Some comments

[couyalair]

When I went round to some friends' house who were to give me a lift to a lunch party, I found the wife in a nice long burgundy skirt; looked very smart, and I said so. But to go out, she changed into trousers; much more comfortable, she said. Go figure!
At the lunch, a Spanish fellow told me he had wanted to buy a kilt, but changed his mind when he saw the prices in Edinburgh. An English woman looked me up and down and asked if I had the right to wear "that". I said, of course; anyone can wear a tweed outfit! She'd obviously never come across a non-tartan kilt before. Two women followed me up the stairs and had a giggle.

Yesterday, there was a street market, so my wife and I wandered round. A customer-less vendor said something like "You must be from Scotland." (not very original; I usually answer yes). He looked down at his own tight jeans and went on "You must be a lot more comfortable than I am." Yes indeed, I said. Plenty of room for everything in a skirt ("En la falda cabe todo.")

Off topic : at the market there was a kids' roundabout -- powered by a man on a fixed bicycle. No motor, no elecricity, no smell of oil. Excelent idea.

Martin

[Kirbstone]

Going a bit off-topic on the theme of pedal power: During the Summer I took a couple of grandchildren up to Dublin for a ride on one of the touring WW2 DUKWs called the 'Viking splash'. While waiting for 'embarkation' I spied a fascinating pedal powered 'taxi', where the passengers all sat up on saddles arranged radially about a central pillar and could each pedal thus helping with the motive power.

I didn't have a camera with me, but I'll try to find it again when next I visit our 'Big Smoke'......which it isn't!

It's also an annoying fact that strangers find it easy to comment on male skirts/kilts or whatever to the wearer, which they would never do to a female.

Tom.

[Caultron]

Twice in the last year I've seen bicycles built for twenty-one here in Arizona. Both had the same design -- five rows of four peddlers with a driver up front. Both had the same purpose: pub crawling.

Yesterday I was out hiking in a utility kilt and came up behind a woman walking her dog. When she heard me approach she sped up, trying to keep ahead of me, but eventually I passed her and that's when she saw me for the first time. "You must be brave to hike in a skirt," she remarked, and, "It's comfortable," I replied. "I bet it is!" she responded, but I was trying to finish before dark and just kept going.

When a man is out wearing a skirt or kilt, that's unusual, and some people are going to find it interesting enough to talk about. I view that as a positive thing. Like, when I'm out in trousers, I don't get women I don't know starting conversations with me. What would she have said? "It doesn't take courage to hike in trousers?"

[skirtyscot]

Martin, I've seen a roundabout like that. Quite probably the same one, given it was in San Pedro de Alcantara. It looked like hard work, especially under the Mediterranean sun!

Alastair

[Kirbstone]

In a humorous BBC Radio 4 programme, among the word definitions this one came up: 'Lackadaisical'........A bicycle made for one! Also this one: 'Gladiator'.......an unrepentant cannibal.

Tom.

[crfriend]

[...] among the word definitions this one came up: 'Lackadaisical'........A bicycle made for one! Also this one: 'Gladiator'.......an unrepentant cannibal.

Those are groaners, the both of 'em.

In defence of those who comment on our skirts merely because we're wearing them in public, I can only say that if we'd "gone along" and merely dressed in trousers like good little lemmings then a conversation never would have been had! Nobody would have felt "challenged". The absolute status-quo would have been maintained. Minds would never have been broadened. And everybody involved would have lost out on those opportunities. At least when we challenge the status-quo folks are (usually) compelled to think, if only for a few moments -- and that can open minds and doors.

Don't take the occasional comment as a challenge or a sneer -- look at it as an opportunity!

[STEVIE]

Indeed,
How many times have we seen posted here, "that would never have happened, if I'd been trousered"?
I've seen that comment in many guises in my short time at the cafe, I've also experienced it first hand, on the street.
Mostly, it's been good, sometimes a boost and, luckily, only once, potentially dangerous.
For all of those, there will be more, unremarked, but there would be thoughts. The results of these will never be known but perhaps, it challenged, or better, made it easier for someone else to be his or her true self.
I reckon that this sounds a bit "high and mighty", still who's to say?
Steve.

[crfriend]

I reckon that this sounds a bit "high and mighty", still who's to say?

I don't see it that way at all. The way I see it is that those who defy convention harmlessly and in a civilized manner, require a level of confidence that the ordinary individual does not have -- for if we did not have it, we would not be doing what we do. The "flip-side" of that is when we don't feel "good enough" (for whatever reason) to challenge the norm we revert into same "normal" and disappear until we're hale enough to once again make a statement. We get the best of both worlds. The same cannot be said for those who remain shackled by convention.