vietnamese beauticians in Australia

I hate confrontation... so when I go into Hairhouse Warehouse and I see Greek / Italian / Maltese girls working there and then when i go in to get waxed and discover the waxist is Vietnamese I have heart palpitations. The European girls are too lazy and can't be bothered trying to sell me anything more... but the Viets take their job seriously. I can say no once, but if they keep at it i start to waver and I ALWAYS end up agreeing to whatever they're trying to sell me.

So i'm wandering around the plaza on my break and decide to get my lip done. (whatever, i'm Italian, try point out one Italian girl to me that doesn't have this done). I book at the front desk with a European girl. Great. I sit and wait. Awesome.

and then a tiny, beautiful Vietnamese girl (i say girl because she looked 16 but she was probably in her 30's) came out of the waxing room and beckoned me in with her 4 inch nails.

ONLY YOUR LIP! NOTHING ELSE! EVERYTHING ELSE WILL GO RED AND YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO WORK! PLUS YOU'RE GROWING OUT YOUR EYEBROWS!

Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: Hi Honey, how are you today?
Me: Good thanks, how are you?
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: I'm fine... so what am I doing for you today?
Me: uh, just my lip thanks.
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: You don't want your eyebrows too honey? (she touches my eyebrows... in case i forgot where they were)
Me: uh, nah, just my lip is fine, thanks.
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: (she starts doing my lip) ok honey, no problem, i'm just checking... you have lots of eyebrows (touching them again.)
Me: yeah, well, i'm italian. (i look up at her drawn on eyebrows)
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: ah ok, that's nice... honey you sure you don't want me to fix it up for you? just the little hairs underneath your eyebrows?
Me: oh, nah, that's ok, thanks though. (stay strong dammit! you can't go back to work with red eyebrows... for some reason my lip never goes red though)
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: ok honey... (i lie there in silence for a bit as she finishes up with my lip)... oh honey, i know... do you shave your eyebrows?
Me: WHAT?
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: do you shave your eyebrows? (again she touches them)
Me: NO! why, do they look like they've been shaved?
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: oh no no honey, just in my country some girls they shave their eyebrows instead of waxing to make them thicker... so honey do you want me to just fix up your eyebrows for you?
Me: (weakly) yeah ok, thank you.
Beautiful Vietnamese Girl: no problem honey, you can just pay the difference on the way out.

that was 6 months ago. my eyebrows have only totally recovered now. she waxed them so thin that i looked like an alien, i had to go back to work all red, she gave me a bloody complex thinking that i look like some hairy yeti with shaved eyebrows even though i actually get compliments on my eyebrows when they're not thin. i just can't go to Vietnamese beauticians anymore because i totally get sucked into their hard sell crap.

i wonder if they sit around before work and think of various ways to ask the same question in slightly different ways and ways to break us down and make us weak.

:P i love all my vietnamese friends!

i love australia

update for those of you who don't already know this. Kevin Rudd is a big politician running for prime minister very soon in Australia. Opposition attempted a smear campaign by releasing details that basically said that 4 years ago, while on business in america, he went to the strippers.

the reaction has been hilarious. not only has he gone UP in popularity and on the official polls, but this last ordeal has now convinced the australian public that we can now count on him to become our new prime minister and is being referred to as that.

his reaction: 'well, they're not really my thing, but i went, and the next day i called my wife, she called me a goose, we both got over it. i've been a couple of other times too, when i was in uni. not my scene.' i guess the reason everyone is loving this explanation so much is it's just so truthful. i love that australians can see past it and be realistic that everyone makes mistakes.

anyway... i've been once to the strippers by accident. i went to a club in the city with my good friend C., and after a few dances we decided to go upstairs, thinking it was just another room in the club. we were both tired as it was a friday night, and it wasn't until we had walked into the room, taken off our coats, bought drinks and sat down that we noticed that the girls around us were wearing very little. And we were the only girls in the place, apart from the naked ones. Promptly a stripper came out on stage in a bubble bath. Yes, we had managed to walk into a strip club without even knowing it. we stayed for about 20 minutes, analysing the girls' perfect skin and smooth cellulite-free legs then left.