A Week in Shirts

I watched a video commentary on the move "Groundhog Day", and that got me thinking and gave me the idea of this rather self-indulgent post.

Thing is, I realised that on most weeks, I go through a rotation of the same clothes every week, based on the day of the week, as follows:

Monday

Let's start with a hobby-related shirt.

Mondays are RPG days, and this is the shirt I wear each week when I GM. It's an MCDM T-shirt that I got along with the Strongholds and Followers kickstarter. I'm not a "black T-shirt" kind of guy, so it's not like I have a chance to wear this outside of game nights.

Tuesday

So a few weeks back, I joined a taekwondo class, and this is my uniform. I've never been in a martial arts class or a sports team before, and I am pretty sure my instructors have never had a student this old join them before. It's not an easy class - the dojang is not a "McDojo" by any means, and the instructors are not taking it easy on me on account of my age - but I think an old man like me can do with the help in getting in shape and staying "coachable".

Wednesday

Or as the Germans call it, "mid-week", which I've always thought was ironic when they were the ones who gave us the cool "Wodensday".

Anyway, this is what I wear to work almost every single day, for more than two decades: a plain white shirt. It takes the thinking out of the "what to wear?" every morning.

Thursday

Thursday evenings have been wargames night since the middle of this year, when Adrian, FG and I started our Frostgrave campaign. Again, this is the opportunity to wear a black T-shirt, in this case a Miniature Wargames magazine T-shirt from when I renewed my subscription (I think) many years ago.

As much as I enjoyed reading the magazine, it became impractical to store hard copies of literally decades worth of the magazine, and I never got the hang of reading magazines in soft copy. I still keep a few of the copies with articles that I particularly enjoyed though.

Friday

End of the work week for me. These days I am trying to spend an hour at least in the evening doing some training: strengthening, cardio, flexibility, and going through my taekwondo routines.

This is a sports polo that I received from my work during the 2015 ASEAN Paragames in 2015, one of the most stressful work assignments in my career (and that's counting COVID).

Saturday

Saturday is family day, and I don the uniform of the average Singapore male on weekends: a polo shirt. It's formal enough to go into most restaurants on a weekend, and comfortable enough for long walks or errands.

Sunday

A day of rest in theory, but in reality a busy day of cleaning, cooking (for the week), laundry - those white work shirts are a chore to iron every week - and hobby-related activities like painting, or prepping for the game the next day. On the weeks that my larder is well-stocked I don't even open my front door for the whole day. On days like that I wear the oldest T-shirts I have in the house: my army T-shirts. The last time I wore one of these as uniform was a decade ago. They are still incredibly comfy to lounge and sleep in after all these years.

So what has all this have to do with Groundhog Day you ask?

The point of Groundhog Day, the creator of the video I watched said, is that we are all like Phil: living the same experience from day to day, even if they were not exactly identical. What let Phil break out of the curse (?) of Groundhog Day, and what gave meaning to the otherwise repetitive days, weeks, months, or even years, is what we do with moments between the mundane, and whom we choose to spend the time with.

And I kinda agree.