HAPPY BDAY DEE!

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Winter in Brisbane and why I love fleecy-lining

A fortnight ago it became officially winter here in Brisbane. But winter here isn’t quite the “winter” they talk about in Game of Thrones. It is so mild and perhaps even comical. I mean – it was definitely t-shirt weather around lunch time today.

But in saying this, at night it can get quite chilly in our flimsy wooden houses built so far off the ground with that curious ability where you can see the ground below through the cracks in the floor-boards. We also get some serious winter winds here.

Indeed I have heard stories about visitors from regions in the northern hemisphere (where it snows in winter) complaining about how they have never been so cold in their lives spending a winter in Brisbane.

During winter in Brisbane we wear jumpers and thermals INSIDE the house. Our beds are lined with at least three layers of blankets and doonas and sheets. We crowd around those pathetic bar-heaters or if we were lucky we might get to crowd around a heater powered by methylated-spirits — which is kinda more like an enclosed BBQ than a heater.

But the point of this rambling is not to complain about our shitty winter – I just want to tell you all of my intense affection for fleecy-lined jumpers.

And as this winter just got more intense I realised I was quite light on winter clothing. Last year I had a (fucking amazing) jacket stolen when I put it down for just a few minutes while I danced at a club. I was so upset at it’s loss I almost got into a fight — for the first time in my life — with some Vampire Weekend lookalikes who tried to push in while we were waiting for the cab home.

FLEECY

So yesterday I bought a new jumper and what sold it to me, apart from the fact it was awesome, was the incredibly sublime fleecy on the inside. (BTW it’s called “POLAR FLEECE” in that states). But at home here in Queensland we called it “fleecy-lining” and it was such a big deal when I was a kid. It was like the GORTEX of the 80s. It was so advanced, and it was — and still is — fucking warm and so freakishly comfortable. It feels so smooth and fluffy against your skin. And it looks like ART.

 

If you had a fleecy-lined jumper in school you had some cred. It wasn’t just functional, it was cool. And testament to this – I had this fleecy-lined zip-up vest whose warming effectiveness was useless in Brisbane, but it got some serious respect in the school-yard.

Anyway. Long live the fleecy.