xaphod

Judging by the furore that Janet Jackson's bare tit caused in the media, this should be equally cataclysmic.

I think this is very beautiful and could look at it for hours (I'd also kill for a woman who looked like this).

Before people say this is porn, it's scanned from the Sunday Times 'Style' magazine which I peruse avidly for the latest shoe styles. It is available freely in the UK to anyone, even a child, wishing to part with £1.40 on a Sunday. If it is OK to publish this with our pro-establishment quality newspaper, then, in my book, it aint p0rn.

If anyone would like to use her as a screensaver, here's a 500KB version.

http://65.160.96.70/hhplace/images/1096710106.jpg

Xa

Funny you should ask, Jim.

The boots on the far right had a 'run' yesterday. I wore a tan shirt from 'Gap' which matched the boots, a denim skirt, and the trademark long leather coat.

I've sortof fallen in love with the skirt, fairly lightweight which means it is comfortable in Summer with courts, but fine with boots as the weather is getting a little cooler.

If the Bristol meet guys get around to posting the pics, you will see what I mean.

Xa

PS .... Bert .... yep, I quite like the blood reds and the light chestnut browns. save us from the black tyranny

.

Gearboxes and thigh boots

.... now the title of this thread is pretty bizarre, but starting another called 'gearboxes and thigh boots' is pretty well certain to get me carted off to the funny farm !

Xa

.

The Aldo Collection

I have been getting bored with boring black. These are all from Aldo.

The red-ish boots on the left are actually somewhat more of a burgundy colour than you see here.

I have chosen them to co-ordinate with the tie (on the box) and my Gladstone bag, the top of which you can just see in shot.

Xa

Thinking about it, I remember a receipt from Sacha that said 'Derber Shoes trading as Sacha'. Pity .... Googling 'Derber Shoes' is uneventful too. Xa

Jennifer N,

I had toyed with the idea of informing them, but, other remarks on here seem to suggest that they promptly say something like 'you don't know how to wear high heels, so you broke them'.

Yes, if they would appreciate and act upon comments from a guy who is both a heel wearer and an engineer with a good knowledge of mechanics and construction, then I would be happy to help improve their product. The feeling I get from my emails is that they are going to do what they do, and if you suggest anything different they aren't interested. For example, I emailed a picture of a pair of shoes (the high-cut courts in the middle of the pic) made in 'aniline' leather (a beautiful light chestnut brown) to ask if they had a similar colour.

If they suggested that they could do the job for some extra cash, then we could enter into a useful dialogue, but all I received was a curt 'no we don't do this colour'.

Xa

Feedback comments on 6inchforever. Overall, taking into account the price, their rating is 6/10. I ordered a pair of knee-high boots with 14cm heel and 1cm platform. They also do lace up with a side zip which offers the advantage of a snug fit with the speed of a zip. The leather was rather thick and coarse for a pair of fashion boots. For USD199 I half expected no linings, but no, the boots were fully lined in leather. They haven't got the heel attachment sorted out fully, not so much the strength of the fixing of heel to the shank of the boot, but the fundamental strength of the shank itself. If you flex the heel, you can see the shank bending, unlike my Fuss 5" courts which are absolutely rock solid and only flex underneath the ball of the foot. Despite the order for a 14cm heel and 1cm plat (they only seem to do heels in 12, 14, 16 cm ..... no odd numbers), the heel was 15cm with a 1cm plat. I suppose that when they saw 14cm heel they promptly selected the last with a 14cm lift. It's not that I'm bothered about the extra lift, but, with the indifferent heel attachment, it doesn't look like I will be wearing these outside, as I intended. The fit of both foot and leg profile was good, except that they failed to appreciate that I specified the boot top size smaller than the size of my calf to get a good fit just below the knee. Finally, something pretty irksome, the laces were very stretchy, so I couldn't get the boots laced up properly until I found some decent cord to make some laces. The spacing of the lace holes was a bit on the large side which makes the whole appearance a little amateurish, as opposed to neatly laced. To conclude, if they paid a little more attention to detail they would be onto a winner, but, as it is, I can't see me ordering anything else until these bugs are sorted out. Xa

OOPS,

sorry, I forgot to mention that I have a very dry snese of humour.

Even so, it's a pisser when my fave shop is taken over by a bunch of mouthy spotty youngsters flogging the latest mobile phones.

I looked on Google to find any other Sachas in London, but little joy. The only other one in Neal Street closed a couple of years ago.

Xa

I wrote my boat off a while back (dismasted about 10 miles off Cherbourg), but, hey, I'm getting over it.

To help me get over it, I took a heely trip up to London yesterday. A bit of shoe therapy would help.

Disaster .... Sacha in High St Kensington seem to have gone out of business !!!!!

Sod the boat, but where am I going to go for those beautiful boots now .... I'm feeling totally aimless, rudderless even.

Xa

Hi, all,

It seems like most of the things that had to be said, have been.

Just to add, thanks for an enjoyable day, especially to FF for organising the buffet, arriving the previous day to do the shopping, and to HF for providing the venue.

If you want a contribution to the food costs, I'll pay in beer next time I see you (if that's OK).

It's good to see that the UK contingent turned out in force to welcome our visitor from the US.

Daz .... sorry to hear about the break-up. As people grow up they change, so a relationship that had a sound basis when it started seems less solid later. When you are young the rate of change is much greater (I think back to the difference in myself between 18 and 21, remembering that I didn't like myself much as an 18 year-old from the perspective of my 21 year-old self.) It's facile for me to say this, but pick yourself up and carry on, remembering, of course, that there are times in the life of every gentleman when it is quite permissible, indeed very appropriate, to get blind drunk !

Xa

In a follow up, mankind is working at making more things idiotproof, while nature is throwing up ever more resourceful idiots to maintain the status quo

Very true SG ....

here's a corollary .... I've forgotten where I found the quote

The total amount of intelligence on the planet is a constant .....

.... pity, the population is increasing.

Xa

Not 'olds'.

Sometimes the financial pages can be interesting too. (Sunday Times last weekend)

Xa

Xa

Frankly, regarding the picture quality, I can't be bothered to spend too much time on the woman. Xa

OK, I'll be there. Booking needed for my 4wd in your garage please. My damson trees have been going nuts, so I will bring a damson pie as contribution to the lunch buffet. Errrr .... scuse me, is it a 0930 departure from your place for a 1030 meet at Mc Ds???? ..... conflicting info. FF and Calv know my mobile number. Xa

Hi, JeffB, The heels are 'twangy' because they are are quite thin. Although my feet are small, the rest of me rolls in at 180lb (83 Kg), so I have to be careful when walking on thin stils. These are set a little too far forward, so the heel tends to flex and attempt to fold under the shoe (especially when walking up slopes), as evidenced by the back of the tip wearing rapidly. I've been wearing heels above 3.5" for about 15 years now (lots of Bertulli lifts when I was in 'shy mode'), so I'm used to a heel. As it is, 4 inchers don't slow me down at all, 5 inchers, a little, and 5.5 inchers, quite a lot. I've been practicing in Fuss 5" courts for a couple of years now, so these don't present too many problems. Xa

Tell you a story, much on the same lines.

Decided to give my 5" blue suede stilettos a 'run' up in London

It turned out that these may look like the best thing since sliced bread, but they sure are 'twangy' to walk on. I wore them for a while, but thought I would wreck them if I kept them on around the Science Museum.

I had a spare pair of 4" block ankle boots in my briefcase in case of problems, so I did a quick swap during lunch.

I hadn't reckoned with the increased security at the Science Museum (just after 9/11). All bags were being searched. So, a young lady asked me to open my briefcase ..... what did she find there but a shoebox?

She found this a bit strange, asked me to 'open the box' and found the stils. "Your size?" she asked.

"But of course" said I, and, giving her a quick twirl to show off the boots, I said "but these are better for walking."

I don't think she made any further comment as I closed my bag and went into the museum ..... actually I think she had problems keeping her mouth shut !

Xa

Found this old pic of the prostitute who was involved in the upset of Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley.

Xa

Had a tidy up a while back and put the 'working shoes' back on the rack.

Most of these I wear every week (not so much the boots, as the weather has turned warm again). Even the 5.5" stils (at the bottom) did a short shopping run under long-ish pants a few weeks back.

Xa

I just had an email from 6inchforever, saying that they sent my boots via registered airmail on the 27th. That's 5 weeks since I ordered, in line with their promises. The boots should be here sometime next week, so I'll give you a fuller report then. So far, all looks good with these people. Xa

Hi, Jim, They certainly wern't cheap, but every now and again I splurge on something 'at the edge of the envelope'. I wore them to various fetish events in London in the mid 90s, but few people were interested in just footwear. I had some interesting conversations, but many of the people at these events were very surprised that heels did it for me every time and, so far as the rubber/bondage/spanking was concerned, I wasn't too fussed. Xa

What nobody curious as to the answer ...

ho hum

Xa

I thought the pink flamers would stir up a little frisson. They're associated with someone quite famous. I'll keep you in suspense to see if the afficianados can find out who. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bert .... yes, I buy off the shelf. The problem is trying to be selective in my purchases; being size 39 EU, 6UK or 8US womens I have the choice of the whole shop. Xa

OK, the fun starts here.

These are the triangular heels on the Spiky Sachas, the ones with the red lining. The metal tip is my modification .... boy, are these noisy ... heh heh.

Xa

Here's some of his contemporaries .... the group Slade of the early '70s.

There were quite afew times I thought, if these guys can wear heels, why can't I?

Xa