1 Feb

Lucky I wear a hat. I planned to go for a walk again. It had been more than a week. Rain, you know. I was going to be brave today, but this morning when I woke up with another serious shower, I just crawled back in bed with the saturday morning newspapers, all nicely wrapped up in the iPad.
At about 11 the sky brightened up and I decided to go for the anticipated walk anyway. The first hours I glided on and off a slippery mud path, all the way up to Mareuil. I felt I was practicing for the winter olympics, finishing a few 1500 meters in record times.
And then it started to rain again. Not only rain, but also hail. No problem for me. I was protected under my hat, a real Barbour hat that only proves its real value when the weather gets really British.
I was thinking about a recent thing I read about Facebook. One of the questions to define oneself seems to be that one has to answer a question about the brands that you associate yourself with. It’s sickening in a way. All these brands that create some kind of illusionary images through advertisement and commercials, only to find out that they become something that real people associate themselves with.
But I have to admit I am very brand-conscious. And have been like that from being very young. There were Lois jeans I remember, that were worn by the coolest boys in my class. I hardly was ten years old at the time. The coolest boys were only cool because they had older brothers that showed them how to behave. Part of it was wearing Lois-jeans, although pretty soon it became Levi’s. Apart from a good decade and a half when I would refuse to wear jeans, it was always Levi’s I have worn. I am sticking to it these days although my wife and daughter make fun of the unfashionableness of my choice. They walk laughingly behind me and tell me my but has disappeared. Shocking behaviour indeed.
My childhood sins include Adidas and Coca Cola. I have grown out of those obsessions, I am glad to say, although I still prefer Coca Cola over Pepsi, although there are years that I do not touch any kind of sugar water.
Back to Barbour. It would be high on my list. It is the english country life that I love. For most people it might be associated with hunting, but I think of public footpaths, Ordnance Survey maps and breathtaking views of the rolling hills of the South Downs.
Aga would be another one I can think of right now. It is connected to the english cottage life, the best way to live I know off, although the temporary life as a Marquis en Perigord is comparable. Le Creuset, kind of kitchen pornography as my friend Berry would call it. What else? Wedgwood?? Spode?? I like their names and the things they represent better than their products.
I cannot think of too much more, except for ‘brands’ like Penguin, Everyman, Library of America, Pleiade and Prive Domein of course.
Especially Prive Domein, the most beautiful series of books ever. They lift the heart, these books do, but they do not help against hail, which makes me glad I have this hat.