… Country Store in Welshpool which is part agricultural merchant, part Toys-r-us for kids of all ages, part fashion brand label destination shopping (think Dickies here), part hardware store.  I got kitted out for the extreme weather that we get in deepest darkest Wales.  

Let me talk you through this ensemble.  From the bottom up, Rugged boots by Regatta. Certified to beat even Everest (mountain that is), they are waterproof and snug and with a sole that slips on everything in the wet. Charlies (I there is a clue in the name?) has a reputation for good prices and these were over £100 reduced to £32, how about that for a bargain?  (Do they think anyone believes this rubbish? They’ve always been that reduced price and always will be!).

Now, the jeans. I forsook the more fashionable Dickies work trousers with padded knees and spaces for additional knee pads available from ALDI at £2.99 and with pockets for every tool in the box, for the more durable and less controversial Dickies jeans.  These have huge crack potential with a suitably fashionable low rise effect which is enhanced as soon as you put tools in the pockets. 

The top layer, in good mountaineering ideology you layer throughout, is a non breathable Regatta plastic bag with more pockets. The kind of garment which keeps the wet out and the sweat in, and leaves you wondering when you take it off as to why you bothered in the first place, but at £9.99 this luxury version is worth the extra £3 over the standard version which doesn’t have the hood which gets in the way and always covers the face completely especially when you’re trying to hammer a nail in whichever coffin I’m currently constructing. Note the anti-radiation detector near the collar. 

This is the first time this outfit has been used in anger, as it’s due to tip it down all day.  But that’s life in Wales!