xaphod

For those of you who have the time off work between Christmas and New Year, how's about meeting up in Starbucks opposite Centre Point (Tottenham Ct Rd tube) at 1100 am ? BTW, Harrods' sale starts today. Xa

Shafted is quite correct. Radio waves in the hf band ( 3 MHz to 30 MHz ) do propagate all the way around the earth by repeated reflections between the ionosphere and the earth's surface. Critical to the propagation is the state of ionisation of the ionosphere. At present the number of sunspots is pretty low in the 11 year sunspot cycle, so the ionisation of the F-layer is somewhat reduced, due to the reduction in solar activity. This reduces the maximum useable frequency (MUF) to somewhere around 15 MHz. This is further complicated by diurnal variations and disturbances due to solar flares. The upshot of this is that a commercial shortwave set is still quite adequate for listening to broadcasts, but you will find that the broadcasters will shift their operating frequencies to the lower end of 3 to 30 MHz. Listening on 7.2 to 7.4 MHz in the evening is a good bet. Commercial Shortwave receivers normally come with a whip antenna which is generally adequate to receive most high power broadcasters (they use powers of the order of 500KW ..... funnily enough, I used to design chunks of the transmitters). By comparison, amateur radio guys can 'get round the world' on 100 Watts. If the receiver has an aerial and earth connection, then 20 metres of wire high in the air and a good earth connection will improve the receive signal strength, if desired.

The reason I have been off is as some of you may remember my folks found my boots, block ankle boots of about 3inches and asked me about them. I froze and of course denied it all but my mum said that it was ok if you dont wear them she would, but I still left it...

anyway time passed and the other week my mum and I were getting ready to go out christmas shopping when she goes to put on a pair of shoes which she hadnt remebered buying...

so she asked "are these mine or yours" to which I just said yours.

so she asked "are these mine or yours" to which I just said yours idiot

There was the perfect entree that your mum provided and you blew it !

I think you need to fish out your blocks and tell your mum, stand up, be a man, and say 'mum, there's something I need to tell you ..... OK, you obviously know already, but I have this thing about high heels.' Make sure it's just your mum and you.

I'm pretty sure she will be OK about your heels and, if necessary, get around to breaking it to your dad.

Best wishes

Xa

Shopping will be somewhat difficult in Belgium. As heels are considered 'women only' the available sizes are mostly limited to EUR36 to EUR41.

And i'm currently wearing EUR42 or 43 (that's a UK8 or 9 i think) so .

The only heels i found in lager sizes are more the fetish type shoes, and that's not what i was planning to wear.

BeHeels

Yes, EUR42 is about UK size 8.25. EUR43 is UK size 9.

American sizes for women are UK sizes plus 2.

American sizes for men are the same as UK sizes (work that one out !)

In ordinary UK shops, women's sizes stop at UK8 or Euro 42. I would think that you would be able to buy shoes with wider toes in UK8 without too many problems, but if you want pointed toes it might be better to buy UK9.

Hope this helps

Xa

Hi, Beheels, This is what we are here for. Glad you have found us. We hope to help your explore you interest in heels as much as you wish. There are some other Belgian heelers around here, but we havn't heard a lot form them lately. Enjoy, Xa

Yes, Fuss are reliable. Many of their latest offerings I don't particularly like. I ordered a pair of overknee boots a while back. The description was leather, which the uppers were, but the lining was plastic .... and smelt like half of the Rhur chemical industry. My fave heels are their 5" courts, but, having been using them for the last 4 years or so, I havn't found anything else they do anything remotely as pleasing. Xa

j-turbo2002 is officially leaving the hhplace forum forever!

Good.

Bit my lip to suppress my subsequent thought.

Xa

I've heard of puppet on a string ... .... but this is puppet on the end of a radiofrequency link. Boy, are there some people with over-active imaginations out there ! Xa

I don't think that foot trainers (like you see on Heike's site, for example) will shorten the length of the foot because they don't give any compression in length. Even if you tried to arrange some mechanism to do this, it would be very dangerous risking all sorts of 'I don't know what'. The only thing that wearing hhs does is to give a greater curve to the instep, stretching the top of the foot and compressing the sole ..... I don't even need to think of the wrinkles on my soles when my feet are in 5 inchers. This shape allows your feet to fit better into hhs, so you may find that after a fair while of wearing 4.5" upwards, you can take a smaller size in hhs (but not flats which are still size 39). For example, I have some size 38s in a style that I used to take in size 39. This is a reduction in size of about 3/4 in US shoe size. If you were hoping for a huge reduction in shoe size by wearing foot trainers, I'm afraid that you will be disappointed and stand a fair risk of irreparably damaging your feet. Xa

I'm sorry I wasn't able to meet any of you in person, but am looking forward to the next time when I can make it, probably (need to confirm this, though) either 22 or 29 of April 06.

Cheers!

I'll put a mental postit in the back of my head for those dates.

Oh, forgot to say about Waterloo station ....

.... Saturday was the rugby match (football for US) between England and the All-Blacks (New Zealand). Waterloo was full of rugby fans catching the train to Twickenham and the bar had quite a few beefy guys drinking beer when Calv and I stopped off for a pint in the evening. There were a few nudges and glances at my skirt and heels, but not a single stupid comment. Compare that reaction with what would be expcected from a bar full of football (soccer) fans.

Xa

Time to say a few words about our heelmeet. Seven of us appeared at Starbucks, dr1819 phoning heelfan with woes of disasterous service by Ryan Air. I know of seven of us who will now think twice about using this bunch of ******s. Daz and Si rendezvous worked out fine (a week after Si's dry run !). Calv got here on the train. Heelfan appeared in flats ! ..... he had dropped a lump of concrete on his foot, so was hobbling. Firefox and Dr Shoe made it too. We set off down Oxford St, the pace dictated by hobbling Heelfan and Dr S who had lots of money burning a hole in his pocket ..... how many pairs did you buy in the end ???? By late lunch we had acquired another two (J & L visiting from Canada), but not yet reached half-way. It was quite a shock, we hadn't seen J for a couple of years, or his wife, L, for whom this was a first. Ironically, I remembered the conversation we had in Birmingham the last time we met which allowed me to get the face into context. L made a pleasant addition to the crew, 'leavening the bread' and telling of their exploits in Canada. We had most of our conversations in shop foyers while Dr S negotiated for shoes. As a change we did a quick hike down South Molton St to Kurt Geiger (from where I had bought my boots the previous year). L was like a kid in an expensive candy store with the likes of Hobbs, LK Bennet and Browns all within a few yards, but J didn't have to get his wallet out beyond more coffee at yet another Starbucks. Time was becoming late, so various people went their separate ways, leaving me and Calv to wander around Selfridges and then repare to the Reef Bar on Waterloo Station. (Calv had a fixed-time rail ticket at 2130). a

In this modern day and age where spin (advertising) counts more than substance, I think that a northern expression is appropriate for Ryan Air

Looks good, does nowt

With the bad publicity that Ryan Air gets in the media, I wasn't too surprised when they seemed to take any excuse to bounce dr from his flight (and try to keep his money).

I suspect there is a hate website for this lot. IMHO the best way to hurt them is a class action which I would think the web would be good at co-ordinating.

Xa

It's a bit non-sequitur, but I had this thought concerning meritocracies. 'The fundamental flaw of the Democratic system is that a ruling elite is necessarily a minority.' Xa

http://hhplace.org/hhboard/viewtopic.php?p=95816#95816

Ideas???

Good idea ..... I'll do some research on the Erotica show.

Xa

My parents were two opposites. Father .... Maths and Science ..... very practical Mother .... French, History and Latin .... very ethereal Just before she died, mum told me that although they were very much different they complemented each other, each allowing for the other's strength and weakness. With wistful eye, my mum said how much she admired the man, strong in body and daily practicalities, who had the breadth of personality to appreciate her skills and intelligence, to listen to what she had to say and attempt to understand what motivated her. She must have been lonely .... my dad died 28 years earlier and she never had another lover afterwards. Xa

.

Unbridled Enthusiasm

Xaphod is chatting on Amateur Radio this morning with the military vehicle crew on the south coast.

Telephone rings,

Hi, X, it's Si. Have you heard from Daz? I can't get hold of him and I've decided to make my own way.

OK Si ..... funny, Daz is pretty reliable. I'm a bit busy at present, could you ring me back in an hour when I've finished with the radio net.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xaphod rings Si. Car noises, choppy signal.

Hi, Si. Where are you?

I'm on the M1 (big north/south motorway/traffic jam in the UK). I can't get in touch with Daz. We agreed to meet up at Meadowhall, but it's a big place ....

Hang on Si, where are you going?

We were going to meet up, share a car and drive down to London of course.

But Si, the heelmeet is NEXT Saturday !!!!

Xaphod takes time out for uncontrollable laughter.

Hi, Calv, Long time no speak .... I'll phone you this weekend. Xa

I had a big bonfire (all the hedge clippings).

Unfortunately this is soon to be illegal (or is it already ? ) because glorifying terrorism is now not politically correct. Since the 1605 plot to blow up the houses of Parliarment most definitely fits into the above definition, I suggest that HMG start building lots of prisons to put us all into.

Xa

. Bloody BMWs Xa

Loveheel pointed out that 1100 could be regarded as ambiguous (pm or am). The appointed time is 11 am. In xaphod-speak, 11 in the evening is 2300. Xa

Please, tell me that Silhouette are, fast, trustworthy and that their shoes are of hight quality.

Been there in person ..... they're good guys.

Xa

Today was a skirt day. I tried one of my new skirts just to see how it would go. I started with a black turtleneck and planned on wearing the long off white skirt with my granny boots. JeffB and I both thought this would be a winning combination.

My ten-pennorth, TBG and Jeff, is that the lighter colour should be on top. I find a white top goes well with a light brown suede skirt and tan boots. If I've been working outside and I have a suntanned face, that goes well too.

On a totally different point, I got to judge the fancy dress competition on 'All Hallows Eve (29th)' at a pub I frequent. I went there in black knee-high boots and over-knee black satin skirt. The top half all matched in deep red-purple (sortof appropriate for this ghoulish time of year), a roll-neck jumper, long leather coat (they called it 'plum' colour in the shop) and, to top it all, matching purple nail varnish.

There was method in this madness (or should it be madness in the method ? !! ), since the pub was offering a free drink to anyone in fancy dress. Outside there were quite a few kids who saw me walking up to the pub in this attire ... 'you wearing a skirt?' one asked.

'Yep, and I'll get a free pint because of it,' I replied.

Since most of the clientele had made an effort to dress up, this seemed quite a reasonable response to the kids' enquiry, in the circucumstances.

I consider the landlord and landlady nascent friends, my having spent an afternoon as the sole client in their pub soon after they had taken over the place, it being run to rack and ruin by the previous owners. They have both downshifted, she being an A&E nurse, he a surgeon (with a bad back, which put the mockers on leaning over the operating table for any extended period). As intelligent and urbane characters, I find them stimulating and worldly-wise. OK, when I first appeared in a skirt, they did a double-take, but they found the same person underneath my new appearance, so, if anything, my welcome is now more enthusiastic.

The idea of coming to the fancy dress do was to ease my new appearance into the mindset of some of the locals, the landlady suggesting I judge the assorted ghouls for the first prize. In the end, we split the prize between two, Fester and Morticia receiving one half, and the green wood-nymph the other. Actually, there was a bit of politics in this, the wood-nymph's family all having made a good effort, mum had to have a prize.

One of the guys later noted that I must have spent quite an amount on my outfit, just for one event, so I said 'well actually I don't necessarily need a fancy-dress event to wear it.'

'Thought so,' said he.

Xa

I have more high heel boots and shoes in my collection than I could ever wear on a daily rotation. And yet, I continue to search the catalogs, discount stores and web sites for new and unusual styles to add to my collection.

..... yep, you're a lost soul

.... you breathed the air

..... there's no cure

.... you are destined to buy hh boots forever

WAHEY

Xa

Another visit to my favourite shop, Tallgirls (was 9to11). It is so nice to be treated like any other customer, not some raving freak. I do enjoy having a civilised discussion about different shoe styles in such a relaxed atmosphere.

Yes, they're quite a good bunch there. Pity my feet are too small for their range, but I've been there on a recce for Euroheel 2001 and again with heelfan. Both times I was treated with courtesy and respect, although I wasn't buying anything.

Xa

Daz and Si, If you fancy driving down to Norfolk the previous evening, I now have beds in the place to put you up. We can take the train the next morning ..... including travel card, tickets cost £32. Xa