Hat again

Today I received a hat from Mufawear in Poland, which made me very happy.




Earlier this year I was deeply upset when I lost my hat; it had been one of the few constants in a swiftly changing world since I bought it in 2006. And blessed as I am with an enormous head, it had proven difficult to find an adequate replacement in Hong Kong. (I'm not saying people in Hong Kong are pinheaded, it's just that as lingerie stores here fail to store undergarments for the larger lady, so is there a paucity of milliners catering to those of us with an elephantine cranium.) Now I've travelled far and wide, and not seen anything quite like what I wanted, until randomly perusing Urbanvelo, I saw a link to Mufawear, and was soon paying money for a Polish cycling cap.

I was pleasantly surprised that it arrived within a week of me Paypaling them the necessaries, and I was more surprised (and even more pleased) to find a keyring and a handful of stickers in the parcel with my new hat. This is the sort of thing that small businesses on the internet do well - surprise and delight, at little extra cost to themselves.

(Last month I bought a mug from Photojojo, and they gave me a free plastic dinosaur, listed on the invoice as "RAWR" - maybe I'm easily pleased like that.)

As to the hat itself:

• It's made from Finnish summer DPM. I don't know why a Polish company eschews Polish disruptive pattern material, but perhaps there's a surplus of Scandinavian camouflage fabric right now in Europe. That's no real problem: I'm sure either is just as good for concealing my presence. On the leafy, green streets of Hong Kong.
• It's pink on the inside. If there's one thing I like more than inappropriate camo, it's inappropriate cam with added pink. I think I differ slightly with Mufawear on the shade though - more of a reddish purple. But perhaps it will fade over time.
• It's made of ripstop. I like nice things, but I'm careless of them and get upset when they're damaged. Manufacturing things from ripstop means these conflicting character traits of mine lead to less upset.
• It has a peak. This is good for shading your eyes...
• ... But it's not a baseball cap. So it's sufficiently different to make me feel special in some idiotic, deriving self-worth from the ownership of material things way, but still special, nonetheless.
• It fits my enormous head. Just.
• And it's from Poland, which is a bit of extra cool factor. Not that there are hordes of Hong Kongers in, say, German cycling caps that I feel the need to stand out from, but still, it's something extra.

It's perhaps a shame that the climate in Hong Kong is warm enough to eliminate the possibility of wearing any of Mufa's natty scarves or other garments, but I should be careful what I wish for. Imagine the irony if it started snowing in Hong Kong next week.

If you want your own, go to Mufawear and give them 16 euros. Tell them I sent you, perhaps.

Or, if you're not into hats, why not consider getting punched in the back of the head at an airline check-in desk. Whatever works for you...