More ranting than expected

I was browsing through the Age website today, as I often do on my day off, and was immediately drawn to the two articles on cosmetic whitening creams in Asia. While I have no real opinion on the findings they presented in terms of mercury and chromium traces in the creams, I was surprised that "white is the new tan" in Asia. It really isn't that new when you think about it. Just take a look at any Chinese or Japanese illustrations and you'll see pale skin instead of olive skin. I understand that the title of the article is just something to catch the attention of the reader (worked for me) but a little consistancy in the reporting would have been nice. One of the articles finished with a comment about reverting back to old methods of temporary whitening like yoghurt.

It is true though, the love of fair skin among Asian communities. Browsing the cosmetics and skin care isle at Carrefour over here there's a miriad of products that can give you a perfect porcelain complexion. There are even capsules that you can take daily to assist with this complexion. Face wipes, soaps, masks... anything to keep the skin fair. At school I had a friend who stayed indoors/out of the sun for a couple of months because she had to go to a wedding and didn't want to be tanned. It's crazy but I guess we the grass is always greener. At least foot binding doesn't seem to have come back into fashion...

Speaking of fashion... as a small tiny person I was a little alarmed and disappointed when I read an article and saw a news snippet that said that some bra manufacturers were planning to stop making A & B cup sizes in their bra. This really sucks. I'm small enough to be able to fit into size 12 Australian kids clothes. (Pretty funky clothes out there for twelve year olds let me just say!) I can't buy off the rack pants for ladies without having to hack at least 20cm off the bottom of them. Shoes are a nightmare. I buy virtually any shoe that fits me that I like because I don't come across them often. Now to hear that I might not be able to get a bra that fits with any great ease really pisses me off. Grrr. Small frustrated person right here. I don't mind wearing kids clothes, they're often comfortable and it's highly unlikely I'll end up at a party in the same frock as someone else. I think that when I start having trouble buying underwear that fits I'll quite possibly lose it. Sorry, that was probably sharing a bit much but it's frustrating being small sometimes! (I know that there are people even smaller than me and I shouldn't whinge but I'm selfish that way. Besides, I think they should have access to clothing that fits well too).

Now that that's out of my system... the article in the Age on fried coke also caught my mind. All you'd need to do is add some chicken and fries and you'd almost have a fast food meal on a stick.

I've been thinking about the time difference between Melbourne and Doha and I've decided it's not so bad. When I'm eating lunch in Doha is roughly when I'd be eating dinner in Melbourne. I'm not really having much dinner, just a light snack when I get home which is roughly what happens late at night in Melbourne and breakfast in Doha is lunch.

Sorry that was a bit random.

In other news my iPod has finally been dispatched from Sydney. Hopefully it will arrive on Sunday or Monday. I say hopefully because there's a huge backlog of freight at the airport apparently because there's some event happening here in December...

Well, I'm going to curl up on the couch and hitchhike the galaxy a bit.