Boss Black

It’s strange, but it takes more firewood to keep the caravan warm on a relatively mild day than on a bitterly cold one. The reason for this is the correlation between sunshine and bitter cold; with 4 south-facing windows we get a greenhouse effect inside the caravan when the sun shines, meaning we don’t need the stove on during daylight hours. On duller, yet slightly warmer days there is no greenhouse effect and we need to keep the fire going all day. Strange, but true.

I can’t help thinking that the London firefighters going on strike on Guy Fawkes Night is some elaborate, yet misguided, public sector betting initiative concerning wagers on which major landmark will go up in smoke first. Hang on though, it could also be part of a diabolical ConDem plan for the social cleansing of the urban poor by allowing their council hovels to burn to the ground when their cigarettes burn to a stub and ignite their sofas while they are slumped insensible in a drunken stupor due to imbibing too many cans of Tenant’s Extra.

Talking of the ConDems, I had to laugh yesterday: I was doing a modicum of research into Hugo Boss, the German designer label, and was amused to discover that Hugo personally supplied the uniforms below.


Hugo was the official supplier of uniforms to the SA, SS, Hitler Youth, NSKK and other Party organisations. To meet demand in later years of the war, Boss used forced labour from Poland and France. Now you know what inspired Boss Black.