xaphod

They go up to size 46EU, which is definitely designed for the crossdressing community. The heel height also rises with the shoe size. I concur with Jeff that the sizing comes up slightly big, but with a soft half-insole, the fit is perfect.

Check out www.hi-heels.de

The leather quality is good, the only bugbear being that the heel tip is plastic. This is easy enough to fix if you can get metal tips .... I sometimes scrounge them from part worn shoes I buy at thrift shops.

Everyone in an office can be compared to a children's book character.

Here are a few:

Gollum (The Hobbit) .... inhabits dark corners in accounts, grumbling, asking impossible questions.

The White Witch (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) .... a woman who fought her way up when the system was much tougher on females and developed an icy carpace. Great clothes, no sense of humour.

Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia) .... the good boss, rarely reaches the pinnacle of management because he/she is not a backstabber. Everyone turns to them for advice because they are the only true competent in the place.

The Famous Five (any one) .... graduate trainee, hideously enthusiastic. Cycles to work, brings tomato sandwiches and ginger beer to consume at desk.

Willy Wonka .... crazed personnel officer who latches on to every employment fad and inflicts endless personality tests.

Shoemakers' elves .... IT people. Perform miracles and only exist when something goes wrong !

The Temp, by Serena Mackesy (Arrow Books)

Yes, no probems at the next meeting .... providing it's not raining. They are suede, so muddy water is guaranteed to f*** them up !

Tidying up, I found a newspaper clipping....

From the Julie Burchill column, Daily Mail 1st May 1988:-

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Last week I received a letter from a disabled RAF officer which congratulated me on my long and lonely stand against the sanitisation of modern life.

He wrote: 'I didn't fight the war to live in a world where the caffeine is taken out of coffee, the lust taken out of sex and the danger out of living.'

Those words should be hung in every classroom, kitchen and doctor's waiting room in the country. Most of all, they should be hung in every politician's office, where the smug and ionised atmosphere might benefit from the words of someone who has been close to death to know that life without risk is worse.

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..... and from teletext last night....

In this world, I would rather live 2 days like a tiger, than 200 years like a sheep. Tipu Sultan

Xa

Oh dear, I've done it again.

Along with Sacha, Fuss of Germany are fast becoming my favourites.

I just got these today, as usual excellent quality and good heel attachment. The heel is 4 3/4" in my size 39.

The midnight blue will go well with jeans and the dark blue tops I normally wear.

I hang mine up with my pants and suits in the wardrobe. If you get the hangers which clamp onto the the waistband of your pants and clip them to the top of your thigh-highs, they will hang with your clothes and keep their shape. ...... you get a damn good buzz when you have to put on your boring business suit too, seeing your thigh-highs next to the suit ! Xa

There were two pregnant Irish Women knitting jumpers for their new babies and the first turns to the second and says Lady 1 - "To be sure, I hope that my baby turns out to be a boy!" Lady 2 - "Begorrah, why would that be then?" Lady 1 - "Because I've knitted the jumper in blue" Lady 2 - "To be sure, I hope my baby turns out to be a retard" Lady 1 - "Oh, whys that then?" Lady 2 - "Because i've f@cked the arms up" Xa

Yes, could do Nottingham around 26th Feb, or a weekend on or after 8th March. Xa

Yamyam, if you can find the photo, please feel free to post it. Xa

I saw a somewhat weird appearance yesterday .... a woman wearing shoes of the same style, but with different height heels. The shoes were from one of the UK catalogue companies who offer a basic court style with low (about 3/4") medium (about 2 1/2 ") and high (about 4") heels. She had a low heel on the right foot and the high heel on the left, but was still a bit low on the high-heel side. A small amount of thought tumbled the reason why. Obviously this woman would normally wear a built-up shoe to make up for her odd length legs. From what I have seen of the special shoes, they are damn clumpy and heve no style whatsoever. This seems like an elegant way around her problem, but with our knowledge of custom suppliers, I bet we could have found someone who could have got her on an even (and elegant) keel.

HI Jo, I was going to post earlier, but reactivating my old identity on the board proved a bit of a pain. Hope you enjoyed Sacha and Dune ..... there's also a second-hand designer store about 200m up Kensington Church St with lots of shoes. THey certainly know how to charge money though !!! I was up in that part of the world on Wednesday, but I found the range of choice in the sales somewhat limited now.

I left home when I was 17 .... yes I made quite a few mistakes, but avoided the disasterous ones, and I havn't looked back ! BTW, if you keep to styles you can find in the shops, you might end up with shortened tendons and some knee and back pain, but nothing that cannot be avoided by backing off for a while when your body says it hurts. Xa

Yes, see you at 1000 outside Debenhams ground floor near the fountain. Xa

I'm OK for both dates over Christmas at present. Nearer the time, I can't be so sure. Xa

Actually this is the X man. I tried to reactivate my old identity, but php insists on sending the new password to my old email which is now dead. Copied the info about the yotty mag and the beer bottle refund. For those wondering about vinegar, it seems that Belgians have never heard of putting vinegar on French fries ( chips / fritten ). I was nearly ready to write CH3COOH on a napkin to get what I wanted. Lion had a certain amount of incredulity, but GJ tried out the idea .... OH OH I might have corrupted fritten forever !

FF Do you want a lift from your place? Heather is away on Friday, so I will be travelling via your part of the world. To allow sufficient time, I could be at your place about 1000. We could have another RV at the park and ride on the south side of Cambridge at 1030 ? Calv If you are picking up Francis, I still have all that knitting wool for his wife. There's about 2 black sacks full, so it is easiest if you are going directly to his door. We could transfer the wool at the suggested 1030 RV.

Hi, Pieman, Been reading your story on the board. It's a pity about the CP (cerebal palsy ?), but if you managed to overcome THAT disability to graduate, then all I can say is 'absolutely f***ing brilliant'. To anonymous, yes there is a time when four-letter words are OK ! I've been meaning to ask you this for a while .... have a play with the number 3217. In base 10 this is pretty boring (except for the fact it's prime), but convert it to binary and shift the binary point around a bit. I suspect that you will find out pretty quickly why I think this number is magic. Yamyam's response prompts me to tell a story:- Back in '77 when yours truly graduated, I rode back up North on a new Triumph T160 (lots of despatch riding in London paid for it). When I arrived, I was soon put in my place by my brother who was laying the foundations for a new shed and was getting late with his job. (The concrete mixer had to be returned to the hire company in the evening). No sooner had I rolled up, than my brother exclaimed, " ah Xaphod Beeblebrox, BSc ...... brother's special concrete ! "

Here's another Ghurka anecdote from Reader's Digest:- As part of a jungle warfare course run by the legendary Ghurkas, we had to conceal ourselves, as though for an ambush, alongside a track to be combed by our instructors. Determined not to be found, I buried myself in the undergrowth and listened with glee to the groans of my comrades as they were discovered. Finally, I heard the whistle signalling the end of the exercise. I stood up triumphally, stepped out of hiding, and fell flat on my face. A Ghurka had tied my foot to a tree. PS. Anonymous about the fivers was me (if you hadn't guessed)

Rather good, Chris. I like the co-ordination.

I met Firefox at Tottenham Ct Rd, and we had a quick browse round Oxford St. before heading off to meet TomNL. There are lots of strappy styles around for Summer which neither myself nor Firefox are too interested in. We did note that Teepee has metamorphosed into something different, but at first showing, I don't think any better. Due to our thinking Bayswater tube station was somewhere it wasn't, we met Tom a little later than planned, but no harm was done. Lunch was in High St Kensington before showing Tom Dune, Shelleys and Sacha. Sacha are getting a reputation .... Tom knew of them because of my spiky boots from there. I took the opportunity to change out of the courts I was wearing because I know they give me blisters where the top of the shoe meets my ankle. Old faithful 4" blocks were used for the rest of the day. The afternoon was a bit of a balls-up as we went in search of some Salvador Dali paintings. After being distracted by some beers at the side of the Thames we were just a little late to get to the Tate Modern. Aimless gravitation brought us to Leicester Square where we had another bite to eat. I had a couple of blisters, despite what I thought to be adequate precaution, so I left Firefox and Tom to end the evening. See the entry in 'For the Guys' for the happy co-incidence this created.

After our somewhat impromptu heely meet with TomNL in London today I was waiting on Waterloo rail station at about 2100. A guy appraoched me and, looking down at my 4" block heels, asked if they were uncomfortable. The usual reply that one gets used to them, was returned. "Is it the new fashion?" the guy continued. I replied that we were a bunch of people, thought by some to be avant garde in our choice of dress, and supplied our URL. It seems that Mr A. wears cowboy boots and had seen someone else wearing heels in Tottenham Court Rd about midday (guess it was Firefox). I hope you will join our merry band.

We will be meeting at Tottenham Court Rd on 27th at 12 noon. See the old board for more details.

Inga .... aren't you sure that particular sort of homebrew shouldn't be measured in octane rating, or for the really powerful stuff, Megatonnage ?

From 'New Scientist' odds and sods column:- Each separate 21 day blister pack of the contraceptive pill Marvelon comes in an individual foiled wrapper with the wording 'child resistant pack'. <font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: xaphod on 2002-05-25 01:55 ]</font>

No, Yamyam, I used to live there but I got the hell out as soon as I could. I've said this before, but it's worth repeating .... Having been forced as a child to play football by a pretty sadistic games teacher on a sloping stony pitch, with it raining horizontally, just above freezing, I came to realise that competitive sport was indeed character-forming. From then on out my character was formed, my mind was made up that I would have nothing to do with that damned football game ever again. I had the last laugh, being pretty good at swimming, I used to join those training for the school squad. I really enjoyed watching those wet and cold football players covered in shit, running past our 80 degrees F indoor pool.