xaphod

I had an American woman ask to take my picture a couple of months ago. Since she was polite and didn't appear to be a gutter press paparazzo, I was quite happy to oblige.

Xa

On one of our shopping trips in London, a girl walked into the security loop in the door of a shop as she was distracted by my heels.

Xa

Tell us which part of the world you are in. If you are anywhere near us, join in at out meetings. Xa

Dust. .... it's having a rest from Elgar. Xa

Kids say what they think, normally very loudly. That's a verbatim regarding my 5" Western Ranch boots. Years ago, I would have wished the ground to swallow me up, but now I'm not bothered. Mum was more embarassed than anyone else because she had to dream up a reply a bit quick. She just suggested that I wore the heels to be a bit taller. Just to add to the fun the little girl (I suppose about 5 or 6 years old) started to walk around the supermarket on tiptoe to try out the feeling ! I suspect that there will be some 'I want' going on in that household for a while ! Xa ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BTW, mum appeared to be the sort of woman, well off middle class who wears comfortable as opposed to elegant clothes. I guess she wouldn't be seen dead in heels, except maybe 3" courts at the Guildford Symphony Orchestra !

GUYS I'm missing out on some damn fine sailing weather to do this heely thing .... MORE EFFORT REQUIRED PLEASE ! Xa

Right .... Thursday evening curry is definite .... presently backfiring on an over-enthusiastic chilli I made for lunch. I'll roll up the motorway on Thurs afternoon .... we can co-ordinate final landing time by text. Xa

Hey, SQ, Horrendously high Swedish income tax rates stop me stone dead. Xa

Hey, TS, What age are your students, and do they comment on your heels? If they are teenagers and they don't make fun of you, they must be much more civilised than most of the kids in the UK ! Xa

Good Friday is fine for me, or any day up to and including Tuesday 22nd. Before and after that, I can't juggle things. Xa

This is a wierd one. My usual block boots....

have started to give me blisters on the top of my big toe.

The heel fitting is still firm, the sole is worn but serviceable and the heel tip has been re-inforced using 'Segs' (proprietry metal tips), but what is giving me the blister is the internal lining which has worn through next to the internal toe cap ....

DAMN DAMN DAMN

I have not ordered from them, but I have visited their shop with the other Dutch and Belgian heelies.

I think they are an honest supplier and that you should have no problems ordering from them. There might be problems with the post or customs, but these are out of the shop's control. If you order by credit card and something goes wrong with the shipping, then you can claim from the card company.

I think they would not like the bad publicity they would get from us if they started to rip people off !

Xa

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it !

.....George Bernard Shaw

I definitely don't like people wearing my heels. I hate smelly feet and keep mine very clean .... I suppose you could call it a fetish. When the bacteria that cause smelly feet are introduced into a shoe, that's it, the little buggers are there for evermore, so your nice smelling shoes won't be for long. So, if I wear my shoes with smelly feet and infect them, then, OK, it's my fault, but if someone else makes them smelly, then they are rapidly going to lose my friendship ! Xa

Laurie, I saw a simpler explantion.... Life is like a toilet roll .... the more you unroll it, the faster it unwinds !

My mum (bless her cotton socks) was the French, History and Latin influence in our otherwise scientific family. Having lived in Charleroi (French-speaking Belgium) for a while in 1947, she had this to say about French .... "Love the language .... can't say the same for the people" .... and on subsequent visits there in the 60s and 70s "Ye Gods, they dress so dowdily, not like after the war" Xa

Wed 16th onward suits me. Xa

When I was at home, I did some unofficial DIY while my parents were out and made a floorboard to be easily liftable. Otherwise it is easy to find plenty of space behind the panels around the sides of the bath. The screws have domed covers which unscrew to reveal a conventional woodscrew. The best hidey-hole I have heard of is inside a juke-box. A guy I emailed with bought a big juke-box which he kept in his study (den). The lower half is normally quite empty ..... maybe an amplifier and a speaker there but still plenty of fresh air which can be better used as shoe space. Thinking about it, if you are prepared to put up with lower-fi and you are like me, and believe that with loudspeakers there is no substitute for cubic feet (no pun intended ! ), then you should be able to get a few pairs inside your speaker cabs. Xa

Hi, Guys,

You must remember that there are a lot of people out there with more money than sense.

Of the Beckhams, I think that Victoria's husband has more brains, and him being a football ace, that doesn't say much !

Certain famous brand names, Gina and Prada, for example charge the earth for usually good quality goods. The cachet in wearing these goods seems to be in the fact that the wearer is rich enough to afford them.

When Calv and I were doing the London sales, we went to Harrods, so as I could check out the Prada boots in the sales. In size EU40, they had been reduced from about £500 to £225, but in size 39 Calv found a pair reduced from £3250 to £1150 (ish). So yours truly tried on the expensive pair and found that they had a fit like a pair of rubber waders .... HORRIBLE, but I suppose great for a woman with telegraph pole legs.

We wondered why the great difference in price, the only difference being that the more expensive pair had slightly softer leather.

Hi, Trolldeg, I peeled up the insole which I found to be leather. The lining looks to be the same material. Xa

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:-

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

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.

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

..... 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.