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Bit of a longer story (apologies if you've read it elsewhere already.) Would have been circa 1985 and the heyday of my wearing heels at clubs and balls. I didn't always go out dressed 'en femme' but it was more usual than unusual. My girlfriend and I got approached (in every sense) when I dressed up, not a whisper from anyone else when I went dressed as a man. So we had left a club just off Charing Cross Road called Maitresse around 2am. I'd driven my car across Oxford Street, and the clutch cable snapped. I had to get out of the car and look under the bonnet at the bulkhead, and sure enough, the outer cable was lying loose. I would have been wearing a short PVC skirt and top, fishnet stockings, and 5½ heels. While looking under the bonnet, I got quite a few beep's, and one loud shout of 'oyh-oyh' from passing traffic. No offers of help though. I'd learned how to drive without a clutch years before, having experienced it with a 1972 3.0 Capri. Not so easy starting off in gear with a smaller 4 cylinder, but it was a bit under-geared in first and second, so we got home. It's taken 31 years for me to wonder how I might have made it home, with no car and dressed as I was. I suppose an expensive cab ride, (£25 back then) and returning the following day with a new clutch cable.... In recent years when I used to go out in heels, I would be rather daring by taking no other shoes, once finding myself in the wrong place at the right time. I'd pulled into a disused road to have a pee. Unknown to me, a group of young people had arrived a bit earlier to start smoking an odd smelling tobacco. It seems someone who lived close by had called the police, who subsequently arrived, just as I was leaving having discovered I wasn't alone. I was told to stay put. Thinking I was likely going to be ordered out of the car at some stage, I carefully got myself de-shod. At the time, thinking it better to get out the car in socks, than get out wearing 4 inch heels. As it turned out, once a vehicle/name check was made, I was dismissed. (Pheww.) I'd like to say I still have that 'devil-may-care' attitude.... But 'work duties' means I have to go into homes occasionally where outdoor shoes aren't allowed, so I now carry a pair of black soft 'slipper' type shoes in the car at all times. At a push, dual purpose. Not that anyone would know, but they too are a girls (slipper) shoe.

I think these days, "clubs" (any) don't often open their doors before 10.30pm and the night doesn't actually get going until at least an hour later. Back then, 'kicking out' was pretty universally 2 a.m. Now, 4 a.m. is more typical, and 6 a.m. not unknown. Venues stay open as long as people spend money at the bar. After that, any point in staying open - stops. When you can charge £5/£6 for a small bottle of water, you don't even have to sell alcohol to make good money from your 'guests'. The 'double-declutching' was a technique used in heavy lorries and race cars that used straight cut gears. Modern vehicles have synchro-mesh gears, which self-align at mis-matching speeds. (If my 40 year old memory of the technology serves.) The idea of the let the clutch up in neutral (the double bit) and revving the engine, was to get as many parts turning at the right speed as possible.... Didn't always work .. Driving without a clutch is simple but potentially dangerous for a gear box. A "power" test I read about in a performance car mag', was to start your car in 4th (no fifth gear back then) and see if you could actually drive away in gear. My 3 litre Capri could be started in 4th gear, foot off the clutch, could pick up speed and I could drive away. Not a clever thing to do many times, but I know I did it at leave twice. I believe the version of gearbox I had, was originally made for a transit. One day, I broke the (crap) gear stick. That was interesting .... So driving with no clutch .... Start off in gear, 2nd If I remember. Changing up is/was no bother. Getting back down a bit more difficult. "You" have to slip out of the gear being used, and lightly touch the accelerator to get the engine revs up. A gentle (and I mean gentle) bit of pressure on the lower gear, will usually let the lever slip into place when gear and engine speeds match-ish. This downward gear change can be practised in modern cars too! The nasty bit is stopping. IF you time it right, slipping into neutral -braking- and switching off the engine when stopped is the right way to go. Engine off, into second, ignition key at the ready .... Bear in mind, I was travelling out of London at 3-4 a.m.** during a time when there wasn't a set of traffic lights on every junction, and there was nothing like the congestion there is now. Nor were we living the 24/7 lifestyle we have these days. I probably wouldn't have seen another 30 vehicles going my direction, all the 20 -ish mile route home. I wouldn't have needed to stop at roundabouts either. Apart from having to stop say 5 or 6 times, it wouldn't have been anything like the challenge it might seem. I would have been barely 30 at the time, and still spent a lot of time working on cars, it would have seemed an inconvenience (to me then) at worst. Nerd Trivia: Though technology has moved on a bit since 1985. Most cars back then had historically used hydraulic actuated clutch levers. "Cable" was fairly new, and I can tell you from experience, pretty unreliable if you drove a Ford. It was the only time I snapped one, but I changed several frayed ones over the course of my 'car enthusiast' years. ** Just to put those times into perspective .... "Once" and I definitely mean the once - after returning home from that club (so around 3 a.m.) I got my girlfriend to drop me off about half a mile from our flat, and the other side of our town centre. So I walked, dressed as described above, through my own pedestrianised town centre at 3 - 3.30 a.m. to get home. Didn't see another person the whole 10-15 minute walk. Was truly surreal. I always drove home from London, so I would have been perfectly sober. I don't do drugs either, so fully compos mentis though a little 'high' from spending 6 hours 'dressed' and mixing with people like it was perfectly normal. Boy George, Culture Club, 'Marilyn' were seen daily in the newspapers and heard on the radio all the time. They were very androgynous times so I wasn't as 'out there' as it might seem now. Plus looking back, I had what I could only describe as an 'enviable' shape. A slim body with 28" waist that could easily get me into a size 10 or large size 8. I don't even know a woman that size now .... So less 'daring' and more showing off really.

A week ago, I was at my son's (temporary) abode and he and K were packing stuff ready to move out. There was a large box of K's shoes and boots which I had a good view of; it included several pairs of non-plat stilettos of around 4.5". I complimented K on her collection (singling out a pair of red suede Carvella courts with a very thin metal 4.5" heel as being 'very nice') and she smiled at me and said I could wear them if I wished! (Fat chance: she is a 37/38 and I am a 45!) I don't think it was anything more than a jokey comment; she has no idea of my interests. And, expecting or not, I am sure that she intends to keep and wear most or all of her collection; I hope so. I don't think my son has any special interest in heels, but as he is about a foot taller than K, they both probably appreciate their merits. And it will be interesting to see if their daughter will develop into a heel wearer in 15 years or so (If I'm still on the planet) ...

I admire your bravado and wish I'd been there (to ogle rather than help) but it would have been way past my bedtime! Did you drive all the way home stuck in one gear? Or is there some technique for gear-changing sans clutch in fairly modern cars? (I know about double-declutching in older cars, although that surely requires an operative clutch? And I have no idea how one actually performed the task.)

I recall a comment in another place from an American who disliked platform shoes and referred to them as 'jackstands'. I doubt however that they could be used as such, much as it might be helpful in your situation.