Fashion Victim

 
I did not have the most productive of Wednesdays last week. Wednesday is my work-at-home day. As opposed to work from home. As in unpaid but not supposed to be a holiday. Frankly, I had achieved two loads of washing and had taken the dogs for a walk. I had also finished reading High Fidelity (highly recommended). So I decided to go to the War Memorial. I'd been meaning to go there for ages, ever since I went years ago with my grandparents, and had immediately planned to go back because there was so much more to see.

By Wednesday I had already forgotten that the previous day had been Remembrance Day (and no, the irony is not lost on me), and even if I had thought about it I might not have realised that this would mean the War Memorial would be TEEMING with school groups. I guess they were the ones that missed out on a booking for the 11th.

Anyway, I decided the hordes wouldn't stop me and I moved into targeted mode - my mission was WW2 - when I found myself following a group of girls. They looked about ten at the most. The one I just couldn't look away from was wearing stretch bootleg jeans and a black, tight, off the shoulder top - and the finishing touch was a pair of fluorescent pink bra straps.

I'm sure this isn't the single most inappropriate pre-teen girl's outfit I've seen. But it really spun me out. I'm actually not prudish about seeing a bit of bra strap, even though I still don't tend to expose mine. I know fashion has moved waaay past that point. I'm also aware, just from walking through Target, that they now make bras for pretty much every age group that can walk. I guess it was just the combination of the age and the visibility. And I'm not even going to go into how I feel about fluroescent colours appearing in clothing again.

Quite apart from being inappropriate, I think the adult clothes for young girls phenomenon could also have more serious implications. If pre-teen girls are wearing adult jeans, for example, the jeans makers create tinier sizes so that the girls can look exactly like mini adults and don't have the indignity of shopping in the kids' section. So these girls think they are wearing adult sizes. What happens then when they start to grow into their true adult body shape? Do they think they're getting fat? Might they then start dieting, which can mess up the metabolism and start them on a weight loss-gain rollercoaster for life. Just a theory.

The Love Bug?

Tonight as I was driving to my soccer game, I was passed by a new VW Beetle, with a fancy customised paint job. It had custom number plates too. I had to look twice to be sure I had it right:

HERPE
Is there a joke I'm not getting?

Ooh shiny!

If only I had a spare £225 for a book of Queen photos. Although, sadly, the deluxe edition which is "bound in full leather using both black and white goatskins carefully butted together" (phwoar) is already sold out.

Happy Birthday Kam. I love you.

Today, it really is all about Shaun

Happy birthday Bertie!

I'm thrilled to see you posted a couple more SSS's (Surreal Short Stories).

I hope nice things randomly happen to you, today and every day.