I LOVED MY LEATHER JACKET

I wasn't an early adopter of the ubiquitous leather jacket.

At first, when I was young, I could never afford one and also, not riding a motorbike never really needed one.

Later, when earning well and when  I could afford one, I chose not to buy one because I still didn't ride a motorbike even though I have a Cook Islands motorbike licence, and I thought that it was a bit naff when an older person wears leather.

"You lookin' at me?"

It wasn't until we were living in Canada that I bought my first and only leather jacket at Winners.

Here's a post I wrote back in 2013 about it. Unfortunately the images and video links were deleted for some reason as happened with all of my Canadian posts - copyright I guess.

WINNERS

The jacket was extremely comfortable, stylish and basically a chick magnet. Here's a later image of me wearing it when in London.

"Are you still lookin' at me?"

Sadly, the New Zealand soft leather, imported and manufactured by an Italian 'fashion house' eventually failed, flaking away in patches. I would have worn it for many more years having no care nor fashion sense as evidenced by my wearing of favourite underpants ...

... but, The Old Girl prevailed and, like those favourite green underpants, the leather jacket was put in the rubbish.

So*, where is this post going to?

Legendary The Chills musician Martin Phillips died on the weekend;

MARTIN PHILLIPS

His 'I love My Leather Jacket' song - the one that Google deleted from that Canadian post of mine has been a favourite song of mine for many years along with other The Chills songs.

Farewell Martin Phillips - your contribution to music has been phenomenal and I've had great pleasure listening to your songs. If I still had my leather jacket I'd put it on while writing this.

* I berated an old ex-schoolteacher recently for beginning a sentence with 'so' but - who cares eh?