By: Blonde Two

Well, it is bonfire night tonight so stay safe and have fun everyone.  Above all else, wrap up warm to stand by that bonfire!  Can anyone else remember their mum, on cold, winter school mornings, telling them to tuck their vest in?  If you can, can you also remember that point at which you decided that you were an adult (around the approximate age of 11) and probably should be allowed to make your own vest tucking-in decisions?  Do you also then remember that cold draught up inside your school shirt that you studiously ignored because clearly, your mum was wrong?

Well Blondees and Blondettes, if you can remember any of these lifetime milestones then well done.  The milestone that I bet you won’t want to admit to however is the one when you realised that tucking your vest in is a really good idea – in other words, that annoying moment when you realised that your mum, was, in fact, right.  If any of you walkers tell me that you prefer to have your base layer flapping in the wind, I won’t believe you and certainly won’t believe that you go to Dartmoor in the Winter.

I only have two drawers (impressive for a girl I know) in my wardrobe.  One for “girl clothes” and the other for “Blonde gear”.  As you might has guessed, there is plenty of space for more “girl clothes” but the “Blonde gear” one is over-flowing.  I made a half-earted attempt at sorting it out the other day and failed miserably to throw anything out.

I counted at least four merino vests (my mum was obviously more right than other mums).  There is the pink Icebreaker (bought about half an hour before an earthquake in New Zealand) – this one keeps getting holes but I am an old-fashioned girl and not adverse to a bit of darning.  I have another Icebreaker one, blue stripes this time.  Also bought in New Zealand but don’t be lulled into thinking that Icebreaker kit is cheaper there, it is more expensive unless you find seconds shops.  Then there is grey-stripes which has shrunk and is a bit rebellious about being tucked in (don’t tell my mum).  If you know about shopping in New Zealand, you will know to ignore the tourist shops and head to the Primark equivalents for woolly underwear.  My most comforting merino vest was bought in this way and has been on a million adventures with me.  It is old and very baggy around the edges now but it will probably be the last one that I throw away.

I have just realised that a guided tour of my underwear may not have made for the most interesting of blog posts.  Apologies for that but we all have things that we are slightly obsessed about (us Blondes have more than our fair share).  You can be sure that I shall be returning from my next New Zealand visit with yet another merino vest to add to the collection … Mum will be so proud of me!