FastFreddy2

Me too. That said, where would I be now, what would I be doing? It would have gone one of two ways. Either gotten myself into the entertainment industry (one way or the other) or become a complete outcast/artist (photographer). Either of these two alternatives would have had me dead by now, given the opportunity either offered for excesses in one form or another. As it was, I took the central route, and made a little money by conforming. That security gives me the freedom I now enjoy, even though my body struggles to enjoy the freedom in the way I might have 20 or 30 years ago. A trade off perhaps? I'm a long way off suffering while wearing heels. This heat makes enclosed shoes difficult, but not impossible. Moving around much in the heat, can be tiring. I'll be a long time buried, so best to do what I can, while I can. As with you, I would think ....

If there's only ever one thing I'm lucky with, it's my feet. I have several times had them bleeding, and not noticed until I find the cuts or tears in my skin. They are either less sensitive than other parts of my body, or I can ignore the discomfort more easily than I can on other parts of my body. My knees and hips are getting a bit worn though? That or all the kneeling I'm doing, [decorating/building] is creating problems.

You will be talking about personal sacrifice of course. The only way that "cost" can be avoided I guess, is to (really) get lucky. At the races, or with a Lottery win. Then I guess you do it all, without making sacrifices....

Made the mistake of having a (cold) beer with my salmon salad last night, just before going to the cinema. Meant I couldn't drive there, and wear heels. Walking distance is a reasonable 1km or there abouts, but it was broad daylight when we left, with plenty of commuter/summer evening foot traffic about. I went in (gulp) trainers.... We left around 11pm, and went to a supermarket to buy some milk, before walking home. We went the scenic route, arriving home at 12 midnight. We were both in light short-sleeved T-shirts. It was still warm out, and walking past brick and concrete, it was possible to feel the retained warmth coming off them. Once home we had a coffee, and watched some TV, before going to bed. I stayed up until 2am. It was closer to 4am before I managed to get to sleep, and stay asleep. [i actually slept downstairs on the couch where it was slightly cooler.] It's going to be even hotter today. Not sure what to do tonight. It's going to be oppressively warm and humid later. Spending the whole night on a lounger in the garden, seems more attractive than window shopping 30 miles away in what will seem like an oven .....

The footbed to heel rise looks good. Not so sure about the platform though ..... I've yet to find a way of wearing platforms out in the real world. That said, I doubt many could wear that sort of heel and still walk .....

I doubt 'luck' had anything to do with it. Someone with the life you have, didn't get it because they were lucky? I suspect a lot of hard work, and a good sense of what you wanted from your life, gave you the successes you now enjoy. They are doubtless American [business] motivational phrases; "You make your own luck" "Funny how the harder we work, the luckier we get" I've found them to both be true. Wouldn't you agree?

And fortunately, don't even have to leave the house to see them .....

While summer is only here for 4 or 5 days, the change in temperature over two days is amazing. Was out last night visiting family, and was in a short sleeved T-shirt until past 10 o'clock. Mrs Freddy is off work now, so later nights out are in order. Cinema tonight (in heels), and looks like we might be chancing our arm going to London on Wednesday evening. Selfridges are open until 10pm to catch the Olympic Games visitors, the bulk of the other shops, open until 9pm. Wrong time of year for me to buy shoes, as I mostly wear boots, but Mrs Freddy can always be tempted by flat sandals if they have enough 'bling' on them. We've some restaurant discount vouchers that need using during the next 7 days, so that will be another night out. We are told rain (or showers at least) will be back on Friday. Those visiting for the Games will be disappointed if the warmer weather doesn't return. For my part, I can tolerate 30 degree days for short periods like 3 or 4 days, but weeks of that sort of heat can be very wearing. I don't have immediate access to a garden swimming pool, nor have air con installed, so there's no respite from the heat. A week of humid/restless nights, and I'm ready for cooler weather. I intend to make the most of the dry weather though.

Not big on it myself either. I once tried on some Louboutins in Selfridges London. I think the style was the classic Pigalle, with the higher heel. [120mm?] Although a little on the large size for me, I was surprised at how much of my toes were on show. For the first time I recognised what was meant by toe-cleavage.

How stupid am I? I'm trying hard to ignore the incessant barrage of media coverage about the impending London 2012 Olympics. The whole thing has stirred my inner cynic, and I vigorously dislike the sporting event that has been turned into a huge money making exercise for larger businesses, with fines/penalties for ordinary folk who wear the wrong clothes or drive on the wrong bit of road. You can only join in, if you pay to join in. Literally. Inclusive? Anyway, with the plan in mind to travel to London on Sunday .... I mentioned before setting off, I had just seen 7 Police mobile video camera vans in convoy travelling South toward London. It was put to me there was an Olympic relay event in London (with all the traffic chaos that brings) and what was I thinking; travelling there by car? Consequently, we went out for a couple of hours and stayed local. [Local meaning; no heels.] The summer sales are in full force, with shoppers being teased with reduced price clothing and shoes. I spent a little money, but not much. Was nice to see the Sun and feel warm, but .... Usually it's possible to get used to the increasing temperatures, perhaps acclimatising to the heat? Not so this year. From 12/15 degrees, to 24 in the space of 2 days, with 30 degrees promised after 2 further days. So out in 20+ degree weather, I got hot and tired very quickly, with my feet feeling like they were cooking! With me in flat shoes too. London maybe later in the week then... @heelman500: Saw these in NEXT, and thought of you. [Note size and price: £12]

Of course. Maybe enough notice to get one or two others involved?

Any news? My right foot (the slightly larger one) is 27cm long. "Technically" makes me a size larger than I can get into comfortably, but I've got very slim feet. Slimmer than many women in fact.

We are promised at least 4 days of summer grade weather over the coming week. Seems the jet stream has moved North for a while .... I'm going into London/Oxford Street Sunday, or at least I plan to. Mrs Freddy is off work for a couple of weeks too. She is off abroad for the second week with family, but at home with me for the first week. If it stays warm, we might venture out to the coast for a day or two (probably Brighton), which might give me the chance of wearing heels somewhere different. We have been to Brighton with me in heels before, but it was a short visit of afternoon and early-ish evening. I might have some business on the Isle of Wight, a place I haven't been back to for a very long time .... [40 years!] Anyone? ....

If I can get what looked like a furry picture off a Nokia 610, there might be a piccy to show. I tried to email the image to myself, but the phone has not been properly set up for MMS messaging. I'd chosen not to take my usual 'bridge camera' (an older Fuji) as Westfield is a privately owned venue, where photography is generally discouraged. However, I did see a 6 person group of possibly Chinese tourists, with one fella in the group using his expensive looking neck-slung SLR. With hindsight, I don't remember seeing ANY security staff there either. A completely different situation to my previous visits. With so many additional visitors expected at Westfield Stratford due to the impending Olympics, and the recent fatal incident there, Westfield management may have (prudently) chosen to redeploy their resources. ....

Me neither. I'll usually wear heels while driving if I have no other shoes with me, or I feel the need to get my ankle used to an unfamiliar angle before walking in a heel. If sat behind the wheel of a car is the best/only opportunity for wearing a heel though, I'd fully understand anyone using that option.

Westfield White City is a largish shopping mall with 300+ businesses on two main floors with an upper mezzanine. The walkways are shaped around two central blocks on each floor. The upper central section and mezzanine is mostly food retail, the lower open area used for presentations and displays. See floorplan >> here <<. As usual, my good intention to get there early proved fruitless, and arrival was close to 1pm. Lunchtime, so the car park was busy, but not full. We walked into the shopping mall with me wearing >> these <<. I was on tenterhooks, as the heels are a whisker over 4½" and I hadn't had much practice in higher heels recently.... First stop was Debenhams, a store quite close to where we left the car park. The place was MUCH busier than expected, which was a benefit I grew to realise. Also, some local schools must have finished early as there were plenty of under 15's around. After leaving the first big store, we walked the length of the mall to House of Fraser stopping at various stores on the way, walking through The Village (designer stores) almost entering HoF from the outside of the mall. Interestingly, they had the right size and style Biba jeans I had looked for previously, but I didn't have enough money with me to buy. Just as we were leaving, I spotted a woman entering the store wearing extremely high designer brand heels. It was a bad time to find I'd left my phone in the car .... Over to Marks and Spencer, another large store. I bought yet another pair of their jeans, this time in a 14 Long. [My usual M+S size is a 12, but this style seems to come up a bit smaller.] Had a good walk around and spoke to a couple of staff. I didn't notice a single person look at my footwear. Time was cracking on, and it was time for a drink and a snack. We'd left M+S on the lower floor, and walked back toward the central eating area. The coffee shops were busy with queues, so back upstairs on the escalator to the first floor again. We ate at Pret A Manger. I tried to drag this out a bit - for two reasons. Firstly, I was quite comfortable sitting and watching the world walk past. Secondly I was waiting for the opportunity to discreetly change into the ankle boots I'd been wanting to wear there, for a couple of years. A pair identical to some I know shyguy bought a while back. >> These << I'd walked into the mall with an ALDO bag I'd put the second pair of boots into. A long sleeved round necked T shirt covered them, but I had hoped to make the opportunity to put them on. While sitting, we decided that as time was getting late to avoid commuter traffic, we shouldn't stay much longer. A walk to NEXT, the last large store to visit would leave us quite close to the entrance of the car park where the car was. I thought this was perfect. If people twigged my footwear, I was pretty much on a direct route to the car and safety? We left the relative serenity of the eatery. We went back down the side of the mall we'd travelled up, rounded the corner and walked toward one of the two main pedestrian entrances in the far corner, and entered NEXT. Past the store lady greeter, and into the store, where a sale was in place. Had a good look at the shoe section where there was nothing of interest in my size, and left. Believing we were about to leave, I tried to get my companion to take a photo of me wearing heels. It didn't go very well, but that was due to technical [camera] problems. What was slightly amusing, was me standing next to a handrail (or shop - for the second try) had many other shoppers stopping to allow the photo without them being in the frame. (Bless them.) Even with me posing with a little indiscreet heel showing, no one paid my footwear any notice? Despite me thinking the shopping was done, a couple more shops of interest were spotted on this side of the mall, which we ventured into. Eventually we found ourselves on the ground floor again, and from there, we began walking back towards the car park entrance. As we had walked in, (now some time ago), a 'premium grade' ice cream seller had been spotted, and ignored by me..... Not so the second time. We got an ice cream each, and sat in one of the public/busy seating areas to eat them, before the journey home. By the time we left, I'd spent longer in these >> these << than I had in >> these <<. We'd walked just about the entire mall, with stops that must have averaged out at visiting every 8th store. In all, I had walked around one of London's premier shopping malls for over 3 hours. While I MUST have been spotted wearing high heels by adult shoppers, [and one 7 year old black kid in Barratts at least], I wasn't aware of it at any time. [baring the single Barratts incident where he was sitting close to the floor on a stool, and while he glimpsed at my shoes, he was off playing in front of a mirror immediately afterward.] This surprised me, and I wasn't anything like as relieved to leave, as I thought I would be. My original expectation was that I'd want to leave quickly as people would be pointing, either laughing or shouting abuse. Not one bit of it. In fact if it wasn't for the fact I'd already be leaving West London too close for comfort to avoid commuter traffic, I might have been tempted to stop for another coffee. I'd only missed going into one shop I wanted to visit anyway, [Jessops the camera people,] and going there was likely to cost me £200-£300 ..... So no bad thing I was inclined to leave due to potential traffic holdups. As a summary, remember I'd been to this place a number of times in the past wearing 4" heels, and I don't ever remember going there in flat shoes. Meaning this was far from my first venture there, and not my first in heels either. But it was my first visit in higher heels, and my first in a stiletto heel. I did wear the same long jeans as suggested by heelman500, and they did pretty much cover my heels most of the time. Covered nothing while I sat though! I have priced up some black dye for the Menzies. They do need it, see: >> here << and >> here <<. They are the same height as the other two pairs worn on the day, with a heel thickness somewhere between the two. As you will see from the pictures above, the second pair I wore for at least 90 minutes while sitting and walking around, had just about the slimmest heel of any shoe I own. A great venture, full of pleasant experiences. ....

I went. Need to do some piccies, so full report tomorrow.

Direct piccy from the web site: Says 5" heel with 1½" platform. I'm thinking that heel is higher than 5 inches!

There was a long 'debate' about this from a member learning to drive (apparently) in heels. A crash he had while wearing them whilst driving, could have permanently ended his driving career. He's no longer a member, so we won't be hearing from him about his progress ..... I have and do drive in heels. I avoid the scuffing problem, by keeping a clean towel in the car that I place under the control pedals only when I drive in heels. As the only time the towel is there, is when I'm in heels, it doesn't have time or opportunity to accumulate grit or mud. No scuffing found to date. [in 4½ years, but on my 3rd towel.] My car is a 5 speed manual, and I tend to use the gears - a lot. Driving around town can mean a gear change every 20 yards. So far, not experienced any problems, or found any real need to change how I use the pedals. In fact I've had more problems wearing trainers, than heels. I do remember a media article a year or so ago, 'reporting' the wearing of heels was "proven" to affect driver response times. Possibly by about 2 yards at 70mph, which in some circumstances could mean the difference between stopping in time, and not stopping in time. Not experienced this myself .....

I had quite a lot of this with the previous laptop now dead some time. I eventually got around to turning off the touchpad, and used a corded mouse. We have broken a number of mice dropping them when the cord snagged on something. It did get to a stage earlier this year where I was doing all the prose in Word, and added emoticons and links later when I copied it across. This is a bit of an unpleasant way to do it though ..... New laptop, and things seemed to work well until yesterday. The greatest contributor to that success being the £5 [Tesco] wireless optical mouse. No more wires to snag, and works better than our last optical one too. The new problem was the Num Lock key, and me using [ALT]+1+7+1 to get the "½" character, whilst the Num Lock was off. I had been describing my shoes and their the heel height, but attempting to add the half symbol completely closed the internet session. And lost all I'd written, including links, pictures. Everything..... Calmer today. And the change to the startup default appears to be working. .....

Whoever bought those got some very attractive shoes. If they were a smaller size, I certainly would have chased you for them. Further details to follow, but I now know I have at least another 24 pairs to go.

Me too. Well spotted.

That makes you a UK11½ ? [Japanese 30cm?] You must be tall enough to be a professional basketball player?

Bit of a rant really....... Not for the first time, I spent an hour tonight writing up about my footwear collection, with numerous links and included some frightening numbers ..... I'd spent the hour composing/editing, and was quite close to concluding. Unknown to myself [the laptop I use has no indicator], the Num Lock key had been switched off. Expecting the number 7 key on the keypad to produce a number seven, I was somewhat surprised when a keystroke [ALT] + [Home] shut the window I was using without an option to Save or Cancel. An hours effort down the loo ..... Believing I'd fallen foul of the "I'll do what I want" touchpad, I finally turned it off. I think they have limited use, and I waaaaay prefer a regular mouse anyway. Writing another post, tried the same keystroke I'd used earlier, again unaware the Num Lock was off. More effort lost. A short Google search, and a couple of minutes using RegEdit has hopefully cured the problem. I might have to change my posting methodology. I loathe to see the 'Edited' remark at the bottom of my posts, but it's starting to look like I'll have to begin using this to save my prose as I write, to help avoid these accidental losses. Rant over.....

While digging out the shoes I'd hoped to wear tomorrow, >> here << I was reminded why I don't wear these more often, and especially not during the day..... The have a quite vivid beige sole, which would have to attract attention from everyone blessed with even moderately good eyesight. ...... (Note to self, buy some black shoe dye! ) Consequently, if I find the cojones I might wear >> these << instead. At least as high, and slightly harder to wear as they have a looser fitting. I doubt I'll get a photo, but I'll try.