Squabbles

Seattle Day 2:

I've approached Seattle with a very relaxed attitude, without too much fuss about what I do or don't get to do, and it's been brilliant. After a rough night's sleep (I always take my earplugs out in a half sleepy daze, because my sleeping brain wants to know what's going on), I let myself have a bit of a sleep in and then toddled out into the sunlight to find some breakfast. I ended up at the Greek yoghurt stall. Mmmmm. Perfect.

My first goal for today was to find a particular present for someone, and I managed it! I was pretty excited to find it, and hope that the recipient likes it... :) On my way there I had to fight off a lady trying to sell me hand scrub stuff, although I did let her demonstrated how wonderful and incredible it is on my hands first... They offered to cut $55 off the price for me, because it's all about getting the name out there, but I got away unharmed.

As I walked away from the shopping centre, pleased with my present finds, I was stopped by a lady in the street offering me a complimentary haircut (I thought perhaps it might also be complementary), as part of her hairdressing certificate. I asked her what she planned, and she seemed to be happy to just tidy up my current style and deal with my overgrown fringe. "All right!" I said, thinking "brilliant, this might just save me having to go straight for a fringe trim as soon as I get home." She gave me her card, then led me back into the shopping centre, up some stairs and into a hairdressing school salon. It was full of people having all kinds of styles and treatments, and a few instructors hovering around. I was shown into a little cubicle to put a robe over my clothes, then taken to a seat. I had to to sign a waiver, promising I wouldn't complain if I didn't like the result, and then set about assessing my hair. All in all I ended up with a reasonable cut, plus wash and blow dry, for free. She had to get assistance a couple of times, and was told to try a little harder to get my hair to take a particular blow drying technique, but the end result was fine. I suspect a few eccentricities of my hair will reappear after I wash it (I have one bit that's always longer than the rest unless it's specifically cut), but that's not really an issue. Apparently I have the perfect hair to practise a bob on, and they suggested she ask me to be a test model for later in the course.

So that was fun! And I'd just been thinking this morning that my hair was starting to look a bit straggly. Perfect timing!

After that it was lunch time, clam chowder from the Pike Place Market, followed by a wander to the Seattle Underground tour. It was brilliant. One of the best paid tours I've done, no exaggeration. And it was a real testament to what difference the tour guide can make. We went through three sections of tunnels, and had the history of the city explained in relation to them. There weren't any ghost stories (but some mockery of one), there weren't outrageous tales (but some discussion of the 'seamstress' ladies of the town), but it was incredibly interesting nonetheless. A lot of what our guide was saying reminded me of Terry Pratchett's Ankh Morpork, with the city being built up, leaving ground floors underground, and murky worlds of seamstresses.

It was mid-afternoon, and the sun was beginning to descend so I went down to the waterside area. Planning on fish and chips for dinner from Ivar's (a famous place there), it was a little early but I was ready for a sit down. So I settled in Starbucks with a hot chocolate and book for a little while. Eventually it seemed the time to move on, so I went the 200 metres to dinner. Goooood chips. The fish was pretty nice, but the chips were very good. And the seagulls thought so too. I ate all mine, but not without some fear for my life. These birds are BIG. They could take off an Imo's head with just one bite I reckon. But I had some fun watching other people feed them for a little while.

There are a few things I don't understand about America. One is the lack of automatic doors. For a country obsessed with ease of living (including drive through ATMs and pharmacies) there seems to be a dearth of automatically opening doors. I keep having to manhandle heavy things open or spin around in the horrible death trap whirly ones. The other mystery (of course, it's not the ONLY other mystery) is the gun thing. While watching the birds a Canadian couple next to me commented on the boat cruising around the harbour with some big semi-automatic gun on the bow. Someone else explained that the boat is there to keep the waterways free of sailboats when the ferries are going through. The couple and I exclaimed 'with a GUN?' at the same time. I'll never understand it.

And that's about it. I should go and sort out my possessions, although that can probably wait until the morning. I can't believe this is my last night in North America, tomorrow I'll be on a plane, then I'll disappear for Wednesday and be discovered again on Thursday in that mysterious time vacuum that is international travel. But tomorrow is also my 1000 blip, so I'll try to do good.

Adios, see you all tomorrow!