What is up with the local obsession with padded bras?

In South Africa - at least, as far as I remember - the padded-bra section was quite small, and it was pretty much the preserve of the 32A brigade.

Here, at least half the lingerie section consists of padded bras. I don't get it. It's bad enough that every third woman in Florida has unnaturally huge breasts - I actually read somewhere that we are second only to L.A. in number of women who opt for breast enlargements. So why the need to encase all these already big boobs in a thick layer of padding? I mean, you can buy padded bras for a 42D bust! Frankly, I find underwear that holds its shape even when in the drawer a little scary.

Ah well. I did manage to find some much-needed (unpadded) new bras this morning, a task made much easier by the fact that Sophie and Stephen chose not to accompany me. Sophie always adds that extra edge to the fitting room experience, as she still tends to fling doors at inopportune moments.

Today was also Emily's last day of school. She was very happy all afternoon, in a tiring sort of way. Picture a chihuahua jumping up and down and yipping incessantly, that sort of thing.

Tomorrow I need to finish getting all the camping stuff together. I am actually looking forward to the trip, despite my fed-up-ness of a day or two ago. It's true that it would probably be more sensible to spend this weekend doing move-related chores. But on the other hand, we will probably never visit Foster Falls again, and may never see some of the friends we're going with again, so we should make the most of the weekend, have as much fun as we can, and then work like crazy next week.