a huge carrier bag full of carrier bags. Luckily they recycle here so if I just chuck them all out someone will make a little money from them.

And finally, condiments... none of that bottle and squeezy jar malarky here (although they do exist). Here we have.....

..........sauce in a bag. Can life get any better than that?