Shyheels

Here’s hoping it resolves itself swiftly

It’s a lovely escape! You travel through a lot of picturesque countryside and urban settings too. Cities feel very different when you come into them by canal. Some places you have to go through without stopping because it’s not safe, but other times it’s brilliant to moor up for a couple of weeks in a cool part of a city. A couple of months ago I was moored just outside a Doubletree Hotel that was charging £180 for canal view rooms. And I was staying there free

I can stay pretty much for free wherever I like as long as I move every 14 days - and with 2000 miles of canals and the ability to work from my boat, as long as I have wifi, it is an incredibly free existence. Off grid, solar power, heat with coal in winter and cook with gas. Life is slow in the canal - about 3mph when you’re moving, but if you’re working a lot of locks in a day you travel about one mile for each hour you’re moving. The canals are all 18th century and working the locks can be hard work. And there is a lovely community among those of us who live on the canals, very bohemian, very diverse and interesting.

Well then I would say that would be an influence

I’ve heard the name (a lot) but I wouldn’t know her if she knocked on the door and I wouldn't recognise any of her songs or even know the names of them I do better with James Joyce and Finnegans Wake. I at least know the title and first word

Take great care and do not rush things. Achilles tendons are hard to heal. And they are also shortened by wearing heels a lot which can lead to injury if you don’t stretch them.

A few if the right celebrities wearing them would do it. If Taylor Swift was a high heel aficionado they’d be in style pretty quick.

Ah yes, Hunter boots - the very posh gum boots worn by the country gentry over here. I’ve a pair of those as well. Mine are the classic green. Extremely well made and good for walking. I too regret lost time - years of fretting over my partiality to what designated as feminine style boots. And now I marvel that I ever worried about it.

And I’ll say again it’s just the cyclical turn of fashion and bears no resemblance whatever to the vanishing of the corset. Nobody wears corsets but we all wear something in our feet and will continue to do so. And the overwhelming variety of footwear has a heel of some sort. As long as the concept of fashion remains with us, variations in the height and styling of heels will remain as well, as aesthetics and trends shift back and forth.

I agree - I suspect plenty of guys would secretly like to try wearing boots and/or heels, for curiosity’s sake and the sheer pleasure of breaking ranks, if nothing else but are held in check by fearfulness. How nice it is to let go of that,

Men are not encouraged, or allowed really, to indulge in any form of theatre in their dress. It’s quite puritanical really - dark colours, simple styles, nothing that smacks of idiosyncrasy or individualism. Conformity is the rule. Tall boots are a form of theatre - permissible for women but not for men. But I like tall boots and am no longer willing to be bullied away from wearing them. I too recall the days when people dressed up to travel. My mother certainly did and she made sure we kids wore nice clothes when we travelled. I am no fashionista. I’m quite casual. But there is no way I would ever how up for a flight dressed like so many people you see in airports today - even in the business lounges. I wear tall boots now as a matter of course, pretty much every day - although not generally with heels given the muddy towpaths on which tread every day, I no longer notice if anyone thinks it’s odd. Wearing tall boots has simply become my norm those are nice boots and a good look by the way. I wear mine in similar fashion

Laurent Fignon lost the 1989 Tour de France by only 8 seconds - the closest finish in the history of the race. Some physicist who obviously had far too much time in his hands spent ages working out all sorts of what-if drag coefficients and reckoned that had Fignon cut off his ponytail the reduced drag over the 2000 mile course could potentially have won him the Tour. I did gave somebody ask me, upon seeing me in knee boots, where my horse was. He was wearing some kind of Nikes so I asked him where his basketball was. And he thought I was being snotty

Exactly. Well fitting shoes are essential, high heeled or not. I had some (well padded) trainers some years ago that were badly made and the inner sole had a nasty edge on it, unnoticeable at first, that made hamburger out of my right foot. By the logic of people who write articles about heels, I should be condemning trainers as articles of torture, instead of simply noting they were badly made. Certainly no pair of heels messed up my feet like those!

You’re not going to feel great with road rash whether you shaved your legs or not. Nobody does it today. It was a thing people did - sometimes saying it was in case of road rash, sometimes saying it was to reduce drag - using the same logic racers have been known to remove stickers from their bikes to reduce weight (seriously!) Mainly doing it because everyone else was doing it. I’ve never raced but over the years I’ve toured all over the world, riding at least a quarter of a million miles in all - I’ve experienced road rash a time or two …

Yes road rash is one of the oft stated reasons for cyclists shaving their legs, but there is no medical logic behind it, just a kind of myth, believed and followed by many.

Yes, some cyclists used to do that but for what specific purpose no one can say - lots of ideas but none of them actually bear scrutiny. It was fine because it was done and therefor the thing to do! Silly.

Regardless of the weather I feel certain that there is a latent desire out there for a greater more daring choice in footwear among men and that tall boots would be a saleable proposition is marketed intelligently.

Snap! It's stay inside weather here! Rain all day and chilly too. But staying nice and warm in jumpers and OTK boots as I work

I know you do!

I saw this in The Guardian this morning https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/28/sarah-jessica-parker-shutting-down-shoe-company-things-looking-grim-high-heels

Yes, if you’re not riding a horse or a motorcycle - in short, have some accepted practical use for tall boots - you shouldn’t be wearing them, according to the uptight rules governing men’s fashion. Adding heels makes them even more unacceptable, but even flat soled knee and OTK boots will raise eyebrows if worn by a man. I wear knee and OTK boots as a matter of course, mainly low heeled ones given the fact that I live along muddy towpaths. To be fair I’ve only had a few comments - and nothing overtly negative - but it does surprise me that more men don’t wear them. It seems like this is one bit of formerly masculine fashion that we could reclaim

I've mentioned this before but it continually amazes me that tall boots are not in fashion for guys - either with or without heels. Here in England we've not really had a summer this year, especially up north where I live, and lately it has been far more like late October than late August. With cold hard rain, wind and chilly temperatures being the norm, boot season has arrived early - and once again I am happy be warm snug in my knee and OTK boots. The difference in warmth and comfort between wearing them and regular 'guy' shoes is startling. Not all of my tall boots have heels - it's about fifty-fifty - but all are perceived as feminine because boots have an element of theatre to them and that's considered a feminine attribute. Guys are not supposed to indulge in theatre when it comes to fashion, but to be all business and practical. But in cold weather boots could hardly be more practical. Surely they could be made fashionable for men? Perhaps if there were seen more? Obviously I'm doing my little part, but alas I doubt many people are going to be looking to a bohemian bargee for their style cues.

Your garage must be interesting! I saw a fellow live-aboard boater who travels with a motorcycle. He had his boat built to accommodate it - a storage compartment where the well deck and water tank would normally be, and a built in hydraulic lift to hoist it up so he could roll it down a gangplank and be off. It must have cost him a packet to have that, but it was clearly important to him - and life on the canals is pretty much about living life your own way

A nice look, and certainly far dressier than my bargee-casual appearance at a church service a couple of Sundays ago, after a two mile walk down a muddy towpath.

Looks nice! Quite an assortment you have!