Metzler Brook

Today we decided to have a quiet day before we travel to Cape May tomorrow. We took an uber to a local mall for a spot of shopping. We had to stop when we realised that we wouldn't be able to fit everything into our suitcases!

The Mall - Westfield Garden State Plaza - was about the size of Levin spread over two floors. There were hundreds of shops of every variety. There was one shop that only sold baseball caps - nothing else!. Despite it being a working day, the mall was quite busy. All the malls and most of the big chain stores have free wifi.

This mall also had Phone Charging Machines. You opened the appropriate portal for your phone, plugged it in, answered a bunch of questions and then the portal would lock. When you come back later, you have to answer the same questions for your portal to unlock so you could get your phone out. The charging was free and you didn't have to bring your own charging cable as that was available in the portals. You can also top up your phone while having a bite to eat in the foodcourt as they have USB plugs everywhere. Of course, you do have to bring your cable for those.

Many rubbish bins come in 3's - one for rubbish, one for bottles, cans and plastic and one for paper recycling. It can be hard to find them on the streets but there are plenty in the malls.

The shop staff are very attentive. They are also wired up with mics and headphones. When trying on shoes, they call up to someone else to find you the pair you want in the size you need and the shoes are delivered to you. There is often a manager type wandering around the store giving instructions to staff via these devices. If they see someone who needs service or they want a little more presence in one part of the store then they just give the order and it is done.

The selection of merchandise is dizzying. No matter what colour or size you might be looking for, you are likely to find it. In the Department stores, the girls section goes up to 16 while the Boy's section goes up to 20! I'm not sure if that is age or size but my girls found plenty in the girls section that they liked, that would fit and was appropriate. They did find the sizing a bit weird. Poppy was mostly an 8 or 10 while Cina was 14 to 16.

Some of the people here are huge. I have noticed that the aisles seem a bit wider than at home. The people aren't just fat but also very tall and big in general. I know I'm small but these people make me feel really tiny.

It is so warm outside - 30 degrees - yet inside the air conditioning is on so high that it is freezing. It's weird to have to put on a jacket when you go inside and take it off when you go outside.

We have come across plenty of groups of school aged children on holiday excursions (it's the summer school holidays here). Despite it being the height of summer, none of them are wearing hats! There's never anyone telling them to put on sunscreen and they have lots of exposed flesh (arms, legs etc). They would be burnt to a crisp at home, but here there don't seem to be any problems.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and find somewhere for us to eat tonight. We need to have an early night so we can get into town for our bus ride south tomorrowRead more