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i'm not sure middle aged (i'm trying to come to terms with that phrase) men are supposed to enjoy dressing up (at least not in public), but i'm starting to take more of an interest in clothes. this is partly driven by need to dress smartly at work, in a culture where people dress more uniformly (word chosen with care) than in england, partly because i am fashionably thin¹, but mainly because when you're something of a freak - gringo - you may as well take advantage of the situation.

today i received my new bag - ive been looking around for ages and then ordered something from the internet because it looked ok and was pretty cheap, as a friend was going to bring it from the states when he came to visit. cheap didn't work out - he decided to air mail it to me - but in the flesh it does indeed look ok. it's brown canvas, fairly small (it can take my camera - a large black nikon - at a push) and square, with leather trim (an englishman with a handbag, dad you're in for a shock).

so i'm looking good. brown slacks from springfield with flat brown "retro" shoes and a green wool/felt pullover. i'm a middle aged fop!²

[it's alienation and individuality time at meta, too]

¹ i weigh less now than at any time since i left school. i'm also aware that a control freak trying to live in new surroundings - especially one working in a job where "control" and "planning" aren't just foreign words, but don't even exist in translation - is liable to take bodily control to dangerous extremes. i'm not going there.

² i was wondering if this entry was too vain. then i found this.