METRIC OR IMPERIAL?

I was on holidays in Bali in 2002 and had offered friends if they wanted me to bring anything home for them, because you can get things made. A friend who does a lot of exercise said he'd like half a dozen singlets. I got his measurements and took them to Sandra, who ran a sari-sari store near our hotel. I said it was 52 across, 104 around, and said the preferred colours. She said they would be ready the following day. The next day, we returned to her store, and she came to the front saying 'Oh

my God, my daughter was so scared, she said who is this man who wears this singlet?' I couldn't understand what she was talking about until she pulled them out of the bag, and they were enormous! She had been thinking in inches, and I had been thinking in centimetres, so they were 52 inches across! We all had such a laugh, we were bending down and clutching at our stomachs. I still have kept one of these singlets, to remind me of the fun that misunderstanding can create. Sadly, as her store backed onto the Sari Nightclub, and her and her daughter stayed overnight in the store, I don't know if her and her store survived the Bali bombing a short time later.