Sunday 25 June 2023
Chris is currently in London, I’m in Scotland on my own. He left home at around 07:45 yesterday and didn’t get back to Lewisham until about 17:30, so almost ten hours. In fairness, for weekend engineering reasons as well as logistics with having a car and needing to leave and return from the same stations and getting to Edinburgh early enough to have coffee and breakfast, he knew it would take that long. However, throughout the day I kept wondering where he was across the country. It made me think more than usual about how much distance there is between our two lives, and of course not just mileage and time-wise.
On Friday night, we had two friends over for dinner. This in itself was exciting as they are the only two people we know in the area and it was lovely having an evening of sitting around the table, eating and chatting. I asked them how they felt about visiting London, having not lived there for over ten years now. They both still enjoy visiting London, which I find reassuring, but one thing that really resonated with me was a comment about diversity. The multi-culturalism is the obvious element but she was also referring to clothing. She was so right, that everyone around here (maybe it’s different in the towns) wears a more similar kind of wardrobe than people in, say, London. I fully embraced a wardrobe of dark jumpers over a layer of vests and thermals and thick cargo trousers over winter, and spring for that matter. I’m not saying everyone wore the same as me but I certainly didn’t feel I didn’t fit in. I remember, a few months in, feeling uncomfortably aware I was wearing the same clothes on rotation. On one trip to London, where, admittedly, it was warmer and where most of my wardrobe was more summery, I wore some of my less jumpery clothes and felt kind of good for it. In the less strict lockdown time of mid-to-late 2020, I remember a friend of mine from Kent coming to visit me in London and saying that she particularly wanted to come to London (I had suggested meeting somewhere halfway) as she wanted to wear footwear other than walking boots. I totally get what she means now.
I made Indian food for dinner with our friends last night but it rained (I know, I know, that is a very good thing, but, really, couldn’t it have waited for a few hours?!) so the lamb had to be cooked indoors. Bonus though, Chris is away and I basically have leftovers, so minimal cooking and washing up. Today’s lunch was one of my favourite dishes, my version of dal bhat, all the better for being a reaheat and eaten outdoors in the sun.
Since the midges and other buzzy, bitey things arrived, I have started wearing clothing to cover as much bare skin as possible (it doesn’t guarantee the little [expletive]s don’t somehow bite me through it though) so I feel I’m back to a lesser-layered variation of my winter wardrobe. Today, I have made a bit of an effort to be less midge-deterrent aware. I may spray myself in DEET when I go out and I will most definitely add socks to the mix. I used to enjoy working in the Middle East and India and building up a wardrobe of hot weather clothing that was far more colourful, floaty and heat-suitable than any summer clothes I’d had before.
(I did look for some photos of my outfits, but they were all dreary, which I know is the point, but I couldn’t quite face posting any!)
I am increasingly thinking it feels good to wear my “normal” clothes and pay a little less attention to wearing practical clothing most days, or being prepared to change into something more appropriate for doing particular jobs outdoors or whatever. Lightweight midge-blocking Indian scarves are my current way of adding a bit of excitement to my wardrobe.