A couple of observations

 Let’s get the contentious one out of the way first:

Have you ever noticed that, whatever bar or restaurant you sit in, and no matter what country you’re in, there is usually a spirits shelf, right?

I would guess that 95% of those bottles have their label in English. 

Is that an indictment of the colonialist leanings of the English-speaking overlords repressing the locals with alcohol addiction?

Or is it the entrepreneurial locals who know that the dimwitted westerners will make them rich as they get legless on overpriced spirits they think they recognize?

Now here’s the second one:

This is an observation from a lifetime of waiting for the better half to queue for the bathroom in a public space.

So, after years of study, my informed conclusion is that the only valid reason for gender reassignment surgery is public bathrooms. 

There is always a queue at the women’s. There is never a queue at the men’s. It’s that simple. 

Missed concert starts, dinners out, bus tours. Any time you rely on access to a public bathroom, prepare for the time you spend in that queue to be the hilight of your outing. 

The only place I ever saw that issue addressed from a design perspective, was the pre-earthquake Christchurch Convention Centre. 

In their foyer, there was the entrance to the gents on the left, and ladies on the right. Other than a group of urinals on the boy’s end, the entire width of the building between these two doors, is a row of cubicles. Common sense from a plumbing perspective. A narrow strip running practically the full width. Nothing particularly radical there. 

The clever bit was that the wall between his and hers was movable. It can slide left or right. So let’s say there are 12 cubicles in the row. For some events, there could be 6 cubicles each. For the next, there may be 2 for men and 10 for women. At a bloke-centric event, it could be 3 for her and 9 for him. Genius simplicity. 

But that building is no more, and I have not seen that solution anywhere else. 

So come on over ladies. Have the operation so that you can stand and pee, just like the rest of us. 

In and out, tute de suite. The process is not pretty, but it is functionally expedient. Gives new meaning to ‘standing room only’. 

…just one more thing…

The dad from Barbados was wearing a New Zealand souvenir t-shirt. He told me that he had looked at Portugal t-shirts, but the quality wasn’t there. 

Conclusion?

The Chinese-made New Zealand souvenir t-shirts come from a better quality factory than the Chinese-made Portugal souvenir t-shirts.