Not a true Aussie? And the tale of the too-small skirts

Some of my readers have accused me of being a whimpy Aussie because I can't use a barbie and I don't like it hot!

Well, poo to them.

I never said I didn't like the hot weather. You see, it's all to do with the food in Ukraine.

Since I've lived in Ukraine, I've put on about 5 kilos, or perhaps a little more. The result is, I'm weighing the most I have in my life.

Another result is, all the lovely everyday summer clothes I brought with me from Australia no longer fit me. The only clothes that (just) fit me are the heavy winter skirts and shirts I bought when I first came to Kyiv.

And before you say anything, I don't want to go out shopping for clothes that fit. Firstly, because I actually really want to be (and hopefully am in the very slow process of) losing weight.

Secondly, clothes in the shops here are rather arbitrarily priced, which means that most things that are about double the price you'd pay back home. Weird, isn't it? Cheap food, expensive clothes. Doesn't really make sense to me.

But really and truly, give me hot weather any day over snow and slush. There's nothing better than sweating, and walking around in just a skirt and shirt with sandals. No coat required.

Too bad I only have one skirt that fits at the moment.

Fun monday part II: my precious things

This week's fun monday is hosted by karmyn and the topic is precious possessions. And so to start...

In August, Mr Moi and I made some very hard decisions. Examining our measly possessions, we had to decide what to bring to Ukraine (the bare minimum), what to store in Oz (anything worth anything), and what to chuck in the bin/give away (pretty much everything).

During this time, I learned how easy it was to chuck stuff out. So easy - just put it in the bin or give it to charity. We threw out so much stuff... and unfortunately, I was bitten by the chuck-out bug, and threw out two-thirds of my beloved knee sock collection.

I had about 30 pair of knee socks. I've whittled this down to a collection of about 10. I've collected these over a period of time, mostly from Australia, Japan and some recent additions from France. They are precious to me.

Yes, they are very beautiful. I especially love the ones at the far left, aqua with white polka dots. These were brought back to me from Japan. And I found the pink socks with the stars at the trader's markets in Sydney. They had a sister pair - black socks with white stars, which looked great with my black one-star converse sneakers. But Mr Moi forced me to dispose of both after a week of camping in the rain with no other shoes or socks.

The stripey socks were purchased for me by a former colleague. They are my 'corporate' knee socks, as they were deemed acceptable to wear to work. My other socks weren't acceptable, but I wore them anyway.

My other prized possessions are my accessories. I don't wear makeup, but I love earrings and all that flippy girlie stuff. Much to my mother's dismay however, not one piece is made from a precious metal, except maybe a bit of silver. And none contain precious stones. And my average accessory usually retails around the $5-mark.

Here's a picture of my accessories.

Oh, I don't wear the pink padlock at the front. But you have to admit that a pink padlock is rather special, so it's kept with my special accessories.

Here's a picture of my socks and accessories together.

If you notice, nothing matches. That's because I never match. It's just too hard to co-ordinate clothes with socks and shoes and accessories.

Last but not least. Drum-roll please...

My final prized possession has travelled with me everywhere. Mr Moi wants to throw it out. I have to hide it from him. It's covered my head in south east asian temples, been a frenchie-style neck tie in cool clubs in Montreal, and now it's acting as an ear-warmer in Kyiv.

It's my red bandanna.

Purchased for 50 cents at Vinnies at Nundah in 1997, it's our ten year anniversary this year. I love you red bandanna.

And so ends my first fun monday. I hope you enjoyed it.

This is a Clayton's post

I would like to dedicate this post to my little brother, Clayton. He was named after the non-alcoholic spirit, Clayton's: The drink you have when you're not having a drink. Being born six years after the four other well-spaced kids in the family, my parents deemed him the baby you have when you're not having any more babies. Growing up with this stigma, it's a wonder he turned out normal.

This is a pic I took of myself in London's Regent's Park in September. In many ways, the weather pattern we experienced there was one I've experienced here: unseasonably warm, lots of flowers where there should be dead foliage, and people out and about, making the most of the weather. Of course, one major difference between London in September and Kyiv in January is that the sun was out.

I look at these photos from time to time when I need to remember what a shadow is.

So why is this a Clayton's post? Two reasons:

1) I want to put a pic on my profile without using the crappy Hello software recommended by blogger. That software just does not work for me. I have circumvented the need to use the software by posting this, and using the URL from the pic above to put a pic of me in the profile section. So darn smart of me.

2) This post has nothing to do with anything. It's the post you post when you're not posting a post.


POST SCRIPT:
I am a bit concerned on reading the Wikipedia entry on Claytons, that my readers will think I am an unloving daughter and older sister. One of the definitions given for Claytons on Wikipedia is:

... Subsequently, the term "Claytons" entered the vocabulary of both countries [Australia and New Zealand], used as an adjective to signify a compromise which satisfies no-one, or any form of inferior substitute or low-quality imitation, largely synonymous with the word "ersatz". For example, a hasty or temporary repair may be only a Claytons solution to a problem.

I would like to point out that I'm not trying to make a commentary on my parents' decision to have another child after they reached perfection (Little_Miss_Moi). Simply make reference to the second definition provided on the page.