Friday 1 July 2011

emperor's new clothes

In light of my trip to the British GP next week, this coming weekend represents the last chance for me to pick up whatever bits and pieces I need. I've pretty much got everything bar a few odds and sods of toiletries and things.

I bought some new clothes, partly so I'd have some stuff that wasn't worn out, like most of my clothes, but also because I figured it was about time I took the plunge and bought some clothes that are a better fit now I'm a bit smaller.

Buying these are the clothes I've been dreading, for a couple of reasons. For one, I'm not actually sure what size I am now, and I wasn't sure whether to go a bit tight with the expectation that they'll then last longer as I continue to slim down.

Another problem is just that - as I slim down I could be in a situation of having spent a lot on clothes than I can only wear for a few months before needing to replace again.

But I decided to take the plunge, with a variety of results.

The shorts, T-shirts and casual shirts all appear to fit great (I now roughly appear to be a 3XL, rather than the 5XL I was at my peak). The boxers I bought are way to tight (this, I think, is more to do with the style of them than an incorrect size selection - I like loose boxers), the trousers are just slightly too tight (Despite stating the same waste measurement as the shorts, holding them up next to each other shows them to be slightly smaller. This is one of the problems of big sizes - you get manufacturing differences in all clothes, but with big sizes you're often buying in the dark from online places.) and the belt I bought is a bit rubbish. It's a good fit,. but it has this weird design that I'm not hugely comfortable with.

It's been an expensive week generally, actually. I had my car into the garage as my lock was making the appalling grinding noise. According to the guy it was due to an actuator and is quite common. He reckoned they can go for ages and never fail, but I thought it safer to get it replaced. The part wasn't too bad, but (from experience) car doors are horrible things to work on, so the labour was pretty heavy.

I also got them to recharge the aircon, following this last weekend's horrendous heat wave. I switched on my air con and found it to be a bit wimpy. It is four years since I got the car, so I guess that's not a bad length of time for it, and we did have some pretty hot summers so I got quite a lot out of it.

My aircon unit at home was also a life (or, at least, sleep) saver, cooling my room down so I could get some shut-eye. The heat wave was exactly the sort of weather that inspired me to get it in the first place. And despite it having cost a fortune it's nights like those where I think of it as the best thing I've ever bought.

So yeah, I've put some fairly big holes in my finances over the last couple of weeks and the next couple are likely to be pretty expensive too.

Hopefully, some e-baying will take the sting out a bit.

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