Chinese fashion

Women are wearing alarming clothes. Puffball shorts are everywhere. These can be full bloomer length right up to something a toddler might wear over a nappy. Footwear is varied, but popsocks, usually ankle-length, are in. These are worn with all sorts of short skirts and shorts. Other leg-wear options include knee-highs and also down-to-the-knee leggings (coming out from under the shorts) which generally look like patterned tights, if not fishnets.

Maybe the rest of the world is also dressing like this this summer, and I have been spared the sight, living in blissful ignorance in the land of the abayya.

Men wear ankle length patterned navy blue popsocks with their shorts and sandals. Women's dresses range from five-year-olds' party frock to cocktail dress to tart - and those are just the styles you see being worn by sightseeing groups.

But it's this thing with the puffball shorts and the ruffly tops that gets me. No it isn't, it's the socks...