Today I had to make a business trip to a government research council office near Oxford. This involved a 300-mile round car journey from my home in Sheffield. As the weather in much of the UK has been very warm these last few days, I naturally wore my Indonesian batik, floral pattern, sarong (batik, blue and black floral pattern) for both style and comfort, together with a smart tee-shirt and strappy leather thong sandals which just happened to show off my silver-painted toenails
. I have to emphasise that the sarong is a 'proper' one - well made in soft cotton; not one of these flimsy beachwear things.
When I arrived, it was coffee time and my colleagues who I was meeting were enjoying a mug or two in the staff canteen, along with 40 or so other staff. As an occasional visitor, I was reasonably well known to some of them, so got some cheery waves and greetings on entering. Not a word about my sarong from any of them, until a short while later when sat at a table with my 3 meeting fellows.
"I see you've gone native," said one of them, referring to my sarong; "we used to wear them all the time when we were working in Sri Lanka."
"yes" said another, "same in Fiji too - we called them 'sulus' there".
The third chimed in - "we used to wear them when working in Bangladesh too."
All three were British - actually, two English and one Welshman - and all agreed that they were comfortable stylish garments and would be quite happy to wear them again.
"Why don't you?" said I.
"Haven't got one any more, wouldn't know where to get them"
I told them to do a Google search. "hmmm...." came the response, and I could see that their minds were working on it.
So, who knows, perhaps I have introduced a trend at that particular research establishment? But, I'll not hold my breath.
