It is official, I now consider myself psychic!!

Well, well, well, I don't know where to begin, so as it is now Thursday, I will go back to Tuesday...? Well someday around about then. Having only really seen the inside of an internet cafe for an extensive amount of time in Bishkek, it was time to hit the famous bazar! And a bazar day I had indeed! Weaving through the traffic, on foot, I make it sound like I was in a car, but no, my pieds were in fact in charge! We hurried to the coolest buses in Bishkek. There are two types of buses in Bishkek, your usual jump on and off's that you see around most towns and cities, and then, there is the most fabulous invention in the world, a mini bus bus! Yes you may be thinking back to your school days, and thinking, this girl has officially gone nuts, I like to think I was ga ga at birth, so don't waste your time about saneness and me, but these buses, you literally hopped on, there was only room for 10 to sit, and about 4 to stand and you hurried off along the streets for 8 com (pronounced "som" 46 com = $1).

The only way I can think to describe these buses, was by the first few things that poured into my mind, when I first nestled into the seat. I imagine that a 70's commune would probably describe the feel well, it was very dark and chilled inside, cushioned of course, and people just jumped on and off whenever they felt their destination had arrived, they didn't even need a bus stop for the invite to pop off. It just felt so chilled, it was immense! I guess it was the small closed space that created the feel, although, in reading this back it does just sound like your normal bus, anyway enough about these buses, and back to my pieds.

So I entered the hustling bazar, and had stupidly thought that morning - do I NEVER learn- oh these flip flops I have had for over a year should probably snap soon, oh well will look out to buy another pair at some stage. Well 15 mins into this bazar - SNAP!! First my beloved friend the Tommy Hilfigure sungalsses and now the SHOES!!!?! Alas I do now know the people I am with well enough to let them know it is official, all facts now point to me being psychic! I have had an inkling for sometime, plus a fortune teller did in fact allude that I was slightly, with gift! So as I stood there one footed, as my friend whipped my flip flop off, told me she would be right back, she sprang off through the market crowds, as I listened to Rihanna, "Te Amo" - that song is EVERYWHERE here! While trying to stand ever so chic like, while swaying next to a felt hat stall, I had to try to show, with my only sign language of smile, to the stall owner that I was in fact balancing and waiting, and no it wasn't appropriate to buy a hat just at that precise moment. Then boom! (yes Elaine, I apologize, I did just say "boom" Oh there I slipped out with it again)! Appeared wonderful friend (alas not the Tommy Hilfigure sunglasses) with the fixed flip flop (right footed flip flop for those who are wondering) for 10 com! I was in such shock, she apologized for the excessive price, excessive! I LOVE this place!!

Speed walking through the clothes part of the market was phenomenal, the clothes were arranged in meter long stools, with a surround about 2 meters high on three sides, with clothes towering upwards, there where then 60 of these lined up next to one another, in a sq meter of what felt like miles . It was phenomenal running down them and looking around at what felt like cubicles with a through path, the temptation to launch yourself up a wall of clothing, and free fall asleep was heady... yeah, yeah not the time and place I know, but man in my head it was! Damn convention people!! I do, daily!

So there I am powering down this market place, to keep up with flip flop fixer friend, with photo taking friend flagging behind me, and there to the right of me, just up ahead, a Kyrgyz guy looks up, from his stall, looks at me and shouts, "I Love you!" I love you?! I love you?!!! Have I just scored with a local? American picture taker friend behind me laughs, "Ha ha ha that is the only English phrase they seem to know, must be all those rock songs they listen to," Rock songs? Rock songs?!!!! By George it was NOT! I was working those alley ways like a cat walking pro, and strut my stuff... I must have been, I had been noticed, observed..... SPOTTED!!!! Again, I have to keep reminding myself we are in a Bishkek bazar, not NYC on 5th Avenue, and no business card of "Storm Modeling Agency" had been flashed into the palm of my hand, but my word, in my head it had! Ok, I jest! But what a hoot! If he loved me, it got me to thinking, would he allow me to have only a fraction of the clothes on his stall for free, or the whole lot, because in my mind, if a guy loved you, he has to pay for your wardrobe right? Right? hmmm.... maybe that is my problem in guy finding, should probably take that from near the top as a priority when looking for a guy and stack it near the bottom - shame :-(

So, having found superficial love in a market in Bishkek - one way of course, and not reciprocated! I left after depositing a few com, having purchased a bag, gifts for people, and a diary, I left without the two main items I was going for, a felt hat and felt slippers, but there is always the weekend to go find felt slippers that will don me the nickname elf, and my word will they be a hub of florescent colour! Such a hub that they will turn heads in fact, even in a British market, where I will get a Brit shouting one of these days "I Love you!" in which I will reply, "Quite rightly!!"