Speed dating in Buenos Aires. In Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish.

Have you noticed the trend towards making everything unisex lately?

Take toilets for example. I wandered into my recently refurbished local in Sydney right before leaving for Buenos Aires, and after a couple of beverages went to track down el bano. After twice wandering past a door marked ‘WO|MEN’, I went against my better man-instincts (‘manstincts’) and relented to asking for directions at the bar.

“It’s a unisex toilet. The door down there on the right, with the ‘WO’- ‘MEN’ on it.” Right. “Don’t you think that might be a bit confusing?” I said. “Don’t girls just see that as the girls loo – kind of a fancy way of writing ‘WOMEN’ – and guys wander around looking for theirs?”. Nope, apparently not.

So off I head, Only to walk in on an early 20s-something in high heels and a short dress adjusting her upper support garment. Who promptly turns around, screws up her face and yells at me “What are you doing in the womens? Get out!”.

And what’s the natural response in that situation? You make it worse by trying to explain of course: