Going Clothes Shopping - A Total BUST!!!

Wednesday was a beautiful with no workmen and no deliveries.  It was hot and humid, but that's Singapore.  All I had on my schedule were water aerobics and clothes shopping.  I gave my legs a really good workout in my self-produced water aerobics class, and they were happily throbbing as I headed out to shop.  I had checked the internet to see where curvier women should shop.  Trip Advisor said that there were several shops in the Orchard Shopping Area that would cater to larger sizes. I was in a great mood, and was tickled by the sign that says, "Push this button to make the green man appear."  I took the subway, and had to transfer to another line to get to my destination.  I noticed a woman with silver bows on her thumbnails, and she let me take a picture.

See the bottom section that says, "Press For Green Man" 

Can you tell that her thumbnail has a silver bow on it?

When I got off the subway at my destination, I noticed that I was at the store where Michelle had taken me shopping almost 2 weeks earlier.  I walked around the food court, looking for those good meatballs to which her son, Ollie, had introduced me, but was unable to find them.  I ended up at Subway, but I justified it by thinking that I had just taken the subway - and transferred - and I could only do so much "New Stuff" each day.  After I got my sandwich, I went to look for a place to sit down and eat it.  When you go to a food court in the States, there are restaurants all around the periphery, with general seating in the middle.  In this particular food court, each restaurant had its own seating area.  If you didn't purchase food from that vendor, you couldn't sit in their area.  In Subway's case, there was a shelf along the back wall where you could stand and eat your purchase.  My legs were not so happy about throbbing anymore!

After eating, I went on the hunt for clothes that would fit me.  Rich and I had been invited to a Chinese New Year's Function on Thursday evening, and the only dress that I had brought with me that seemed appropriate was black and white.  As I mentioned earlier, wearing black to a Chinese New Year's Function will bring bad luck.  I NEEDED to find something else - and fast!

This is where my nightmare began!  Singaporean malls are very confusing!!!  They don't have the walls and doorways between shops to which I am accustomed.  Also, looking at the map, it seemed as if the stores were pretty geographically close, and it would be easy to go from one to another.  That was not the case!  It was like there was a big, main store in each building, with an escalator that went through it, and other stores on the circular area to and from the escalators.  At one point, I couldn't figure out how to get out of the building.  I could see daylight, but I didn't know how to get there.  I saw an escalator that led to a theater, and, it seemed, to the outside.  Unfortunately, you couldn't get outside from there, but they did have seating to look out the windows.  So I sat down, gave my legs a break, and plotted my next move.

I finally figured out how to get outside, and headed in the direction of one of Singapore's big department stores.  I stopped a man to ask if I was headed in the right direction, and he said that I was, but it was on the other side of the street.  I had realized earlier that if you had to cross the street, you had to go down to an underpass.  Singapore loves its underpasses and overpasses; and drivers have no patience for pedestrians.  Forget about pedestrians having the right of way.  They'd just as soon run you down!

Anyway, I went into and out of stores, asking if they had clothes that would fit me.  They would either direct me to another store that had more "give" in its sizes, or pull out a shapeless blob to show me!  One dress that a saleswoman showed me actually looked like a potato sack with a head and arms holes cut out; same color and everything!  Now, as my friend, Julie, would say, "I'm no Slenderella," but I thought I could find something!  You know how you always pack and say, "Well if I forget something, I can always go buy it there.  It's not like I'm going to a third world country!"  I found out Singapore is a third world country for clothes for me.  I couldn't even console myself by shopping for shoes, as shoes don't come in my size, either!

Luckily, I will be returning home in May to be with our college students.  Before I left, I checked Trip Advisor to check on what types of clothes to bring with me.  I discarded many items because of their fabric type, or lack of sleeves, or showing too much cleavage.  I also didn't bring my FitFlops, because they said that flip flops were frowned upon.  FitFlops are everywhere here - and at a premium price!  The one pair of flip flops that I brought along are quickly wearing out, and I don't know where I'll be able to find replacements.  Anyway, I'll be much better prepared when I return in September.  January in Chicago is not the best place or time to find clothes for hot and humid weather.  But May in Chicago will be...  Until then, the Singaporeans are just going to take me the way I am!