Pamalaysia and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

If you have children you are probably familiar with the Judy Viorst book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". When the kids were young it was one of our favorites to read together (especially if someone was having a bad day) and while teaching first grade I would read it several times a year to my class, always explaining that this is my favorite book ever. For those of you not familiar with this literary work of art, Alexander has one of those days when nothing seems to go right. He woke up with gum in his hair, his mom forgets to put dessert in his lunchbox, he had lima beans for dinner and there was even kissing on T.V. that night! The last page of the book Alexander declares that he thinks he will move to Australia.
I had one of those days yesterday. I have not found anyone to cut my hair how I like it, so I keep searching for the "perfect" hair stylist. (I think the count is 5 now.) Yesterday I tried a new one and it did NOT go well! I try and bring pictures and describe how I want my hair cut, the differences between my curly hair and straight hair they are used to cutting, etc. Between the language barrier and culture differences, I just can't seem to communicate effectively when it comes to hair.
After enduring this for an hour, I went by the restroom before I was going to start my shopping. As I've mentioned before in blogs, most public toilets you have to pay to use and pay for "tissues". This particular mall has only 2 upright toilets available--the others are more typical of SE Asia and are the hole-in-the-ground kind. So yesterday I paid my money, walked in and BOTH upright toilets had trashcans on their seats. (I would love to say this was the first time this has happened, but it is pretty frequent.) So I have to use my hands to take the large trashcan off the seat, then the seat itself is COVERED with water (along with the floor), so I'm using my little tissues to try and dry it best I can. I wash my hands and have to dig in my purse for---you got it---my LITTLE TISSUES because there are no paper towels and the electric hand dryer is not working.
Next I went to the grocery store and was completely ignored by the women in produce who weigh your fruits and veggies. It was so obvious they were ignoring me, I actually started laughing at how blatant it was.
There are days over here when we just REALLY, REALLY want to be back home. Besides the obvious of missing our family and friends, we really miss easy communication, good service and (at least I miss) clean toilets. So far we have not had any of these days on the SAME day, or we might just be on a flight back to the states. Or, as Alexander so aptly stated, I think I will move to Australia. It is actually CLOSER than home:)