The perils of international shopping when you don't speak the language.

As this blog is detailing both the victories and the less than stunning moments and other screw ups, I must reveal that it came to light  between Cairns and Gladstone ,when Jo asked for some moisturiser, that my "moisturiser", bought in Vietnam , is in fact not!

Needed some moisturiser before we departed Vietnam. Not being fluent in Vietnamese it was obviously a simple  matter of perusing the supermarket shelf until we found the toiletries and then by deduction, ( a picture tells a thousand words -they say) figuring the obvious shampoo from other bottles and “systematically” eliminating the obvious non starters.

Mission accomplished by finding an internationally branded anti dandruff shampoo and working our way down the row until we came to other things that looked like skin care products.

My selection, made by looking at the picture of the lovely looking coconut, seemed ok.

Back on the boat, I gave it a test run and was not so certain, seemed a tad greasy to me for moisturiser, but hey, foreign country, who knows!

Still I thought I would check with the Vietnamese boys where assisting us with things. Using what  I thought was unambiguous international sign language, I asked if the bottle was for hair,  motioning with hands an action akin to hair washing , or for hands, signing with the obvious rubbing of hands together.
They took the bottle and read the label and indicated the latter- it was for hands, not hair. Excellent, my powers of deduction had been correct....or not!

Slow forward two and half years and Jo asked me if I had any moisturiser. Of course I did , but I did warn her it seemed a bit greasier than what she would normally  be used to.

Instantly suspicious , like most of my friends,who have apparent misgivings  about my eyesight and familiarity with the concept of  best  by dates, she closely perused the proffered 'moisturiser'.

As we were cruising in the Whitsundays at that moment, we had some internet connection. I thought she was looking up a translation site, but no, she merely googled the brand name.

Turns out that the product I had bought, was in fact shower gel- with an outside chance that it may contain some vague hint of hydration substance..... no wonder it felt greasy. I had barely used it in the two and half years, as it really didn't seem that effective.

I leave it to your  imagination,  the sight of two women the other side of 'half way', one definitely menopausal and the other having given birth to a child, creased double with mirth at the ineptitude of the deductions, that a 20 second google search had revealed. Barely able to speak for laughter, it just had all the makings of a blog post.

So thinking back , and as Jo indicated, perhaps the plan went astray  with the way I rubbed my hands together. Merely rubbing my hands obviously indicated washing , when I should have used the slower and obviously more  luxuriant hand rubbing motion, indicating the difference between shower gel and moisturiser . I however,  having actually been in Vietnam , don't think it would have made much difference.

Can't remember the last time my ineptitude cause so much mirth for both of us. Sure it won't be the last time either
 You have to laugh, it releases all those good endorphins.