Hip headwear

M and I went shopping for Sinterklaas gifts last weekend. And while we were in the mall we decided to pop into a department store to get him a new winter hat and scarf. We felt a little ridiculous shopping for woolen accessories with temperatures outside hovering above 15 degrees Celsius, but that lent a bit of a comical aspect to the whole adventure.

M tried on a couple of lined caps-- most of them had earflaps. And of course they looked absurd, because, let's face it, there are very few people who can actually get away with wearing earflaps and not look like they're a product of inbreeding.

But, OK, it's supposed to get cold here, and M has cute ears and I would hate for them to turn black and fall off just because I'm worried about how cool he looks. (or what his appearance says about me.) So he finally found one in which he looked only mildly retarded.

We were tired and punchy and I was all: "Fine, that's great, honey, can we go now?!" I had definitely had enough of the mall.

And that's when we heard someone hiss "Das sieht scheisse aus!" (literally: "that looks like shit!") We looked at each other incredulously-- and then we heard it again! And suddenly a salesman popped out from behind a rack and said "You can't buy that. You look absolutely ridiculous."

I think I might have reinjured my jaw when my chin hit the floor. But M, blunt Dutchman that he is, was completely unfazed. He said "Well, I'd rather you tell me that now than that everyone else think it to themselves after I've bought it."

And so I asked if they had something in stock that might be a little more trendy. Within about 30 seconds he had put together a matching hat / scarf / glove combo. Which was more along the lines of what we used to see on drunken Russian men who slept off their hangovers on local park benches in Moscow.

But according to this high-maintenance, arguably hip salesguy M now looks "GEIL!" (Cool!) And that's what it's all about, isn't it? ;-)