Through Balanda Eyes

Ugg Boots

The weather has been remarkably cool lately. We have had over night lows of around 17 degrees and top temperatures of just 29 degrees! For Darwinite's this is a welcome change from an average daytime temperature of over 30 degrees.
This has led to all kinds of peculiar behaviour. Like people complaining about the cold or wearing those clothes that are usually reserved for visiting friends and family 'Down South' (definition: any other metropolitan centre in Australia).
It is not supprising that people might feel a little chill and want to wear an extra layer of clothing considdering that most of the year we wear as little as possible and on some occasions nothing at all. However I on my way to work yesterday I was still amazed to see a woman wearing a warm jumper long pants and UGG BOOTS!
Was this an attempt to gain peoples attention? How long had it been since she last wore her Ugg boots? How much closet space does she have that there is room to keep Ugg boots? The questions go on and on...
I know there must be far more important issues that could be discussed on this blog and It has been wanting of some significant entries for a while but I like to muse to myself and this I found very amusing!
Yesterday I skimmed through the Indonesian and Malaysian Newspapers at work full of images of children scrounging through garbage heaps and West Papuans struggling for survival women fighting for the right to earn money and in my own neighbourhood Aborigninal communities torn apart by violence, abuse, and the effects of drugs alcohol and apathy. The whole Ugg boot thing did remind me of how ridiculously abstract our lives can become when all our needs are met. When we have such free access to everything we need that we can afford to indulge our eccentricities to the point where people are walking around in the tropics and others (I) have the time and resources to be commenting on this and publishing it to the world. The boots started to take on more of a metaphorical significance to me. What are we doing here while people are in real need? How ludicrous it is to live a life so self indulgent amidst so much struggle and strife.
Is there anything as unnecessary as Ugg Boots in Darwin?