Buy cheap, buy again

That's a phrase that's been around for a long time. Basically, if you buy something cheaply, you can bet that it will soon wear out and you'll have to buy another one. More money.

Terry Pratchett, the fantasy writer whose stories threw light on our everyday lives, even though they were full of witches, trolls, dwarves and wizards, came up with a good description of this theory - that the rich spend less money because they buy more expensive stuff - in his books about the guards of Ankh Morpork called "Men at Arms":

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

There's a nice article here that talks more about that: https://terrypratchett.com/explore-discworld/sam-vimes-boots-theory-of-socio-economic-unfairness/ 

Why do I mention this phrase? Because a couple of weeks ago, I saw an article in The Guardian newspaper praising the clothing range called Heattech from Uniqlo, the Japanese clothing chain. The prices seemed reasonable (about 15 euros for a long-sleeved top, for example). And the products were lauded to the skies. 

Hence, after a walk, I went home via the Uniqlo shop, picking up three articles for around 60 euros in total. 

Reader, they're not very good: I sat on the sofa with all three items of clothing on under my outer wear, freezing and shivering. And they soon became smelly. Well, they would: they're not made of natural materials. Which is why I have returned to the best solution I've found to chilly temperatures: merino wool base layers, the stuff that mountain climbers wear. 

Anything made of merino wool will keep you warm and toasty. It's like the mythical armour made by dwarves in The Lord of the Rings: mithril. It's so strong that not even a spear wielded by a mountain troll can pierce it. No matter how hard the troll tries to skewer you. 

Well, it's the same with merino wool clothing: the cold just can't pierce it. 

However, it's not cheap. A merino wool top I bought from the men's section in a mountain-climbing shop a couple of years ago cost EUR 90. However, after wearing it one winter, I got 270 euros back from my heating bill. (This was before heating became hideously expensive.) Well worth the expenditure, then.

So when the winter sales come in January, see if you can find anything with merino wool in it: underwear, thin tops, long johns, socks or pullovers. Non-scratchy, non-smelly, non-bulky, easy to wash in the waching machine...you'll thank me for it.

You'd rather be injured than seen?

At this time of the year, it gets dark just before 4.30 p.m. That's when the sun sets and, boy, does it get dark fast. Another thing that may strike a foreigner in Germany is just how dark most streets are, especially in residential areas. 

And yet, and yet, it never fails to amaze me that most people here in Germany (I won't say "most Germans", since not everyone here is German, not even the residents), most people here in Germany think that wearing dark clothes, including black anoraks and other winter wear, is a good idea. During the darkest time of the year!!! Why?

As I walk along the pavements, on the alert for any danger, I see vague shadows move in front of me. What are they? Is it a person? More than one person? Are they coming towards me? And so on and so forth. 

If only they would wear something in a contrasting colour. If only they wore brighter colours. Then I could see them more easily and - what is much more important - so could other road users such as cyclists (also often on the pavements with NO lights on whatsoever, or reflective clothing) and drivers of cars, buses and trams.

In a bid to make myself more visible in these dark streets, I went onto Amazon and found these little things:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B0DBVN9FRZ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Do you see how much more visible you suddenly become? You can let these things (6 in a pack!) dangle freely or you can make a loop out of them. No batteries required; they come with cables that allow you to recharge them via a USB port, e.g. on your computer.

And you can switch them on and off as you please. When you first click on the strip, you get a strobe light; the second switch makes the light flash on and off steadily; the third click gives you a steady light (no flashing whatsoever). The fourth click turns it off.

Personally, I've got three looped onto my rucksack: one on either side (dangling from the shoulder straps) and one on the handle at the top of the rucksack. When I switch them on in the evening while walking through the gloomy streets, I look like a Christmas tree, all lit up. 

Wonderful. I'd rather be visible than caught up in an accident. No matter how uncool I might seem.

Cinemagoers versus concertgoers

Last Sunday, I had a pleasant peer group experience: I watched the first part of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (in German, sadly) on a large screen in a local cinema. Seventeen rows, mostly with 25 seats to a row, and the showing was almost all sold out. Imagine people paying 9 euros (and a lot more for "buckets" of popcorn and huge cups of pop) to see a film that was first released in 2001!!

As I sat there and people streamed into the auditorium, I was rather tense. Would the viewing experience be ruined by people talking and using the smartphones all the time, since I find the light of mobile phones in particular to be highly distracting? Every time a light flicks on, I jump as I wonder what danger is coming towards me. I am (usually) aware of my surroundings. As a single woman, you have to be. 

But no. Although two people did consult their smartphones during the film - probably to see how much longer they had to sit still (the extended version of the film lasts 3.5 hours, with no breaks!) - their light was quickly extinguished and the phone put back into jacket pockets. Hurrah!

Earlier this year, in the spring to be precise, I went to a live concert of singers who gave you the "original Rat Pack experience", i.e. singers who imitated Sammy Davis Junior, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. What a disaster. Although they were asked not to film and to put their phones away for the duration of the concert, many, many people ignored the request. Including a cow siting next to me. And that was after the usher had expressly asked her to refrain from filming. The ignorant bitch seemed to be one of those people who believed that the rules applied to others and not to her. 

The light from all the phones throughout that auditorium was so distracting all the time that I couldn't give the singers my full attention. This was the same kind of experience I had at another concert last December with local singer Tom Gabel. It was impossible to concentrate with lights all around me flickering and people in front of me holding their phones up.

After my most recent concert experience, I decided that, should I ever be tempted to go to a concert again, I'd remind myself of the last two experiences and buy a CD by the singer or group instead and be content with that.

Strange that cinemagoers are better behaved than concertgoers. Not a peep was heard from anyone at the cinema, not a word was said, not a phone call was made or taken, and almost no-one moved - although, the rustling of people behind me putting their hands in their popcorn supplies did remind me of the noise my gerbils used to make when digging around in their cage. But at least that was short-lived and mostly drown out by the bombastic, dramatic music.

I am now looking forward to the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy next Sunday!