03/02/2013

The Right Trousers


Back in 1993 the mighty Aardman Animations premiered their award winning Wallace & Grommit flick called 'The Wrong Trousers'. At this point I think I was still buying my bad fitting jeans from the Madhouse shop in Harrow Town Centre. Roll forward the clock and a few years later and I found myself 'studying' in the North West and searching for a new pair of slacks after killing a nice pair loading up kayaks on to a Metro covered in black tar/filler/paint stuff ( Yes Mr Clarkson that was your car ).

It all goes a bit fuzzy,( I blame the cheap SU bar ), but I think I got these trousers in the Rock & Run store in Castlefields,or it might have been Cotswold Rock Bottom on Oxford Road? Either way they were on a deal and they were called 'Base Camp Trousers' by The North Face ( who have never been able to better their early 90's 'Mountain Jacket' ). So that makes these trousers over 10 years old ( argggghhhhhh ).

They have seen plenty of action, even some glue marks from fitting out a kayak by the 'sit in the seat whilst you glue in the padding' technique, but they are still going strong.

However, they have a feature none of my other trousers have, elasticated ankles ( keeps the dust out in deserts and all that ). I didn't think much of this until I put them back on again yesterday for some DIY duties.

With that innocuous, but tactile action, memories of putting them on in the dark, in the wet, in surf beach car parks, in the snow, in various tents I have owned over the years. Putting them on quickly by the side of the Afon Conwy in North Wales trying not to flash the locals and putting them on as solely comfort pants came flooding back. So whilst Wallace had his adventures in the Wrong pair, I think with these I got it Right.

Yes I did just right a blog post about a pair of trousers, but you read it.

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