Fog

Here's my second attempt

I hope to be able to make it. I'm afraid I won't be able to wear heels though as I've got problems with my ankle.

My contribution

I haven't been wearing heels much for the past six months. I'm having quite a bit of pain in my left ankle, so have seen an osteopath and a podiatrist. I've now got a pair of expensive insoles which have given me quite a bit of relief. This week I've worn heels for the first time for ages, today the osteo asked me "have you been wearing different shoes?" no I lied! "Been walking down hill a lot" he continued - "not especially" I replied. Ok - this guy knows his stuff. I'm falling apart, I think it's time for me to retire from heels.

Bonjour et bienvenue! Je parle Francais tres mauvais, mais j'avais un neuf mot de jour mes talons aiguilles (Needle Heels) Formidable! Bon courage et bon chance.

Or thinking "what a weirdo"!

Who knows what people are thinking. When I've worn thighboots I've thought to myself that other men are looking at me in envy, thinking why can't I do what he's doing. It could be self deception. They could really be thinking "What a Loon" I've looked at some of the pictures people have posted here in utter disbelief and thought the same thing, and I'm sure you have thought it about pictures I have posted.

Dressboots, yes it does sound like an ultimatum. It's not good. Your wife is right to fear your therapy. You've only got one life. Apart from the heels issue, do you want to be with someone who's so controlling?

I'm up for it. I was going to kick off a thread on this. I can't do Friday 14th or any of the days in the fortnight before that though. I can do any day in the fortnight after that apart from one of the Wednesdays. Either of the Thursdays or Fridays in the fortnight after September 14th would be ideal.

thedesigner, Thanks for your warnings. In my case it's too late because the job's done. I did have a tinge of worry when I was working on it, but put a mask on and got on with it.

Has anyone viewed this documentry? Loose Change http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501

Just watched it. It doesn't come as a surprise to me, but it's alarming anyway. The question that's always puzzled me is why did Blair get us involved in it?

I've been reading the quran to see what islam is all about, plus commentaires on it. As I now understand it, the basic quran is fine, it's just asways, people dip into it for the bit that suits them within the muslim faith. There is so much in-fighting between sects tat it devalues the basic good principles - as has happened with judaism, pennsylvania dutch etc.

If only all faiths would stick ONLY to 'love thy brother as thyself' then we would all be happy.........

Dont start me on this one, religion annoys me as it devalues into the level of football supporters far too easily........

Religion is probably best left alone - it appeals to basic tribal instincts in us. And it would be a shame for this thread to get lost down that road.

Richie, looks like the right way to go about it. Scraping artex off is a messy job - ceilings are one thing, walls are another. One of my houses had artex walls in kitchen bathroom, hall, stairs and landing. That was a horrible job. I used the hot water method and did the whole house in one go, and lived in it at the same time. I did regret not taking more of the artex off, but I think the builder's caution about hacking off proved justified. A lot of it would have crumbled and we'd be left with more plasterboard. I'm pretty pleased with the results, funily enough the walls where I've taken less of the artex off look better painted than the ones where I've done more of it.

It's our house in the south west of france. Bought on a whim two years ago. Most of the work has been done by local artisans, but we pitched in and did a fortnight with the mason when we first started - and virtually every holiday since has been a working one. We're just about on the decorating stage now. The estate agent said it was 13th century and I took that with a pinch of salt, but the wall that that arch is on is probably that age as well as other parts of it. The village has a 12th century church and since we're in the line of sight of it, we had to comply with regulations about not changing the facade and get a colour blue for the shutters satisfactory for the mayor. I wish I was there now! The house in England is an ex council house. The plan was to buy a buy to let, but that never happened, we followed our hearts not our heads

Here's one of the walls in question

http://flickr.com/photos/8309559@N02/1117924715/

We've put up a placo wall to the left of the door way which is now in the landing, so the bedrooms don't run into one another.

You can't really see the artex though.

This is a bit more of the wall to put it into context

http://flickr.com/photos/8309559@N02/1118769068/

This archway

http://flickr.com/photos/8309559@N02/1118764376/

http://flickr.com/photos/8309559@N02/1117931881/

was hidden behind plaster and was discovered when we were hacking off. Our neighbour has the remains of a window the same height but with an arrow slit opening on the other side of the wall.

We had drinks (Scapa 14 yo) to jump to another thread, with the man we bought the house from. It was his grandmother's house, and he'd never seen it and was convinced his grandmother handn't either.

There's not a lot of artex visible, but you can see how the plasterer has moulded the plaster into the shape of the wall - so on the other side the plasterboard looked quite stark.

Sorry the heel pictures are boring. I did take before and after pictures but they showed so little it's not worth posting. I will look out for some highlights of the job and post them.

The first post didn't make a lot of sense without the link, but I'm assuming it was something showing Islamic demonstrations. The film at nearly two hours is quite a lot to get through though, but it is very thought provoking.

A thought provoking film Jim. I was particularly impressed by Michael Meacher's contribution.

Well I never thought it possible, but I have actually put artex on. Most of the new plastering that's been done is fairly rustic, not at all flat, but following the line of the walls - with a fairly rought texture, and the areas that had artex that I've scraped off have a similar texture, the plasterboard walls look too flat. The answer was to put diluted artex on with a stiff brush. I'm quite pleased with the result. Makes the plasterboard much less stark.

Yesterday (sunday): time to lunch at mother-in-law home. Cowboy boots again. When having some conversation lately, she looked down, looked up and quick down again. Comment of the day "the little boots Flavio is wearing, I can't describe them". And she was clearly not approving it.

There's only one way to describe your mother in law; RUDE. Her comments say a lot more about her than they do about you. Whether you stop wearing them or not though is up to you. It's your family, and your relationship with them is tied up with your relationship with your wife, so there's a lot to consider.

I noticed this BBC report on Youtube.

Perhaps we're all exhibitionists in varying degrees by wanting to wear women's shoes in public, some of us (like you) push the envelope farther than most, but we all have a blast doing what we love. I don't mind admitting I'd love to take a turn in public in a skirt, something like that would really be exciting, but I just don't have a fraction of the nerve you have which is why I admire you for being so incredibly bold.

Jeff, I agree with you, although it has to be said you can't generalise. You can speak for yourself, and I'd say that's how I feel; I would love to take a turn out in a skirt. The furthest I've got so far is a headless picture on flickr.

http://flickr.com/photos/8309559@N02/582300713/

Perhaps one day I'll do it.

Another thing I hate is people who use numbers instead of words. They write things like "2morrow", I mean how long does it take to type an extra letter for goodness sakes?!

Dr. I think that's a sign of old age!!!!!!

I'd be up for a weekday meet towards the end of September. Bluewater sounds fine.

I've just started a flickr account where I'm now trying to catalogue my shoes. Some of the pictures have been posted here already, but not this one. I bought these Uggs a while ago after seeing a young japanese lad wearing a pair in knightsbridge and looking very good in them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8309559@N02/870471204/

I voted yes, but I'm sure I have been guilty of not saying where bought a pair of shoes I've posted a picture of. There was one occasion where I actually did by a pair of shoes (for Mrs. F) that a member posted a picture of. Unfortunately she didn't get on with them and after a couple of hours wearing at a party we hosted she had very nasty blisters - I didn't photograph those. Perhaps there's an element of psychology working here too, if you post a picture of yourself wearing your new pride and joy, you want a response from members - leaving out vital information might do the trick. If I'm interested I'll ask the question.

inflate