Friday, October 24, 2008

Too taxing

OK, so you walk up 25th Street to Noe Valley and are attracted to a clothes shop that says SALE in the window and you go in and browse.

That's a lovely shirt on the 40% off rail. You look at the price and consider. But then Wendy reminds you that there's 8% tax on top of the price. So you work out 8% and add that. Then you work out what 40% off means (or should it be the other way around?) and then you have to remember what the dollar/pound exchange rate is. It was 2:1 last visit, but when I bought my dollars for this trip it was 1.69:1.

Who wants to do extensive mental arithmetic at 5.53 p.m. on a baking hot afternoon?  

We repair to the bar next door for cocktails. Sitting outside at a pavement table sipping a margarita through a straw is what sensible people do on holiday on a sweltering afternoon in San Francisco.

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