One is generally suspicious of a garment that promises to do several things. This one promises to do rather few, and does them, and one finds that restful.
It is built in a polyester and elastane construction — the stated composition running to eighty per cent recycled polyester with twenty per cent elastane — which means it stretches in every direction one might reasonably require and returns to its shape afterwards, that second part being the one most fabrics quietly decline to honour.
The Dri-FIT construction moves perspiration away from the skin so it may evaporate, rather than permitting it to remain in the weave where it becomes heavy and, frankly, familiar. Underneath there are built-in shorts with a gusset lining, which resolves the entire question of what happens when one moves, and resolves it without one having to think about it again.
There is precisely one pocket, and it is in the back waistband, and it takes a telephone. One has seen garments carrying five, none of them usable, all of them announced on the label. There is a Swoosh at the left thigh. It is machine washable, and it is made from the very smallest to the very largest, which one considers simple good manners.
One pocket, correctly placed.
Mbombela is a city that has understood how to place things. Its National Botanical Garden sits at the confluence of the Crocodile and the Nels — a hundred and sixty-five hectares, with hippopotamus actually in the water, which one did not expect and has not entirely recovered from.
Then the stadium, whose eighteen roof supports are shaped as giraffes standing over zebra-striped seating. One has decided to call it confident, which is a great deal rarer.
One might call it whimsical.
One will wear this everywhere from a hot morning court to a long afternoon out, and while one is here — the Emnotweni arena on Government Boulevard gathers a cinema, a casino floor and restaurants under one roof, which is an efficiency one cannot criticise even while declining to participate.
And there is the Mafunyane waterpark beside Riverside Mall, slides and pools, open Wednesday to Sunday. Wednesday to Sunday. A place that closes on Monday and Tuesday knows perfectly well what it is for and does not apologise. One finds that admirable.
"One pocket, correctly placed. One has seen garments carrying five, none of them usable, all of them on the label."
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