I was this morning accused of being a crusty old man and thus the conversation naturally turned to string vests. Can you still get hold of them I wondered. M&S, being a leading purveyor of undergarments both male and female, would have been the obvious source but they haven’t been on sale in that iconic outlet in living memory. According to a poll of one leading expert. She of crusty accusations.
Google was my friend here. Of course you can still buy string vests. Amazon obviously. Now there are two points worth making here. Firstly there may well be other sources of a garment that is at once traditional and utilitarian but I didn’t scroll down on my phone to take a look. Lesson there for those selling stuff online.
Secondly none of the attire on offer looked like my kind of string vest. Each vest was modeled by a bloke whose body shape did not resemble anyone I know. The string vests was being promoted as a fashion item and not the useful bit of underwear guaranteed to keep you warm on a cold winter’s day.
There is a third point and that is I am not in the market for a string vest, not being a crusty old geezer an all. Anyway a tshirt works fine and I have plenty of them.
Actually I have too many tshirts as I tend to buy them at gigs, interesting pubs and restaurants (when merch is available obvs) and places we visit on holiday. I periodically have a clear out. Reality is I tend to only wear a few tshirts. Just the ones at the top of the pile. These are always the same few as they get put back in the same place in the wardrobe after they’ve been washed and ironed. Must dig out my Paul McCartney tshirt today now I mention gigs.
Got my pre op appointment today in Nottingham with nurse Barbara. Looking forward to it. Brings the whole bionic process nearer to happening. Just two weeks to go.They’ve given me a load of exercises to do before the surgeon wields his knife and they really serve to highlight the need to get the hip sorted. V constricted movement.
I thought a bit before deciding to post stuff about the hip replacement but yanow it is what it is. I once met someone who had a stroke and who documented the whole process. Not sure she did the ‘before’ bit but certainly the recovery. She said some of what she wrote was not coherent but an interesting window into her life at the time. Not seen her in over ten years so no idea how she is now.
Won’t be giving a blow by blow account of the op. “He is just making the first incision”. You can be fully awake but I’m not sure I want to hear the sawing sound (grimace). At least things have moved on since the old Battle of Trafalgar days where all they gave you was a leather belt to bite on.
Breakfast this morning, if yer interested was gran o’lah with yo’ gurt and blackberries. A new batch of ‘la this time using dried apricots as we had run out of figs. I daresay the fig supply will be replenished at THG’s earliest convenience. Didn’t even know I liked figs. My dad always used to have them at Christmas but they never took off with us kids.
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I’m going to do something revolutionary while you are out. What? Storm the winter palace? No mop the kitchen floor.
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A veritable cacophony of birds on the walk to the shed this morning. Just as it started to rain. I understand that there are no warnings of forest fires in the area today. This morning I’m ploughing through a very interesting “A History of Wales” by John Davies. I initially bought the original Welsh language version but his Welsh was too difficult for me to follow. I wonder if we are related? It was first published in 1990 so it is likely that he is no longer around for me to ask. Doesn’t matter.
The sound of the rain on the shed roof is quite relaxing. It isn’t cold. Just wet.