Cuban Hotel and Airport Staff in Pantyhose

On my trip to Cuba I couldn’t help but notice how many maids and waitresses were wearing pantyhose! Of course, not every single one. Somehow in the hotel where I was staying pantyhose became optional and so did customer service in many instances (let’s just say we had a few issues at front desk).

cuban maid in cuba in pantyhose with flowers

I took a photo of these two lovely people on the morning of my departure. The maid was holding such beautiful flower arrangement that I just couldn’t resist and asked her for a photo.

cuban waitress in pantyhose cuba buffet hotel resort vacation

As some of you already know, I went on this trip with my parents. The waitress that served us each dinner was really sweet. We gave her some used clothing and my suitcase that I no longer needed (with all the poverty in that country they really appreciate any kind of used items), and in exchange she brought us some Cuban souvenirs. We really didn’t expect anything in return. She also brought photos of her family to show us.

I also saw the guards at the airport in pantyhose. They even had patterned pantyhose on! That was really nice to look at. I must admit, I was afraid to take photos there though. Who knows what their rules are, I don’t want to find out the hard way.

cuban airport staff in pantyhose in cuba

cuban airport staff in patterned beige pantyhose in cuba

Do you notice though how short the skirts are for the guards? I saw them even shorter! There was one guard at the airport in black pantyhose who had such a sexy walk, I wish I could film her, but I didn’t want to get in trouble because there was another guard right next to me.

And lastly, the tour guide was wearing pantyhose too! Here is a picture of my own leg sticking out in pantyhose and our guide standing in the background. She had a run in hers though, so I wonder whether she should consider carrying an extra pair around. It was really hot that day, but I don’t want to feel cold from the air conditioning, so I wear some kind of hosiery. I mean, I can always take it off if I get too hot.

cuban tour guide in pantyhose and short skirt

Lithuania: employee gets fired for tying black pantyhose on a flag

CORRECTION: Thank you to readers of this blog who pointed out a mistake that before the country was wrongfully stated as Latvia and the date of the mourning day was wrongfully written as well.  Correct country – Lithuania.  Correct date – June 14th.  It is something that is remembered in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. 

pantyhose over latvian flagA flag is a symbol of a country and if mistreated, it maybe taken as an offence.  Usually it happens because people don’t know any better.

Let’s say that there are cases of ships entering a foreign port with the flag upside down.  Or an embarrassing case of outsourcing gone wrong, such as a batch of Israeli flags that were made in China arrived with the Star of David shifted by a 30 degree rotation, which for whatever reason was not rejected and filled the air on the 2008 Independence Day in Tel-Aviv.

Alright, we can perhaps assign such cases to a staff member who didn’t check the drawing or a young sailor who has has no idea which colour of the French striped flag should face the top.  We all make such mistakes.

But what would you say about a man who purposely ties a pair of black pantyhose over the Lithuanian flag instead of a black ribbon?  It is a common custom in the Baltic countries to tie a ribbon on the flag on the days of mourning.

So in this case on June 14, 2013 – Anniversary of Deportation (mourning in memory of victims of communist genocide), a worker of a store called Maxima tied a pair of black pantyhose over their flag.

Let’s just say that not only the worker got fired for such a deed, for which no explanation was released, the owners of the store are hoping to pursue this matter in court as a criminal offence.

Even though I believe that any flag should be treated with respect, I should point out that such a deed made it to a newspaper, thus informing the whole world about this Lithuanian day of mourning.  I would probably have no idea about such tragedy suffered in the Baltic countries in 1941 if I wouldn’t stumble upon that note online.

For sure the worker didn’t raise the flag properly, but he (or she) for sure raised some awareness as a result.

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Indifferent service at San Francisco Wolford Boutique

Apathy – I feel that this is the best word to describe the attitudes of staff at Wolford in San Francisco.

I didn’t have much time in that city, but it was very important for me to see this Wolford boutique, partially because I am a blogger, but partially because this is my most exciting destination for shopping.

I walked in with my guy and at first I thought that they had another customer there already.  But when I saw that person moving mannequins, I realized that she is actually one of the staff.

Well, my confusion came from her outfit – she was wearing jeans and some kind of casual flat white shoes.  After she finished, she hopped behind the counter, thus hiding her bottom half and looking more like an employee.

The young lady who greeted me was wearing black textured fishnet pantyhose and a knee length skirt.  She was polite, but somehow I didn’t feel any enthusiasm.  Even though she answered my questions well, I could sense her lack of passion about the product.  The product knowledge was there, yet somehow this experience didn’t feel personal at all.  It felt as if this interaction was robotic and I couldn’t figure out how come it begun to bother me so much.

What could it be?  I didn’t know if my expectations are too high after being welcomed so nicely in their Toronto location by a manager who sincerely loved the product even before she got hired.  Could it be that these women are just there to work their shift, without actually having any interest in this kind of stuff outside of their work hours?

I don’t want to paint too bad of a picture here, the service wasn’t bad at all, just indifferent.  I dream about visiting all the Wolford boutiques around the world, but somehow I am not excited about returning to this one.

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My amazing visit to the Fogal store in Toronto

On Wednesday I got a chance to visit Toronto Fogal store with my pantyhose friend, David from Toronto.  He is that Canadian gentleman who sent me some Wolford pantyhose to try out.  Up to this point we only exchanged messages online, so I it was the first time that we got to see each other in person.  Both of us were excited to meet and check out Fogal.

As we walked in, we were greeted by a young lady named Melanie who was wearing fun tiger-print pantyhose.  She asked what we were interested in and pointed out that some of the summer collection items were on sale.  With her help I picked out to try 2 pairs – seamless low rise UNA pantyhose and backseam pantyhose with a Cuban heel called Belle Epoque.  I also tried a shiny sheer pair, but it wasn’t quite enough shine for my concept of “shiny”.

In total I tried on 3 pairs and I got Melanie’s and David’s opinions on how it looks and on what colour is best.  I think that for probably half of my visit I was spinning in front of the mirror and checking out the perfect fit.

 

The service was great!  Melanie answered all my questions with enthusiasm.  I learned a lot about the brand and I was especially amazed to see that they still have one style there that is 100% nylon.  Turns out that some ladies wanted to have the same pantyhose that they bought decades ago and fell in love with.  Melanie also gave me their fall catalog and a booklet with some history of the brand.  Turns out they’ve been around for 90 years!
I must admit that the service at Toronto location was much better than in Vancouver.  Even though they had only one person working there, she handled everything very well.  Melanie told me that she has a lot of Fogal hosiery at home and she buys multiple pairs of her favorite limited edition designs.  To me it is important to see that staff are in love with the product themselves.

 

It was a very nice visit and I walked out of there thrilled!  It was very nice of David to get me the perfect “Welcome Back to Toronto” gift – 3 pairs of Fogal pantyhose.  (Maybe some of you know that I used to live in Toronto for many years before I moved to Vancouver.)  I now have 2 pairs of Una and one pair with the Cuban heel.  Since then my hands were all over the package, but I didn’t open it just yet because I want it to be special.