Shopping
I'm back in Mossley for 2 weeks R&R, which haven't been the best two weeks as I picked up some sort of tummy bug on my way out of Conakry. Still... time to catch up and get a few things done.
One of those things was to pick up some more clothes to wear on site, as we're still waiting for proper uniforms to come through. So naturally I headed to Primark.
Primark is a place that seems to defy the laws of economics. For example, I picked up several t-shirts for £1 each. How do they grow the cotton, process it, ship it to the factory in China, make the t-shirt, ship it to the UK, stock it and sell it for one pound and still make money? I don't know, but I'm still going to take advantage of it.
It's a massive store over 3 levels and so it's usually absolutely packed. If I want to practice my French I just go there - the place is a revelation to the French girls who normally have to pay a fortune for clothes back home. The queue for the changing rooms is generally about 50 m long. Fortunately with prices like this you don't need to try anything on! Last time I bought jeans (£6) I simply picked up two different sizes and skipped the queues. Well, at least the changing queue.... still had to face up to the payment queue. I've seriously considered trying to pay someone at the front of the queue to swap places with me - the place is full of kids with little money (clearly, they queue up to try things on) so that could work. Or bribing the security guards. Or something.
Fortunately now it's summer holidays in Britain and so it wasn't too bad yesterday... in and out in no time with a huge bag of clothes for about £30.
Now let's contrast that to getting a visa to visit Nigeria, something I'm currently investigating. Nigerian embassy in Canberra charges $20. Nigerian Embassy in London charges £20. Clearly that's one to add to my "it's way more expensive in the UK list".
Finally on the topic of weird pricing regimes - how come it is more expensive to fly Dubai-Brisbane than Paris-Dubai-Brisbane????
