Yesterday morning saw GJ Strachan chronicling his daily blog in a different coffee house to the usual domaine d’ecriture. Circumstances dictated to some extent by an unscheduled need to visit his east Leeds based GP and pharmacist. A medication hiccup which required immediate attention the catalyst to re-arrangement of journalling location.
Footnote – The medication in question prescribed to cure the middle-aged writers habit of writing in the third person…… With his belief these meds are starting to ‘kick in’, your liberty from the aforementioned literary style should be fleetly.
Anyhow, irrespective of where I put pen to paper, with low wintertime solar rays providing meteorological accompaniment to population of the chaste page, I commenced Friday’s essay.
Freedom from the glare of this metaphorical full headlight beam difficult to dodge without a denotative dim switch. Without blinds, or indeed any other sanctuary from the glare, escaping the sunlight bathing the coffee houses fixtures and fittings was only achievable in the shade of supporting beams.
Ne’er mind, though, the vitamin D infusion was a welcome boon in recompense for the visual discomfort. Well, that’s if it’s possible to get the vitamin D hit from sunlight streaming through a barrier of silica, lime and soda ash.
Exposure to this glare, leading to a requirement of hand sheltering my eyes while making panoramic head movements to my left, brought to mind a photograph I witnessed last year on social media.
This picture showing a young man in the US watching an American football game on a cloudless stateside day. Wearing his cap with peak ‘fashionably’ located at the back of his head, to gain respite from the sun’s glare the guy was shielding his eyes with a cardboard drinks carrier. This idiosyncratic behaviour raising a MeMe observation ‘If Only They Could Invent Something To Shield Eyes From Sunlight!’
Despite extensive online research, well a quick five minute scan of google, I’m unable to locate the aforementioned MeMe photo for your delectation. Instead you’ll have to make do with this similarly themed piece of pictorial whimsy (below); one also bringing into question the folly of following fashion over embracing accessory practicality.
I’m no expert on sartorial elegance. However, to my mind, like wearing clothes backwards, donning a cap so it’s peak points asswards looks f***ing ridiculous. Admittedly, those are the observations of an oft cynical middle-age man; a northern Englishman who’s as far away from being ‘street’ as famed German hermit Horst Chestnut-Tree.
Footnote – Chestnut-Tree the man who retired from society in 2010 to live a life of self-sufficiency, meditation and working out how the f*** to open his new state of the art front door!!
If truth be told, I’m utterly indifferent to wearing baseball caps even with the peak to the front, as god designed. Witnessing them with the visor worn in reverse ordinarily makes me shake my head with distain. With not wearing baseball caps, when I do shake my head there’s no chance of poking someones eye out with the peak…… Consequently, diminishing my chances of being a target of a victim’s injury litigation.
Who knows, I may’ve inadvertently just stumbled upon why these younger fellows feel the need to wear their cap peaks facing asswards. They maybe just reducing the risk of poking out the eyes of contemporaries, something which increases by favouring a front facing peak.
Coming to think about it, my son Jonny, a risk manager for a large corporation, has been known to wear his cap ‘street’ style…… Blimey, that might even be how TV show Peaky Blinders got it’s title!…… Hmmmmm!!
