FastFreddy2

It helps if you are looking out for 7 footers, or any of life's little peculiarities. (More on this later today.)

The days of the "Postman always rings twice" moments, long gone in your house too?

In the past ten years of me actively looking for men/a man out in heels, I have seen two. One I tried (unsuccessfully) to engage in conversation, and a second younger chap, who I spent some 20 minutes talking to. (Second chap I have photo's of trying on shoes, and will one day get around to posting a write up of the incident.) While not strictly speaking further incidents, they are related. On Sunday last, as I parked up the car readying to venture into the West End, I noticed across the road a chap that was wearing what could be heeled calf boots. They were a bit shiny for men's shoes, and longer. I hadn't realised until a few moments ago, the fact I could see they were longer should have indicated something else, although I saw the something else as he got closer. No trousers or jeans! Although I was quick enough to get 5 'snaps' of him walking away, not one had his coat open enough to see what I saw as he crossed, that he had tights/stockings/hose on his naked legs. The coat was too long to see, but hopefully there was a skirt in there somewhere? Don't let the long hair trick you into thinking I've photographed the back of a woman. His hairline started halfway across the top of his head, and those shoulders don't belong to a woman either... So "in theory", the third person in a woman's shoe in ten years ... So not due for another 'sighting' for another 3 and something years? Try the next day. While I can't be 100% sure, since everything else worn was woman's clothing, I'm going to take a punt on those shoes being woman's. I kept seeing this person as I walked around, we doubtless following the same route/interest, though his a little more varied than mine. What are the chances? But I do try to be observant, listening and looking at everything around me. And it helps I have a tool I can use to record what is going on, unnoticed. "A picture is worth a 1000 words" and a lot easier to upload too.

There has been some forum discussion recently about Louboutin Hot Chick, which in the Louboutin vs Jimmy Choo question has stirred up/rekindled my interest in owning an over-priced pair of 'designer' shoes, "just because I could".... It would seem Louboutin has started a theme, in selling his shoes where a variety of heel heights of the same style are offered, the heel height becomes part of the name. ie. Blah blah 100. Blah blah 120. If I understand it correctly, JC now refers to some of his range (or retailers do) so a more direct comparison can be made. A patent So Kate 120, is directly comparable to a patent Anouk 120. Some time ago - a year or two - I tried on an Anouk in what I believe was a 41 at JC in Selfridges. It seemed to me to be tight on my foot, and too tight to wear probably. I was surprised because I had tried on a Louboutin Pigalle in a 41½ some years ago, and it literally fell off my foot.. At the weekend, JC had some old stock in the sale, and I tried on one of their heeled shoes in a 41½ expecting it to be wearably tight. Nope. Loose enough so I could almost get a finger behind my heel. The lady assistant asked if I wanted the other shoe to try, but I declined. Too big is too big. I have no idea what my size for a JC shoe might be. All this said, I have recently found a supplier of court shoes that fit me better than 5 pairs of Office courts I currently own, and the new source sells at £30 a pair - or less if I take advantage of periodic discounts. I have pairs from the new found supplier in black patent, red patent, and a pair in moc croc (black snake?) All three pairs with 5"/127mm) heels, not 4.725"/120mm as with the designer styles. Of course putting a heel from a £30 pair of shoes into a metal grate or crack in a pavement, would be significantly less traumatic than doing that with a JC Anouk. On balance, in Freddy world, expensive shoes are owned - only to be looked.

I was driving into the West End last Tuesday evening along Marylebone Road and saw a woman leave Regents Park Station and cross the road about two car lengths in front of me, while I was stopped at traffic lights in a queue. She looked dressed for work (might have had a briefcase or something similar) and wore court shoes with at least a 4½" heel. Glad I don't work in the same place. Me dragging my tongue around the floor could prove embarrassing.

As Forum moderators/Administrators will tell you, there are often a core set of queries that get asked ALL the time, despite the question being asked several times before. On another Forum (nothing to do with shoes), I can remember a particular question being asked EVERY month, despite every previous page of that particular section having within it, that same question. (Bit like on a camera Forum, where "Nikon vs Canon, which is best?" Might get asked every single week So I was looking for something else, and I ran past this. I've added a post because those who search for unread posts as I do, will get the chance to read some additional contributions from those who are no longer active members. My story reads the same, though this version might be more detailed.

Whilst not heels, definitely something I don't ever want to see in public: Part of Topshop AW2017 collection, originally offered at £85. Now reduced to £50. (Copyright recognised.) Makes as much sense as open toe long boots....

And this should surprise none of us. Off the top of my head I can't think of anything comparable a female partner or companion could do that might put us in a similar situation. Certainly nothing dress wise.... Getting drunk amongst friends and starting to swear like fish-wife maybe, or starting a row with them over nothing while intoxicated? Leaving a toilet with skirt tucked into tights possibly, but that would have no lasting effect - save as an anecdote. Unlike immediate family bumping into one of us in a public place, while we were (obviously) wearing a high heel? I've no shame (or very little) and have pretty much isolated myself over the last 7 years, so I'm not likely to meet anyone I'd be bothered about while in a heel, but that isn't true for Mrs Freddy. I've mention many times, I am very careful to keep my secret, a secret from her social circle even if I don't wholly agree with it. For example, the husband of a very close friend is an alcoholic, and has been for a very long time. Two of her other close friends, have endured abusive (first) husbands who made their lives quite unpleasant for many, many years. Another friend was left with two young children to bring up pretty much without help, when her husband was found with another woman... In the great scheme of things, my little "wrinkle" (which she's known about since we started our relationship) ought to be waaaaay down a list of misdemeanours that might upset her friends - or so I'd like to think anyway. I know for fact a great many men are into wearing a high heel. [I'm pretty sure a significant amount (meaning more than 5%) of men have tried on, or keep women's clothing to wear - at some stage - during the course of their lives.] Yet ANY form of experimentation by men old enough to know better, is deemed socially unacceptable. As Spock from Star Trek would say; "It's illogical."

And still no indication of what they are?

Well, I did say "may"..... And despite your best intentions, I think that sometime in the future, you will succumb to something(s) a lot less expensive.

Hmmmm. That may change. Extreme High Heels You Tube channel link: https://www.youtube.com/user/taconxxl/videos

Her regularly damaging her feet (now on its third iteration) isn't helping. The last event, quite a problem. If I offer to drive her somewhere were she doesn't have to do much walking, she is happy to wear a heel. (High heels, not just a heel.) Trouble is, our social life isn't what it was, nor for that matter is it for many our age. Pubs are expensive, and generally more eateries than (meeting) drinking holes. People we were friends with have moved away, passed away, or not in contact .... Neighbours are (generally) barely able to walk and we can't invite people around - into a building site... Age has an effect. We were invited to a birthday bash tonight. Mrs F has started work at 6am this week, and despite us expecting to attend, she is just too tired. I don't blame her. While I can stay active through the night, I just can't do early mornings, so her being able to, is something I will never be able to match. You've fully embraced .... The Dark Side ....

Today. the world seems to be full of 'old geezers' reminiscing about "the good old days".... I'll tell you what I remember about those days... Being hungry all the time. Having jam-sandwiches for tea. Having the elbows missing on my sweater(s). Crying, because I was made to wear my next-door neighbours cast-off sandals. (That I grew to love.) I remember we had a lodger. I remember ice on the inside of the windows during winter. I remember the nearly-black coal man, making a delivery. I remember the veg man arriving twice a week with his converted coach that was a mobile greengrocers. The 'pop' man who delivered. The milk deliveries with beak shaped holes in some of the milk lids. They were not 'good old days' to me. Innocent days, worry free days maybe. Energetic days .... But seeing my father go off to work in the evenings was not so good, and having to be quiet during the day while he slept, not so good. We had it better than some. We all had good health. We didn't actually starve. But my parents were used to having very little, and aspired to more of the same. While I would welcome being young again, I'm much happier in 2018 with a heated home with food in the fridge and an excess of clothing. As I stated during my fathers eulogy, the children of today (his grandchildren) have no idea how tough it was being a post war working class family, just as I have no idea how hard it was for the working class in Victorian times. But I've some idea..... I don't recall if the story was told on one of those "Who do you think you are" programmes or "Heir Hunters".... But the basics were this: An old fella in his 80's, had lost his (immediate) family through age, hard work and social conditions. Wife and his children all gone, so was living with his grandchildren's family. Unable to work, he felt a burden on the grandchild and their family - who could barely feed themselves. So he hanged himself.

The only direct connection I touched, now checked (and the one I didn't touch), all good. Video'd too, so should anything go *bang*, I have evidence it wasn't any lack of "competency" on my part. In my gas welding days, soapy water water was the order of the day, but £6 is a good/cheap insurance policy. Cover back on the boiler, I am going to try and forget it has a 'history' until I'm ready to (permanently) turn it off.

Bummer. Not at all. It doesn't matter what I do with my legs, they remain lean. If I had thicker ankles/calves I could probably wear OTK boots without them looking like wellies. (As with the 'Natalie' thigh boots posted recently.) Of course walking is good for your heart/lungs, good for core (since upright not sitting), good for stamina. That mileage would have taken 2 or 3 evenings out. Mrs Freddy would sometimes drop me at the next town, and I would walk back. Sounds like a long way, but not around here. Another couple of houses and the towns I speak of would be completely merged. The regular exercise got 2-3 inches off my waist, likely more if Autumn/Winter hadn't got in the way. Thing is, it was wearing a heel that got me out, not the love of walking. While many move into a gym in Winter, where could I (realistically) go to keep walking in a heel? Short of buying a walking machine for my use at home of course....

Very nice to hear. (Mine sees my heel-wearing as something of a competition I think. Although there have been times when we've both been out in a heel, she can't walk in them -or chooses not to- for the long periods/long walks that I like to indulge myself in when opportunity arises. She much prefers; house to car; car to restaurant/theatre; restaurant/theatre to car; car to house.) What brand/style? That's how it starts ..... You'll blink, and the next thing you'll notice is that you have a room full of high heeled footwear - in your size.

Late Christmas present to self? Or part of a New Years 'keep-fit' regime? I got to my fittest (in recent years) when I was walking 5+ miles a week in a 4" heel. Weather was quite good during that period though ...

Now that would have been an image worth selling .....

At Brent X to buy some PVC leggings on Tuesday 9th. Although many shops have sales on, there wasn't much going on. One disappointing situation, is that Office shoes are closing their shop there. It might be an expensive place to have a shop, but it always seemed quite busy. Hopefully they aren't another brand about to disappear off the 'high street'. At least their range is affordable, unlike Kurt Geiger and Dune who want almost £200 for a pair of shoes or ankle boots? Managed to get to a West End Topshop before it closed for the day. A bit busier, but was obviously too late for much of the expected sale stuff. Not that I need more shoes (or jeans, or shiny leggings). On the way to B/X I had stopped off for some food. Getting out of the car, my foot forgot it was wearing a 5" heel. That was embarrassing.... Note to self, "need to spend more time in heels". Consequently, I did some housework this afternoon in some (recently acquired) white courts. Mrs Freddy asked if they were my 'hoovering heels'.....

No good for night time use on a bicycle? With the weather being poor again today, there wasn't really enough light for any photography. I had hoped to do some photo's with heels (to demonstrate a 130mm heel) and the R.I. leggings. As much an excuse to test the WiFi capability of my new camera, as anything. Maybe tomorrow....

I may live to regret reporting this, but the fan seems to have quietened down substantially. It now sounds like it used to. Today I fitted one of these ..... I had thought (in the absence of details suggesting otherwise) the orange bit helped seal the siphon to the boiler sump. Not on my boiler.... Another surplus part.... It may be that a new seal (£3) may have solved the leak problem, but if it didn't..... So even if I didn't need to spend £11 for a new siphon, I'm happy that I did. The new siphon fits the new sump, much better than the old one fitted it. Although I had cleaned out the old siphon, there was still some debris inside that wouldn't budge, and it had yellowed. The new siphon looks nice, fits nice, and doesn't leak. (Yay!) There's no apparent need to do anything more, but I will be doing a final gas check Friday or Saturday when my £6 bottle of Rothenberger spray arrives.

Not to me, but for an entirely different reason. In the UK, bicycling on footways was made illegal in 1835. That's 60 years before Mr Benz gave us what we know as the motor vehicle. It's a law that needs reform. Forcing cyclists into roads where 2 tonne cars and 40 tonne lorries travel at speed, isn't a law that would be passed if it were offered to parliament today.

There was more than one famine, and Ms Anthony was 'busy' in the 1850's. She was not a voice anyone in the UK would be familiar with. Especially when it came to her anti-slavery views (which by default, would have had to have been before 1865.) And in any event, her, and suffragettes like her, didn't get women wearing trousers in Europe in the 20th Century.

There's loads on social reform. Loads on womens suffrage. (Film stars wearing trousers in their films and at press events, did more to get women into trousers, than Emily Pankhurst ever could.) Loads on bicycles. I've even agreed that amongst the wealthy, a trouser of some style might have been suitable around the turn of the 20th century, but that's not what got the working women into trousers, it was a necessity of work. One of the interesting pictures I saw, was of a woman coal worker. She had a skirt on (as society and the church demanded) but wore mens trousers underneath. While working, she would tuck the front of the skirt into belt. If I conclude that women making in-roads into wearing trousers was largely (if not entirely) as a result of searching the internet for wisdom about this, your points (as valid as the may seem to you) are in conflict with the great bulk of the information offered by others, including some large organisations who's raison d'être is social history. As I mentioned, women+bicycles not even worth mentioning except as (virtually) an after thought in one article. As to the popularity of cycling (and I speak as an enthusiast myself), in my very young days, the only people I saw on a bicycle was the local bobby and the postman. No one else (until the mid sixties) had one.

She was an American social reformer, a minuscule voice in a global sea of change. Do some reading. Irish potato famine(s). Occurred while part of the British Isles/under British governance. Going on while Ms Anthony was trying to get slaves freed in the South. Millions immigrated to the US to avoid famines.