FastFreddy2

26' C will seem hot given we've barely been out of single figures recently, and only weeks ago had frost... Weatherman today, predicts 30' C is now possibly, so that is getting on for an increase of 20' degrees in under a week. While I agree there many many places where typical ambient temperatures are higher, they will be constantly higher with work conditions often altered to accommodate those temperatures. Yes, in the great scheme of things, 26' isn't high. But I've worked in offices where there's no aircon and very little in the way of air movement (ie one fan). After a couple of days of this, with sleep also disrupted by humidity, it doesn't take long before weariness makes productivity almost impossible. For those born into those temperatures, I guess 26' might be overcoat weather. But us Brits get to see that sort of temperature for maybe 3 weeks of the year, and like the snow we only get for one week of the year, it almost brings the country to a stand-still.

Warm, and very humid I would have thought. We've "friends of friends" that sometimes come over here from Florida, to avoid the worst of it. (The wife of the couple is an ex-childhood neighbour I found out after thinking I recognised her at a funeral last year.) We'd like to move to warmer climes for the winter months, but that 'lifestyle' takes money we don't have. Maybe I'll 'retire' to the South of France if the opportunity arises...

Apparently, a bag of ice attached the the front of the fan is more effective. "Our" heat tends to be quite humid, exacerbating the (for us) unusual 'clammy' feeling, you will doubtless have experienced in the tropics. "Our" predominant weather is cool and damp. I would think bumping the temperature up by 20' C would make a noticeable difference anywhere. It's not like we have 3 or 4 or 6 months of warm weather that allows us to acclimatise in any way. Literally in the space of days, we will go from needing a coat to stay warm, to being able to sleep outside at night. That's an incredible swing in temperatures.

Close, but no prize ..... This was the only photo in the set, that didn't show her ample assets through her net top.

Looks like things are going to get ridiculous very soon, on the temperature front. On Sunday evening last, around 11pm, it was so cool our CH came on. By the end of the week, I will be looking to buy a portable air con unit as we are promised sub-Sahara temperatures. Mrs Freddy doesn't sleep well with a fan on, though me and the cat do fine. I bought a 2 man tent about 12 years ago, never been out of the storage sleeve, and I mean never. (Could be a rolled up blanket for all I know.) Possibly, me and the cat will be spending some nights out on the garden lawn.... Our garden is South facing and our bedroom is at the back of the house, so gets like an oven in high Summer. I have a plan to help resolve this, but I'm a year away from having a Velux window installed in the roof. Even further away from having solar panels installed. Our roof doesn't have much of a pitch, so warm air stays were it is. A fan helps enormously to keep body temperatures reasonable in the bedroom, but silent fan at sensible money?

I would agree. Wrong size, or wrong shoe (for her foot shape.) Probably thought the last place anyone would be looking while wearing that outfit, would be at her feet ...

The trip to London didn't happen .... Apols to anyone else who turned up. It was warm when the Sun was out, but that wasn't often enough to make it a warm day. Consequently, I got distracted. I have a second bicycle waiting for me to be collected, and Halfords are giving 10% off bikes with a trade-in. I managed to get a rusty old bone-shaker for nothing off Freecycle, which will save me £35 at Halfords today. The bike I'll be getting was originally £499, on sale at £350, I'll be parting with £315. Quite a good deal, especially since the bike was under-priced at £499 as it has an air-fork included, and several other attractive "goodies" that make the sum of the parts significantly more expensive than the cost of the bike. This is typical, but not usually by such a big margin. The fork alone usually retails for £250. The (very sexy) wheels and tyres, £200. I know nothing about NX group sets, but reviewers can't believe a bike at this price has them. Yesterdays forecast warmer weather has shown up today. What I would describe as 'perfect' weather. Sunny, with a little haze, ensuring the heat is not too strong. A very very slight breeze keeping the warmed air moving. All I need now is some rocks and the lapping of sea water against those rocks. (I'm not keen on beaches, unless the sand is white - which means no beach around the UK.) One day I'll get around to finding a place in Devon or Cornwall I can visit, where the water is close to transparent .... Unlike the East coast and much of the South, where mud clouds the coastal waters. I like being in the sea, but not in something that would pass as a dirty pool of water ... I also seem to have bruised the ball of my left foot. Well, not bruised, but it's tender for a reason I don't understand. I don't remember doing anything stupid to it or with it, but tender it was yesterday, and it's not much better today. Wearing a heel might have been difficult so 'crying off' was a reasonable thing to do even without the distraction of a bike purchase. Hopefully the tenderness will be gone in a day or two. We are promised warmer weather this week, with the possibility of temperatures in the mid to upper mid twenties. No-one yet is holding their breath, but signs are there for warmer weather. Hopefully, a trip out will follow.

Rita doing her thing ..... I suppose I'd better add a picture that once again shows her "demure side" .... Not sure what the underlying message from the designer was .... "Available" perhaps?

If you have £60 or £80 you'd like to spend on your nearest and dearest, (or yourself) this might make an interesting ornament.

More rain again today, some of it torrential. Nasty, black skies every couple of hours through most of the day with cooler temperatures again. I dread to think what our total gas bill is going to be like for this year .... Tomorrow (or later today as I write this in the early hours of Sunday morning) is supposed to be warm and dry ... ha ha ha ha And warmer weather is on the way, despite rain for 3 weeks being forecast only days ago. If it is warm and dry, today/Sunday I may well be seen taking a stroll along Oxford Street, and possibly the South Bank if time allows. We have a voucher for coffee and cake to use, and prepaid vouchers for a spaghetti joint if we get hungry enough. Since I cooked the pescatarian version of spagbol the other day, and have to do something similar next week (to use up the fresh pasta) a spaghetti meal out is unlikely. Those vouchers have a 6 month life, so they'll likely get used next month.

Ebay favours the buyer. If you have concerns over condition or sizing, as long as you have double checked with the seller before bidding ("are you sure they are a UK9, what makes you so sure?") I'd say you have nothing to worry about. Someone selling shoes without their makers box, and without sizing clearly marked on the shoes, is taking a bit of a gamble themselves - not you. I've had a couple/three bad purchases over recent months, which fortunately worked out although there was some cost to me. I don't expect any experience to be free, so I accepted the consequences of buying "used". Mrs Freddy has said I must stop, and I'm inclined to agree with her. Over the last 3 or 4 months I have found two retailers who sell court shoes in my size with high enough heels for me, at under £25 delivered, and the second at around £30 delivered. The second also sells boots, and of the four pairs delivered, two were faulty. One pair fitted but didn't look very nice on, I have kept the last pair (delivered last Thursday) though they were ankle boots not OTK boots, which was what I was after. (I've decided on leggings and ankle boots for the look I wanted.) Had I bought the faulty boots privately, because the faults were minor, I might have had trouble returning them even if bought on Ebay. Even buying 'new boxed' hasn't been without problems. I have some ASOS mules in what is claimed to be a UK8 that fit more like a UK7. Oddly, since my right foot is slightly larger than my left foot, the left shoe seems smaller than the right. (The left shoe probably needs wearing.) They are attractive, and I might wear them, but my left foot looks too big for the shoe. They weren't expensive, and even if I were inclined to return them, costs would almost cancel out the benefit of returning them. They aren't faulty as such, they are new and unmarked, boxed as sent by the retailer. What could I complain about? They just don't fit. Anyone with a size 7 to 7½ foot interested? (£15 posted.) So unless I know the sizing is correct by having already tried on or bought the same shoe, with the condition is new/as new, I avoid "used" shoes and boots now. Disappointment/frustration/work/costs are more likely than unlikely, and I'm not a gambler......

"I have a dream" .... You may not be surprised to know ..... About 35 years ago... Fortunately the Mini I drove into wasn't supposed to be on the road at the weekend. Very very minor dink. The driver agreed to forget the incident (since his boss wouldn't be happy he was using a company car at the weekend) and said he'd mention the damage as a "car park incident" some time in the future. Since that time, I do tend to keep my eyes on the road/cars in front while moving. While in a queue of parked traffic though, "all bets are off". The smaller number will be those that don't spot them. They won't say anything, but the usual routine is: They look at you, look at your shoes, look at you ..... A bit of whirring goes on inside their head, then they look down again before getting dragged off by the adult who hasn't noticed anything. Can't tell you how many times it's happened to me, but children's "hit" rate is a high 80% to 90% with adults in the single figures. You'll know for sure, if the adults come back and they both look. (Assuming they are that interested.) Brave man.

I will almost guarantee, the sizing is in US. (So minus two from size marked.) I have a VERY similar style shoe, but with ankle straps. They are the only shoe I own with a platform. Got mine from Forever 21, and they are marked in a US size 10. They are a good fit on my size 8 feet. If the ones you have are marked "9", you are right in that they are an equivalent UK7. The company looks to be a Chinese retailer selling to the US and EU markets with (it says) local distribution warehouses in each of these places. For the EU it's Germany. The products aren't cheap either, though they do seem to offer sizes to suit all feet, up to EU46 in the style I looked at. Carriage was £4-63 on top of the £66.93 price for the PU ankle boots. I paid £17 for the shoes I got from Forever 21, though I did buy them as a 'sale' item. That's a nice picture of the shoes you bought BTW.

Lucky s.o.a.g. I wouldn't have been having "sisterly" thoughts about them, I can tell you. Was out early evening to buy some milk (and return some shoes via the Post Office) with Mrs Freddy in tow. Did the deed at the PO which amazingly, didn't have a queue out to the door. (Which it usually has.) Into the store for provisions, then back to the car. All with no events to report. (Though thinking about it, there was a young girl [late teens] shopping with her mum, with the girl wearing VERY bright red lipstick. Which was a bit unusual for 5pm?) Back in the car, and I'm in a 2 or 3 car queue leading to what I would usually describe as a long-about, but which is so long it probably should be called a one-way system though you get onto it like a roundabout. (Priority to traffic from the right, at 'give-way' lines.) So I'm in this queue, and there's a couple of cars behind me. As I wait (tempted to write "wait patiently", but that would be a lie), I spot a small group walking into the high street I'm leaving. One of the group is a very pretty lady in her early twenties. Dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. She's wearing a very tight dress with transparent black net top. No bra (I discover) but her modesty covered with black inserts. The skirt part of her dress is dark and tight, confirming her shape to be that of a lingerie model. As she turned the corner (revealing her naked back and bra-less status) I could clearly see the profile of her stiletto courts with 4 and something inch heel. I was stunned, and in any other situation would have taken another good hard look, because visions like this are seldom seen outside of film premieres or fashion shows. Stuck in a slow moving convoy with absolutely no way of altering my course, I had to drive away. Returning would have achieved nothing as the long-about round trip would have taken so long. Driving away, I told Mrs Freddy what I'd seen, that had distracted me. After a short period of silence I could hear in the distance; "Earth to Freddy, Earth to Freddy. Come in Freddy." Took a little while, but I did eventually return to Earth. Ain't life strange/entertaining, when you bother to keep your eyes on 'high alert'....

We are in our third day of rain. There's been the odd respite, but the 'growing water' farmers have been waiting for has arrived, hopefully not too late to be of use. It is finally getting warmer though, and the wind has abated. So, warm and wet or cool and dry .... Becoming the typical British summer?

You're welcome. It gives me something to do .... As an aside to wearing a heel, (and justification for wearing), our skeletal structure was not made to take the weight of being tall, nor carrying excess weight. At no time in our physical development, have people been as tall as we generally are now. In the 16th century, you would have been seen as a 'giant' of a man. Nor previously, we would have (typically) lived long enough to wear out joints, a situation currently exacerbated by excess consumption of sugar (fructose) filled foods helping to keep us all overweight. Ageing joints and excess weight isn't a great combination. The 'struggle' to maintain fitness, isn't helped by our sedentary lifestyle. 100 years ago, many of us writing here, would have been like those volunteering to fight for their country in WWI, and finding ourselves "unfit to die for our country" because we were so malnourished. We would have worked hard for long hours, -if we had work- and probably not had enough to eat either way. That was the life of the 'working man people' (working class) back then, and for millennia before. End of soapbox/history moment. My walking companion is about an inch taller than me. In our 'relationship' days (a loooong time ago) she would wear high heels, and be noticeably taller than me, which I liked. A lot. Her wearing heels most of her life, has left her with feet in poor condition, so consequently she no longer wears a heel - although she would like to. A week before she left for her hols', I found her wearing in some heeled canvas sandals (like espadrilles) to be used while away, that once again put her noticeably higher than me. A pleasant surprise, though somewhat temporary. I quite like taller women, though I've no idea why. It's absolutely nothing Freudian I can assure everyone.

Those long boots pictured, look like waders..... The sort you use when in the river, typically FISHING for salmon in Scotland say, and your bait would be a fly. It's called "fly fishing". You let the fly rest on top of the water in a fast running river or stream to catch the fish. YOU remarked .... "Just right for fly fishing." as it happens, (reference above) a completely appropriate comment - even if it wasn't entirely what you meant by the comment ... So how surprised was I, and possibly others, when you further commented; "What makes you think I would be fishing?" Well, fly-fishing, is fishing. Why would I (or anyone else) think you meant anything other than fishing? Related:

I'm always happy to oblige, but I'd guess your preference would understandably be shorter ladies wearing heels, to bring them up to your height .... There's a thought, 'floating' to Nice. Plenty of walking room on board a ship too. If only I had the 'where with all' for such an extravagant walk. Did you like Nice? Did you traverse the Promenade des Anglais while there? I loved the place, but that was over 30 years ago.

A word to the wise about back pain .... Keen your weight down, and exercise your core muscles (to keep them strong) and did I mention keeping your weight down? Yep, I know tall people suffer with back pain, because they are tall. Stop stooping, to talk to us short folk then? Having been told two weeks ago Summer had arrived and 'get ready for a heatwave' (that I wouldn't welcome), it seems the "heatwave" has gone off somewhere else? Our weather has been getting worse over the past week, and today (Wednesday) it pretty much rained all day. Some local roads were awash. The latest mid/longterm forecast, is further rain, possibly for up to a month. My walking companion is currently enjoying the Sun in a Middle Eastern country, and Mrs Freddy is close to leaving for the Americas. I'm reluctant to spend money welcoming sunshine, but this year is looking to be the worst yet in a long line of wet and cool summers.... It's putting a considerable crimp in my 'adventures'. I am wondering whether I might risk a driving adventure to the South of France, to my favourite place there; Nice. I visited in 1983, and swore I would be back soon, which I obviously got wrong..... Flying there would be cheaper (likely the price of fuel used on a car journey), but I am 'security check' adverse. My walking companion had to get to the airport, 3 hours before her flight abroad. Bonkers. Even taking a train to France involves the same sort of check .... There's no escape from it, other than ferry and driving. A private flight would be out of the question - obviously. Well, unless I found myself talking to Taylor Swift, who likes to get herself flown around the world. (She flew to the UK from the US today to meet her English boyfriend.) One way or another, I hope to be in London, some time over the weekend. If the weather is as bad as expected, I doubt I'll get further than the big stores in Oxford Street which provide a dry flat surface for walking, and refreshments. I find myself yearning for a coastal walk, in sunshine along a looooong promenade. Brighton might do if Summer ever arrives, but I bet parking is easier/cheaper in Nice. In my not-so-recent-past, I would travel to Ibiza a couple of times a year. Mrs Freddy and I would always stay in the same hotel and amongst other things, enjoy balmy evening strolls along almost a mile of promenade with our hotel at the quiet end of the fairly quiet resort. I wasn't back in heels then, and I now I reminisce not only on the really romantic nature of those fantastic holidays, but at the opportunities I had for wearing a heel on those walks. The closest I came to being out in a heel, was one night when we walked back (miles) from a nightclub, Mrs Freddy started getting sore feet from the attractively high heel mules she was wearing. For a while at least, we swapped shoes. She was grateful for the swap, and me too. I have no idea why I didn't buy some heels for myself the next day, other than believing at the time, me wearing heels in public was never going to happen. One thing is certain, I won't be driving there, if ever I go back. Perhaps I should consider adding the notion of me walking along that promenade in a heel, onto a 'bucket list'.

You do actually read what you've written, right? I'm pretty sure, for significantly less money, a pair could be had by one of the two fellas from LSB - and any size you wanted. In fact your supplier M.J. from across the Atlantic, could probably make something very similar for a lot less.

Yeah, but taking her fishing wouldn't leave you much time for catching fish ....

It's now easier to join up ....

Given the minimal time lost through changing shoes to go through security, I would (and did) wear flats after being told to take off my boots the first time through. I've yet to read anything positive about the UK security 'Stasi' or the American TSA. Care to share?

I certainly know how to 'twist' them. A classic is using a slice of data. Say I had 1000 respondents on the taste of a new beer. It was unusually bitter, and the overall results suggested young people didn't like the bitter taste. It might surprise no-one, as younger prefer sweeter. So how do I promote this new beer using my 'test' results? I just use the data for the over 40's group, and reduce the number of the declared test group. Or I redo the test data, but disqualify anyone under the age of 40 (or 50 if the stats say they are to be avoided). This is a clumsy example, but it indicates just how straightforward getting a result to support a specific claim, can be done. "Wholly accurate" feedback data is supposed to be made across a wide range of ages, both sexes, all income groups and wide geographical locations. Minimum respondents is 1000, but 4000 would be a more 'honest' group. Sounds expensive? Oh yeeeees. Maybe why "8 out of 10 cats preferred" was never 800 out of 1000 cats... Some promo adverts for women's hair care products have unusual test group numbers, but you have to be quick to read them when screened on TV. My background in stats wasn't marketing, but production BTW.