Wednesday, May 02, 2007

a mouthful of bread

for some people periodically losing their personal effects isn't just a temporary annoyance, it's a way of life. Keys, cell-phones and small children are, for them, just things waiting to be stressed over when they turn up missing again and again. Thankfully I've been spared this particular trait for the most part. Sure I lost or forget stuff now and then, like the time not too long ago when I went to the gym keyless and came home in shorts and flip-flops under the rain only to find myself locked out of an empty house, leading me to have to break into my own place. But overall this is not a problem for me. Except when it comes to sunglasses. Sunnies are the one item I keep losing again and again (and again). On average I probably have to buy a couple of pairs a year, if not more. Consequently I've resigned myself to buying only cheap models, generally from street vendors (no knock-offs though, that's tacky) or discount stores.

A few years back, when earning a monthly salary still felt like a pleasant novelty, I decided to splurge and got myself a pair of Hugo Boss that I could wear to work. They cost a little over 100 euros, and were definitely quite nice. Of course three weeks later they had vanished to whatever vortex where these things go to and I sheepishly had to buy a new pair from the guy near the rue de Rennes/Bd Montparnasse corner. Since then this losing trend has continued unabated, and I have stuck to my stingy philosophy on this matter. Just a couple of days ago, while at Selfridge's during my lunch break (never a good idea, even for a casual shopper like myself) I got to admiring their various models. A pair of Ray-Bans, in particular, caught my eye (pun very much intended). But in the end I slowly backed out of there, stopped by Marks next door and copped a £5 pair. Maybe this will be the pair I keep for more than a year, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Let's face it, all those sunnies I've lost have got to have been found by someone eventually, so in a way this habit of mine kinda makes me a secret Santa of sorts. And if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that there can never be too many Santas in this sunny world of ours.

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