It is Puffer Jacket Season in Tasmania

My birthday and all the stress that comes with it has passed reasonably smoothly. The Uni semester is over, and I can already tell that next semester will comparatively be a walk in the park. Work is done for this week, and I am not rostered on again until next Wednesday (though I have a sneaking suspicion they are going to call me in on Monday... that's an issue for later, though). Now all I have to think about is packing for a trip to Hobart tomorrow, with the family. Which is nice, but also stressful in its own right.

We're going during Dark Mofo, and so it's probably one of the few times of year that you can really go all out in terms of personal style, particularly if you're into the more gothic side of things. Furthermore, I also feel the pressure to look good amongst all the cool Melburnians who tend to pour in during this time of year. At the same time though, I have really let any semblance of personal style go over the years. I guess living in a smaller town you kind of just give up. I really have no makeup skills anymore, nor clothes that I particularly like. So that'll be interesting.

I've also heard it gets pretty cold down there, since they get snowy winds blowing in from kunyani / mount wellington. Which isn't good, because I REALLY don't feel well equipped for cold weather. Not only am I already pretty sensitive to the cold, but I've also found that I tend to dress pretty much the same all year round; I really don't have any heavy jackets that I feel comfortable in. I guess it makes sense where I live, since there really isn't THAT much variation in temperature (around 19-29 degrees in summer, 6-16 degrees in winter). Still, I feel it would be nice to get something for those particularly chilly days.

As a side note, I recently heard someone on national television refer to (particularly black) puffer jackets as the "Tassie Tuxedo", and while I laughed at the time, I found myself in town a few days later during some pretty cold and miserable weather and I swear to god they were not lying. Every second person, young and old, was wearing some variation of a black puffer jacket. It really is like an unofficial uniform over here XD I'm probably one of the few people who still don't have one! I'm reluctant to entertain the thought since I don't like to dress like everyone else plus they give me PE teacher vibes, but at the same time I bet they're comfortable as hell.

But yeah, I've been trying to pay special attention to how people style themselves during the winter. Particularly older people; I figure if you've been around that long you should have had a lot of time to figure out what works and what doesn't lol