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Yes, I’m looking forward to it! Yes, you’d be surprised and probably amused by our “German” Christmas markets. There was a story about them in the Guardian a few days ago. Apparently the one in Birmingham is the closest to a genuine German Christmas market. The descriptions of yours sounded wonderful - and a lovely evening to go around in stiletto boots.

I didn't know that our markets are object to a bad imitation, crazy. Yes that's the issue with stilettos. At our christmas market were paths and places with cobblestones and my heels were stilettos, that's really not the best combination. Your idea with bringing your 12 cm boots with you sounds great!

Yes. They imitate German Christmas markets here - badly! I would have liked to have worn my stilettos to the town fete but the walk along the towpath is just too rough. I am thinking of packing my 12cm boots in a knapsack and walking into town, and changing there. Or maybe taking the bus and the train and trying my stilettos at the imitation Christmas market in Leeds

I have no real idea of the corresponding 'union' position in the UK, but doubtless it will impede work and increase costs and time on a major construction project. Fortunately, a great deal of new-build and renovation work is done by non-union businesses and individual tradesmen, who are usually fairly adaptable and often multi-skilled. I can fairly claim to be too, in my 'amateur' way - and am currently doing some work (alas, unpaid!) on my middle stepson's rebuilt and extended house, alongside 'professional' builders, plasterers, plumbers and sparkies - none of whom seem to upset the others or object to my input - which has necessarily included some reworking of what they have done, e.g. moving a wrongly-placed socket outlet and altering skirting boards to accommodate fitted wardrobes. So much for my retirement ...!

Indeed they are very nice. Oh, so in britain they try to imitate the german christmas markets? Yes, it's really great to try something new from time to time. And I'm sure it would've not been as comfortable if I didn't have the recent training from our challenge! Your experience sounds great too 🙂

As I've understood you never wore any heels before, right? I know it's tempting to start off with the desired heel, like a 5 inch heel for you, but you can save yourself a lot of pain and trouble by starting with a lower heel and taking your time. Trust me, I'm speaking of experience 😉 I would recommend to start with something like a 2,5 - 3 inch heel and wear these until they feel normal for you. Then slowly proceed to higher ones until these feel normal as well. The higher the heel gets, the more a small increasement will make a big difference. For example (sorry for speaking in centimeters) the difference between a 7 cm and a 8 cm heel will be barely noticable, but the difference between a 12 cm and a 13 cm heel is huge! Also, as already said by the others a good fit and quality is important. Especially with less supportive forms like pumps or sandals it's very important that they have a tight fit, otherwise you'll be bothered too much with slipping around in them/out of them. Also it would be easier to start with block heels than stilettos. Good luck 🙂

Your Christmas markets in Germany sound lovely - and from all I’ve heard they really are, too. We have imitations of them here in Britain but they are not very nice - expensive, very fake and shoddy. I'm impressed with your going out to a market in 11cm boots for three hours. That’s great. We did have the town Christmas tree lighting event here where I am moored, and with the towpath frozen - instead of muddy - I wore some nice suede OTK boots with 8cm heels. It was about a 5km walk there and back plus standing around - nothing I fancied attempting in stilettos. It was a nice evening. Friendly little town. I think I was probably the only one in heels

@mlroseplant I only know strip clubs from movies or tv series, and am probably even too young to have recognized that "normal" heels were used in the 90s. Interesting indeed, I only have huge platforms in my mind when I think about stripper heels. It makes sense for manufacturers to use the same heel height for a few sizes to save costs. There probably will be many models out there which are manufactured that way. Wow, as if the height challenge is not enough you're also making a distance challenge! 60 miles in a month sounds a lot. I wonder how much I would make in a normal month. For the christmas market on the weekend I chose a pair of 11 cm boots. Up to now I've always chosen some lower heels like 7-10 cm for christmas markets, so it was really nice to wear something different this time. We were there for about 3 hours, so with all the standing it was not as comfortable as with lower heels, but it was OK. I now definitely want to wear 12 cm boots to a christmas market too, but therefor I will pick a smaller one where we won't stay as long.

Make sure they fit, also start at the 65mm to 85mm range. If it’s boots or a closed pair of shoes, a thin pair of non pinching socks. No one likes a pinch at the toes from material being dragged down to your toes. Good luck.

Same here. I wear knee boots and invariably have to remove them.

Yes. Make sure they fit well and are well made.

I have too take my heels off to go through security at airports. And I fly in knee highs on the outside.

But make sure whatever you buy fit WITHOUT pain. Life is too short for shoes that hurt.

If you’ve never work heels I’d try chunky 3 to 3.5” to start, than then maybe four inch (10cm) stilettos. Take your time. There’s no rush

Should I go for chunky but higher or lower stilettos how would you suggest i "graduate"?

If you’ve never worn heels before you’re going to need to buy at least one other pair and probably two - a lower heights to get you familiar with the feel of wearing heels. And even then it will take time, patience and perseverance. Five inch heels - or 12cm - is a challenging height even for experienced high heel wearers with years of experience. There is no easy way

Very nice looking! I can imagine they would have been loud. And definitely nothing to wear in the snow!

Indeed! Nice to hear heels are still being worn somewhere. Not so much in rural Lancashire although I was surprised the other day when I walked into town to see a woman walking her dog and wearing some very nice black leather knee boots with 3.5” chunky heels. Definitely the highest heels I’ve seen worn in town in the year or so I’ve been up this way

So I decided to wear heels to Jury Duty. The pants mostly covered things but security noticed that I had heels on and asked me to send them through the scanner. Nothing major to say, as I wore mary jane flats the next time.

I walk to be able to walk and wear 5inch stilettos and not buy too many pairs on the way how do you recommend i and other members get there?

I have a number of honorable mentions, but they are too numerous to be interesting to anybody but me. Many of my shoes failed after 30 or 40 miles. I've had that happen a lot. All of the shoes that I have gotten rid of for one reason or other over the years must have added up to quite a bit of mileage, because when I add up the distance I've walked in the examples catalogued above, that number is less than half of the total distance I've walked in the last 13 years. That mileage had to come from somewhere. It must have been all those shoes I broke, and all those shoes that I no longer care to wear. And then there are shoes that I have rediscovered, like my Miu Miu navy blue wooden sandals. According to my records, I bought these about five years ago, they sat on my shelf for two years, I took them out for one short walk, and then they sat on my shelf for two more years. This year, I took them out, and I guess I have decided I like them now, because I've put over 20 miles on them in the last two months. I know that one of the reasons I like them better now is because I had them reheeled. The stock heel tips were so obnoxiously loud that I'm sure I could be heard from several hundred meters away. I'm sure that inside buildings with hard floors, people had to stop their conversations until after I had passed. Now, with new rubber tips, they are far from silent, but they are pleasant sounding. I am toying with the idea of removing the back straps and making them into mules. I know I would like the way that would look a lot better, but what with this massive amount of snow we've received over the last two days, that has become a next year problem.

Our family has always done all of our own painting. In fact, I should have repainted at least the south side of my house this year, but I didn't instead. Every time I think I would like to hire it done, the price motivates me!

Hey, at least somebody is still wearing heels besides us!

I had promise to do several stories from my early November trip. On the first day of the convention, there was not my heels worn, only me and a few others. However the current leader, was in tall stiletto pumps, her normal ware. Although, many women talked to me about heels. However, on the second day there was many 3 inch heels and a number of 4 inch heels. And the third day a lot of heels. I also saw heels (high stilettos) at the up scale restaurants I had dinner at. === I just returned from a Thanksgiving trot. Only saw a few heels at each airport, BUT, and @pebblesf might be extra interested in this, I saw a flight attendant is 3 inch heels coming off a plane. Today at another airport I saw a flight attendant crew from Southwest where 2 women had at least 3 inch heels, one had a 2 inch heel, while the 4th had flats. Very unusual for a non-Asian airline flight attendant crew. I have stayed at hotels where about 90% of the female flight attendants from an Asian airline were in heels; that's where there are 24+ flight attendants (for the 16+ hour trip).

In the last house I had built (owner/builder) 30 years ago, the drywallers not only hung the drywall, they also mudded and taped it. I was the painter. I got a professional rig from my friend, a painter (who had a double hernia and couldn't paint for 6 months). In the house I am planning of building in the coming year, I plan to do all the inside and outside painting again.