I shop therefore I am?

How do you define yourself?

Are you a gung-ho executive? Do you like to cook, to read, to play tennis?

Because no matter your hobbies or lifestyle, you can find a My Family sticker that sums you up in its own special, stick-figurey way.

There is no minority overlooked. There are farmers, soldiers, mums in wheelchairs, even a wild-looking lady with a wine glass.

Which begs the question: given the options, why is it that so many women, in fact, the overwhelming majority of My Family sticker-owning women (scientific research conducted by me from my car window), define themselves as… shoppers.

Over the last few years, since the My Family stickers exploded onto our roads to distract us during long car trips, I have been puzzling over this phenomenon. Most of the mothers in the family line-up are clutching shopping bags. I don’t think they are supposed to be representative of boring, old supermarket bags either. There is a joi-de-vivre about this figure that suggests she is on a spending spree at the mall, not buying the weekly family supplies.

I think what most disturbs me is not just that a lot of women like shopping. It’s that they feel comfortable proclaiming to the world: this is me.

And it’s not just in Australia. This majority holds true even here in the Middle East. (Although, I suppose if I didn’t want to hang around a bunch of women who defined themselves as ‘shoppers’, I shouldn’t have moved to Dubai.)

Evidence from the My Family website supports my observation. Shopping mum is their number one selling product, rated even higher on their website’s ‘most popular’ search than the generic ‘My Family’ sticker that goes underneath the figures on your rear window.

Interestingly, cats and dogs are more popular than any of the various children, although that may be because children have more hobbies than the average Rover or Fluffy, thereby splitting the sales between several common activities. Maybe we should lobby for stickers showing ‘dog catching ball’ or ‘cat on roller skates’, just to be fair.

Among other mothers, shopping mum is followed by two plain mums doing nothing, then one holding a laptop and phone, and then one with a pile of books (finally!).

Among the dads, the one at the barbecue (holding a beer) takes line honours, which I think is an encouraging sign that men are sharing the cooking at home (ha!). After that is a generic, do-nothing dad, then a home handy-man figure, followed by one holding a laptop. You gotta laugh – the laptop mum also juggles a phone at her ear but the My Family manufacturers must have not wanted to confuse poor laptop dad with too many things to do at once.

The girls’ stickers show ballet girl as the most popular among the little kiddies, which is fine (better than fine in my opinion), but the biggest selling older girl takes after her mum, with a phone and a handbag (uh oh). Talking and shopping are things we all do, to a greater or lesser degree, not a hobby. Someone should tell our daughters.

And what do boys do most? Well, apparently more of them play xbox than anything else.

Does anyone else find all this worrying?

When I was a kid, my mum painted in oils, my friend’s mum played tennis and I knew another mum who played guitar. None of them made shopping their principle leisure activity, nor did they eschew the whole of human culture to define themselves by what they could consume.

Personally, I don’t have My Family stickers on my car, but if I did I would like to design my own. I would have several arms like Shiva, holding books, a Bible, a paint brush, a coffee cup, a gardening fork and a mixing spoon, as my body strikes a yoga pose while standing on a beach. Confusing? No, just the fully rounded human being we all really are.

Don’t sell yourselves short, ladies.

Thoughts?

Let's go shopping...

I’ve had a bit of a whinge about what I can’t find in Dubai. Now it’s time to be a little grateful and focus on what I can.

And I don’t mean the Louis Vuitton clothing or the child-size Mercedes Benz toy cars. You can take all that as a given.

What I mean is the little everyday items that I may not be able to buy at home, but that quickly became part of my weekly shopping list here. As is often the case, I’m talking about food.

 

1. Pomegranates

I hardly ever bought these in Australia, unless I needed them for a special salad. I can’t think why - now I buy them every week. We put them through the juicer with a pineapple (also super-cheap, super-sweet and always available. I’d have added them to the list, but that would have made six, and everyone knows that five is the correct number for a blog list) and a couple of apples – mmm, delicious. They go in cous cous salads, fruit salads, and on top of hommous. Which leads me to my next point.

2. Hommous

Yes, I know you can buy this in every supermarket in Australia. Or you can make your own, which I did, all the time. But it was not as awesome as this hommous, I’m telling you. Every single self-respecting supermarket in Dubai (even the little ones) sells cheap, fresh, home-made hommous at the salad counter and it’s killer good. I think they slap in a heap more tahini than I used to, which makes it taste extra-rich and scrumptious. I’m still clinging to the idea that it’s sort of healthy (allowing me to eat it by the spoonful – no, really), and I even use it on the kids’ sandwiches like butter (with ham and salad, not with Vegemite, because that would be gross).

3. Arabic bread

Put the idea of that dried out supermarket Arabic bread right out of your head. You know the kind that cracks when you fold it? Yuk. This stuff is fresh daily, comes in every shape and size and smells like heaven. Unless you live in Greenacre with your own Arabic bakery down the road, you are probably not eating Arabic bread this good in Australia. So, yay for Dubai!

4. Carrots

But these are not just carrots. They are peeled, baby carrots. In a bag. From the supermarket. Because who would want to peel their own carrots? I know it’s ridiculous, but the fact is our carrot consumption has gone through the roof. You can’t beat the convenience.

5. Pomegranate syrup

This is sort of cheating, because I’ve already done pomegranates, but I’m loving myself sick for finding this and I have to share it. And once again, I know you can buy this in Australia, but it’s not easy to track down and it’s not cheap. Or maybe that’s just because I lived in Nowra. Anyhoo, it’s my new favourite salad dressing ingredient and it’s wonderful. Drink it by the bottleful.

One other good thing is that when you put all these fresh, cheap and easy to find things together, what have you got? Lunch. Which I am going to make, right now.

What food have you loved when overseas?

Five things I cannot buy in Dubai

For a town in which the premier city-wide celebration is a shopping festival, you would think you could easily buy anything you like here.

But no, there are a few things for which I have searched fruitlessly. For Dubai readers, any tips will be gratefully received.

1. String. The other day I trawled the Mall of the Emirates looking for a ball of string. This is a shopping centre that tourists visit with their cameras. You can buy a pair of Jimmy Choos, a Persian rug, or a phone charger shaped like an old-fashioned rotary dial phone, made of silicon. (What?) It has a ski field. It has a supermarket the size of a football stadium. It has nearly 500 stores. None of them sell string.

This was not the first time I had tried to find string. I had kept my eye out for it at several other supermarkets and stores in general. When I ask a shop assistant, this is the response I get...

“Excuse me, do you sell string?”

Puzzled frown.

“You mean for sewing, ma’am?”

“No, not thread. String. For tying things.”

“We have some gift wrapping ribbon?” (This last sentence is not actually a question, but I added a question mark to indicate the confused rising inflection on the end of the statement.)

“No, not ribbon. Just string. You know... string.”

“Ah, yes. Aisle 29.”

When I go to aisle 29, I find tape, I find rope, but no string.

Now, thread, ribbon, tape and rope all do some of the things that string do, but they can’t do all of the things that string does. String is a uniquely useful tool, and I would like to have some.

Now, there is probably a craft store or a hardware store somewhere in Dubai that sells string. I certainly see enough bits and pieces held together with it as I go about the place, so it does exist here. But I don’t think I should have to make a special trip to an obscure location just to buy a ball of string. I think I should be able to buy it at my local supermarket or newsagent. (But wait, there are no newsagencies here. Another nail in the coffin of newspapers.)

Maybe I haven’t asked the right people. But once again, I shouldn’t have to ask the right people. I’m not buying opium here, folks. I just want a ball of string.

2. Sultanas. Currants are not sultanas. Nor are raisins. Well, according to Wikipedia, they actually are, but I haven't seen anything that looks the same as the ones at home.      

3. Twinings Chai and Vanilla Tea. Miss it. Please send.

4. Sheets of cardboard. Three children at school means sheets of cardboard have been a staple product in our household for years, like bread or milk. Useful for assignments of all kinds, or just for rolling up and bopping your sister on the head, they are as much a part of primary school as paint and glitter glue. Not any more.

And finally...

5. Pearl cous cous. You know that extra-big kind of cous cous? Delicious. It’s also called Israeli or Jerusalem cous cous. Now, the UAE is a participant in the Arab League boycott of Israel, but I think this is taking things too far.

What have you found hard to buy when you have been away from home?