Shyheels

Offer to go boot shopping with her!

Well, I have Hunter boots bought about 20 years ago and they’ve seen some pretty heavy use in Antarctica aside from ordinary use in Britain and they’re going fine. I can’t speak to the quality of Hunter boots made last year or this because I’ve simp,y never needed to replace the ones bought twenty years ago

Perhaps towpaths are different - the other day I found myself chatting with a local (not a boater) who had come down to saw up some if the downed tree branches fir kindling and firewood. We had quite a good tarn about the trip he and his wife took recently to El Salvador

Possibly a good idea in case if a crash, but crashes involving commercial aircraft are, statistically speaking, vanishingly rare.

Yes Zelenskyy was set up. That was deliberate. Nobody said a word about Elon Musk showing up to a cabinet meeting in a T-shirt and wearing a baseball cap! Zelenskyy dresses as he does for a very specific and symbolic purpose as anyone knows who’s read a newspaper in the past three years. Musk wore what he wore because he is a boor - note the spelling, I am not referring to his being South African I should add that I’m not trying to be political here, just making observations on fashion rules and hypocrisy. All other things being equal, the fact that someone - anyone - does not conform by wearing a suit should not be an issue. wearing a baseball cap (indoors!) and T-shirt to a cabinet meeting is disrespectful. That does not even make the grade as “smart casual”

They’re great boots

Thought of you today when I was walking into town and came upon a guy wearing black hunter boots!

It’s even more downhome friendly among boaters - the kind of neighbourliness that went out of fashion in most places back in the Fifties. It’s a kind of funky offbeat community that drifts around the canal network, open and friendly. Last year for example, I was moored in a secluded spot with a couple of other boats nearby. A woman who ran a cafe boat decided to take a few days off and came up through a couple of locks to this quiet spot and was moored next to me. Next morning I hear a knocking on the swan hatch, when I open up I see her standing in the towpath - she wants to know if I’d like an espresso. She’s just fired up her generator to make herself one and thought her neighbours might like one as well. The couple in the boat moored behind me used to run a pub. They piped up and asked if anybody wanted poached eggs, avocado and toast. I brought out my well stocked fruit bowl. Next thing you know we’re all having this glorious breakfast on the towpath. We all still keep in touch too. This sort of thing is not at all unusual among us water gypsies

I thought I'd start this thread as a bit of a finger on the pulse of what is being worn. I was thinking of this the other night when I was in a busy pub having dinner and noticing the boots and heels being worn by my fellow patrons. I was wearing low-heeled OTK boots myself - bluish-grey suede over skinny jeans. I was not the only one in OTK boots. There was a young lady in black shorts (this in winter) with some very tall black leather boors - actually more like thigh boots than OTK. I'd never seen anything quite like them. The shafts looked to be made of very nice leather and fit her well; that part was elegant. The boot part though was like a pair of exceptionally heavy Doc Martens with very thick clod-hopper soles. I don't know if contrast and aesthetic tension was the point of this, but it looked like hell. My other outing this week was to go to Leeds, an old city in the north of England. I saw a lot of people (all women) wearing heels - typically chunky heeled knee and and ankle boots with 3" heels. It was almost the norm. I was wearing black leather knee boots myself, again with low heels (my circumstances at the moment do not lend themselves to wearing heels - not because of the fear of censure but risky footing and the ruination of nice suede high-heeled boots) Again, my black leather knee bots, for over skinny jeans, passed without notice.