"leaving the page of the book carelessly open, something unsaid, the phone off the hook"

"I shop therefore I am"
There are a lot of unpaved roads where I live. Beach sand, beach rocks, gravel, dirt, Eucalyptus strewn pathways. Two seasons each year put a person under threat of rain. Often this rain consists of five intense minutes of down pour, this five minutes will happen to you if you wearing nice shoes. After the death of two cute pair of shoes, I started to obsess on the proper shoe wear for my new country life. I found two pair of high wedge cherokees via Ebay, one pair was quite a hassle. Buying that pair consisted of many emails, cut and pasting several paragraphs of ebay rules, and a threat to the seller before I got them shipped to my girlfriends place in Santa Monica. I remember when a shopping obsession didn't take more than a jaunt out of the city limits to a thrift store, or about an hour of internet search. Sure there is ebay and its partner paypal which we have in Australia, but on the other side there is incompetence, quarantine, customs, and isp addresses to get in the way of a girls purchase. I decided I needed a pair of Clarks Wallabees about two years ago. I got mine this week. Even though Clarks is a UK company no one, nor any store that I asked in Australia had ever heard of the company. Internet shops didn't seem to carry my size. I thought while in the U.K. I would have more luck, and although there are plenty of Clarks shoe stores, I was told they were discontinuing the classic line of the Desert Boot and Clarks Original which is why none of the stores had any stock. This brought on a bit of panic and also stopped dead my hopes that I'd find them for under the list price. I did find these online, in an American store, which shipped internationally. They were quick on the charge which turned out to be in our favor as the exchange rate was much better then than now. I had to send three emails, and leave two messages from here to get an answer about where the shoes were. I finally got a call and an explanation about the company changing owners. There is now a problem about the billing which I need to call about, but hey I have the shoes! Wedge heel to stay out of the dirt and give a bit of height! Waterproof! So ugly they are cute! Good for walking!

When Zok and I first came here the airport was half the size it is now, there was one airline and parking was unmonitored and free. About a year after we moved here, Virgin Blue added a route. Now there is a new terminal with its own baggage claim and a new airline; Tiger. There are three snack bars instead of one, and three gift shops instead of one. Parking now costs about $4.20 for the hour but usually there is a close spot. Plus one could just drive to pick up or drop off. Also everyone travellers and those left behind can go to the gates. Travellers still have to walk the tarmac to get onto the plane which I enjoy. As you can see the airport is yet to be really busy. However they have added a roundabout, and a hotel so I think change is coming.