Nothing to add, really…

A pair of socks as a present from Nordstrom Rack in Seattle. I’d like to think it was the non-conformist pattern that brought me to mind, but perhaps it was the label after all…

Apt

On Jaffa Cakes and Socks

Second born came home the other day. She’d been on a school band trip to the UK and France. By all accounts it was a bit disappointing. They spent most of their time there travelling between places rather than actually at places. It culminated in a couple of hours free time to go shopping in Paris.

On a Sunday morning.

Paris, you’ll recall is in France – a nominally Catholic country.

Though shops in La Défence were indeed open… they were ejected from the coach nowhere near there, and therefore were condemned to wander the streets of Paris sans distraction! Still – she brought home most of the Euros I’d given her.

They’d previously spent an entire day going to/from Chartres. Chartres has a cathedral with stained glass windows with a very special blue. It also has… it has… well, it has a cathedral. (These were PNW teenagers remember, not culture vultures who think centuries old stained glass and the science of colour is quite interesting really.)

Source: Wikipedia – Chartres Blue

At least when they were in the UK they got to see Stonehenge and Bath. Not Woodhenge though.

You think I’m joking don’t you? Second born did too. I shit you not – there’s a Woodhenge too near Avebury. Kind of the prototype, I suppose. (The post holes are marked with slightly more resilient concrete posts now.)

Wikipedia: Woodhenge marked now by concrete posts

She was very kind in getting everyone presents though, on her return. Mine were beyond awesome. Firstly a box of Jaffa Cakes! I did share a couple today at work to rapturous, if slightly confused reception. Jaffa Cakes are a British delicacy made by McVitie’s the biscuit company. Oddly, in Canada there’s a French pretender sold by the LU biscuit company, known as Pim’s Orange.

I found this picture of Jaffa Cakes on a web site about industrials belts from the NL…

Source: ERIKS NV – Jaffa Cakes

I’d originally found an image on “Tea & Sympathy” a New York site selling UK fare. There I also found the following delightful quotes:

“An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of 1.” – George Mikes
“Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn’t try it on.” – Billy Connolly
“The British have an umbilical cord which has never been cut and through which tea flows constantly.” – Marlene Dietrich

I also found a good image of the French pretender on Amazon, for comparison. One can’t deny it’s a little more polished. More refined. Chic. In a word – French.

Source: Amazon – LU Pim’s Orange

But that was not all. No – far from it! She also fed my obsession for socks. The more weird and wacky the better. Slowly, slowly my preference is being met in BC, but it’s been a long time coming, and needs regular supplementation from Europe. To date it’s mainly via H&M which is a Swedish company and somehow manages to get around the “boring sock” mandate so rigidly enforced in the North American market. That unwritten rule ensures that most North American men wear only black, grey or Darwin-forbid: white socks. The more daring might go as far as brown, but that’s your lot! I can’t help but feel the market here must surely be ready for socks of more than one colour! Or indeed a colour! I am not averse to wearing neon orange or lime green, if only I could find them! (I used to own a pair of each bought in Germany 8 years ago. Falke was the brand. Their subsequent demise was a low point in my life).

Source: Falke – Helio

Source: Falke – Absinthe

She brought me two pairs of quite jaunty socks from TOPMAN in the UK. Bless her.

Source: TOPMAN – Aztec and Stripe Socks

Source: TOPMAN – Geo Fox Socks

Ska or Betelgeuse?

So I came by a new pair of socks the other day.

I love socks.

Not just any old socks though. No – I prefer loud, retina-scorching designs and colours. (Probably comes from eating too much spicy food – dulled my senses.) This has a downside though. North America tends to prefer white, black or grey socks for men. Sorry – “gray” socks. Even spelling it wrong can’t make it interesting.

Thankfully there is a more recent trend to change things up a little and I have actually seen a few more stripes and patterns appearing. Mainly in the heal/toe area where it’s not actually seen, but it is a start, and we should give credit where it’s due. So I was quite pleased with these locally sourced socks. Along with my particular choice of ties (i.e. that I even have them), my socks often garner attention, and these were no different. “A little Beetlejuice” was one comment. I thought more Ska/2-tone myself – what do you reckon?

Sorry for the washed out colours in the BlackBerry photo. They’re actually a rather fetching lime green, in between the black.

Richard Branson on Office Ties and the Company Dress Code | Entrepreneur.com

I like Sir Richard. I really do.

I like the way he started business in a phone booth (to get a free phone number) selling vinyl records. I like the way he made a brand name worth more than any product associated with it. I like the way he had a line of condoms called Virgin Mates. I like the way he took on the big guys like BA, and redefined whole markets.

But I was a little saddened to read this article. In it, he talks of his own self-confidence at not wearing a tie in the massed presence of others who were. Kudos. No problem with that. Anyone who’s seen the types of socks I wear could never believe I thought otherwise when it comes to expressing individuality.

But it was his assumption that others could not like to wear ties that bothers me. Others that choose to be as individual as he by wearing a tie when nobody else is. Is this invalid just because he doesn’t like ties?

Je pense pas, mes amis!!

And just for the record, does anyone have a photo of his socks?

 

Richard Branson on Office Ties and the Company Dress Code | Entrepreneur.com.