Living through a European winter has me more than slightly nervous. It has become increasingly apparent that the warm clothes that I brought over from home will be hideously insufficient to get me through the winter with every body part still intact. As I'm rather attached to all of my body parts, I've got no option but to invest in some heavy duty winter clothes.
However, shopping for an unfamiliar season is how I imagine learning to walk on your hands instead of your feet would be like. The weather will be cold, but HOW cold? What if it's cold and WET? How do you manage to layer so that you are warm outside and won't die inside with the intense heating system, without laying so much so that you look like a human snowman?
These are all very valid questions that I have turned to the English public for answers. I.e., I have been staring intently at every female who passes me in the hope that they might impart some of their knowledge on me.
Unfortunately, someone should inform Revlon that they are guilty of fake advertising as "the London look" - ONE London look - does not exist. Instead, there are mixtures of short coats, trench coats, wool coats, puffer jackets, leather jackets, biker jackets, with hoods, without hoods, thick scarves, thin scarves, pants, leggings, skirts and leggings, low boots, riding boots, high heeled hooker boots, beanies, hats... you get the general picture. And for all the clothes that people are wearing now, they are bound to multiply or completely change in a couple of months' time when it gets REALLY cold. And should I succeed in surviving these major hurdles, I will not be able to fake it until I make it at the French ski fields at Christmas time.
Speaking to local English girls for help and advice, I have been met with blank looks and long pauses. Not because they don't understand what I'm asking, but moreso that they do not know exactly how to answer it. Dressing for the cold is second nature to them as they have grown up with it, just as we have grown up knowing how to dress for the beach. I am facing the prospect of being the winter equivalent of a tourist dressed in socks and sandals on the beach, holding my expensive $1000 camera not knowing the dangers of sand getting in to electrical equipment.
I plan to face this learning curve with a three point multicultural approach - the Australian attitude of "she'll be right, mate", the British custom of hot tea to warm the bones and failing that, then I shall have to turn to the Irish and their liquid comfort of Guinness. Cheers to that!
Love, Em xxx
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