Chit chat

Went and got my hairs cut today. That's how it happened. One hair at a time. It took 80 minutes. The whole hairdresser experience is bad enough as it is. You have to sit in front of the mirror the whole time so there is really nowhere to look but at your own stupid face which always looks awful under whatever the hell special Ugly Lighting they use in hairdressers all around the world. Then you have to try and explain to the hairdresser how you want your hair to look after they have finished with it, which is pretty bloody hard without a photo. They always seem to say, "Oh, like my hair?".

And finally you have the banal hairdresser chatter to contend with. Unlike boring people at parties, you cannot simply drain your drink and slink off with the excuse of needing another one and leave them standing alone with their dull thoughts, you have to answer their questions and sit through the pregnant pauses while they wait for you to continue with some thoughts of your own. At some point - usually after about 2 minutes I would guess - they realise that you are not going to be helpful in perpetuating this meaningless chatter and start thinking about something else they can ask you. I would have thought that in Japan you wouldn't encounter that kind of annoyance because in general the Japanese are quite happy to sit in silence rather than make small talk. But I guess my being a foreginer was just too much of an intrigue for my hairdresser to go by and she was asking me stuff left and right. But at least now there is one less person in Japan who thinks that the entire of Australia is a tropcial wonderland. Thanks to all the advertising for the Gold Coast and QLD that goes on over here, the Japs all think that Australia is one big beach. So when I tell them that over half of Oz is actaully desert they get a bit weirded out, like they have been duped or something. Which I guess they have, but only through their own laziness in building their image of Australia off of tourist brochures.

Anyway, the result of the day is that I have shorter hair and have been subjected to enough small talk to fill my quota for a good 6 months.