Monday, December 19, 2011

How to do winter, part 3

Last week I giggled at the aisles and aisles of "Winter car care" products for sale in my local supermarket.



De-icer, grit, insulating blankets, scrapers... none of these words exist in my vocabulary.

This morning I realised they now do. Thick frost encrusted my car from the door handles up.

And no de-icer or scraper in sight.

A quick trip back to the apartment to have a mini freakout and I emerged armed and ready with... a plastic kitchen spatula.

I'm sure I amused the daylights out of the passing residents watching me shave the ice off my windscreen, sortof like I was cleaning off a barbeque. All without gloves, mind you...

After a full minute of scraping.

Quick! Get in the car and start driving before it just ices over again!
Made a classic rookie mistake by thinking a bit of windscreen wiper and windscreen wiper fluid action once I was in the car would help things along.
Frozen windscreen + frozen windscreen wipers + windscreen wiper fluid = new thick coating of gloopy soapy ice smeared all over the windscreen.

Start over.

Friday, December 16, 2011

How to do winter, part 2

Winter fashion.

Where form meets function. Or some rubbish like that.

Some of my awesome winter purchases:

By far my favourite. Water resistant suede and wool blend snow boots. Complete with Paddington-bear toggle opening at the side, to avoid those awkward try-to-get-your-boots-off-at-someone's-front-door hopping-about-like-an-idiot moments. Verdict's out on whether these are actually properly waterproof, but they're so pretty it doesn't matter. Land's End.






Slightly less glamorous, but oh-so-practical, waterproof snow boots. Complete with fake fur tops to keep the wind out. They make me walk like a gangsta. Word. Debenhams.


  

Thermal socks. I actually have 2 pairs of these, as well as some heat-generating socks. Not sure how they work, but they definitely do keep my toes toasty warm. Marks and Spencers. 





 Ah, the dilemma of keeping one's hands warm and freeing one's fingers for tasks such as driving and nose picking. The solution: hoodie gloves. Too cute for words. Although with the hoodie in situ, my hands are fairly useless for anything except a right hook. Beware: some imitations leave one's thumb without a hood. Poor thumb! John Rocha by Debenhams.



Got a little carried away in the gloves department. Black thermals with fur cuff on the left. Chocolate leather lined with cashmere at the top (these gloves are so divine that I've developed a really embarrassing habit of making a weird motion with my hands that looks a little like I'm practising grabbing someone's boobs, just so that my fingers move about on the inside of the gloves to brush against the cashmere inside. I also have a bad habit of putting my hands to my face to feel and smell the buttery soft leather. Mmmmm). Beige suede on the right. 
But the problem remains. How does one answer an iPhone in a timely fashion, without desperately ripping the gloves off with one's teeth while hunting around for the phone?




 Solution: Smart Touch gloves. These babies, by magic and science, allow the use of a touchscreen through the gloved fingertips (the silver bits). The shiny bits are actually rubber grip. These are only slightly more attractive than my photo suggests. Now, to find these in chocolate leather lined in cashmere...


Cologne Christmas markets. Hoodie gloves in action. Drinking gluwein.

My very first winter purchase was a down-filled jacket from Zara. Again, at first I laughed at the concept. But I wear this jacket nearly every day as a staple wardrobe item. It's light, incredibly warm, and has a silly hood:

Silly hood. Falls too far forward unless you do the jacket all the way up.





Cologne Christmas markets. Earmuff beanie in action. Again, drinking gluwein.



Ah, let's just put up some more Cologne pics. So pretty!


Buttery soft chocolate cashmere lined leather gloves in action. Evidently all the gluwein and stollen has gone straight to my face hence looking like a bloated fatty boom sticks. Didn't have time to send this pic to Rowen for pre-publication weight-loss Photoshopping. Granted I am wearing about 5 layers underneath my jacket.

I do believe I am prepared for winter.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

How to do winter, part 1

TomTom sent me an email today, titled "stay safe on the roads this winter". I clicked on the link in anticipation, having been warned by work friends of the many dangers of driving in the snow.
I was looking forward to an informative video of how to winter-proof my car; what to do if I encounter black ice, and all other manner of helpful hints and tips.

I got this...


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Puddings from Yorkshire

There are foods in every country and culture that may seem strange to a foreigner. I had just begun to get used to the idea of pudding meaning dessert, when I came across a Yorkshire pudding.



This strange creation is another example of how the English try to fit as many carbs into each meal as is humanly possible.