FastFreddy2

I'm hoping to do the same in Milton Keynes on Monday ..... If I can get parked! I don't expect to make any purchases either, although I can wear an 8 (sometimes even a 7) which increases my choices obviously, but t has been a disappointing year (or more). Possibly I have every type I might find attractive, or variation of the type i might find attractive, so I'd only be buying more of the same. But like you, I very seldomly experience a raised heart-beat from seeing a style I consider a 'must have'.

Think I've already mentioned most of my buys/sell pairs? There is one notable exception ... I'll see if I can do something about that.

Yep, all good now. The Tilly's seem to be a slightly better fit, but you look to have a similar problem to myself; slim legs?

Same picture as the Tilly boots, surely?

The reason for posting the picture at all, was to indicate that a £1475 leather boot from a well known designer, might not fit any better than a £40 plastic boot. I used the wrong title for the picture (I didn't copy the titles/prices from the boots over to the skirt and boots picture - and it was the skirt and boots picture that I wanted to use), the purpose of the picture (that also had the skirt in it) was to show how badly a £1475 pair of boots could look. The final presented image should have looked like this: I'd missed the absent title change because the sale selling price (£738 vs £737) was so close. Size availability, the skirt, even the distortion (picture stretching), all distractions.

Yikes!!!! I'll go back and have a look at the boots .... Original post now fixed. A more detailed/supplemental post added below.

There's a lot to be said for being able to do returns, especially with people like us who don't always find it easy to get a good fit every time.

Gets worse as you get older. ....

You took the words right out of his mouth.

I did indeed and have amended my post to show the correction, thank you. For the price, they would otherwise be an acceptable purchase, provide their limitations were understood. "Otherwise" meaning; if they fitted correctly. They are what Mrs Freddy might describe as a 'disposable fashion item, worn very occasionally by a young/inexperienced buyer' who might have low expectations anyway. For me, I expect a shoe purchase to last at least 3 months with continual daily use. Anything less suggests a poor purchasing decision on my part, and a loss of a repeat customer for the seller. I purchased some leather soled mens shoes from Clarks, some 25 years ago. As was the way in those days, after a couple of days use (to scratch up the soles) I had rubber covers put on the soles. I would have had this done to about 10 pairs by this stage, all without problem. I had always felt it necessary, given our fairly wet climate. Some weeks later, possibly six, the leather soles began to separate from the shoe. I returned them to Clarks, in the expectation their reputation would ensure I left a happy customer. Not so. The 'manager' of the shop, insisted the addition of the rubber soles had prejudiced the integrity of the shoe. Obviously, I suggested otherwise, and quoted past experience and the UK trend for these rubber tops to be added to leather soled shoes. The discussion got quite heated, but there are few people alive who can manage to speak more loudly than myself. (If only I could hold a tune, I could have made a fortune as a singer. But I digress...) The conclusion reached was that I got a refund, other customers/potential customers in the shop got damaged ear-drums, and those others in the mall were tempted to call the police to stop a murder being committed somewhere. I had advised the chappie, that if rubber additions were going to prejudice the sole of the shoe, I should have been warned of it at the time of purchase. I was not. On the basis that I wasn't warned, I got a refund. I have not bought shoes from them since, nor will I ever. And, I do my best to stop others buying there. They are not the retailers they used to be, nor allude to be.

Scrooge is alive and well. How apt.

Absolutely right. I had bought my "E" phone as the bare minimum replacement for a (literally) falling apart candy-bar type phone. At the time, the 3rd Gen "G" wasn't available. The quality/speed of the onboard camera on the G takes some beating, and at a realistic price too. My upper/upper limit for a phone would just about have allowed a purchase. If I could find a home for my current phone I would upgrade and it might allow me to carry one piece of technology, rather than two.

Further info on the Moto E vs Moto G ..... While in London's West End last Sunday night, Mrs Freddy used her new phone. I emphasise new, since she has had no time to become expert with it. However, she managed to take better photo's with her phone than I managed with my dedicated camera. In fact she took better quality photo's than our grandson (phone expert obviously) and myself with my digital compact. She also took her first 'selfie' with grandson, and had it up on FB within minutes. And only minutes later still, she was getting compliments and 'best wishes' from her friends for her night out in London. It won't be long before I hear the words ..... "I don't know how I managed without it." .....

I don't think I need to add a further review. The images speak for themselves. I should mention the heel isn't 5 inches, it's a very wearable 4¾ inches (120mm). Somewhere I have mentioned/illustrated a pair of OTK boots from the defunct Payless Priceless, which were the boots that got me back into wearing a heel. I really liked them, but they wore out in around a month. Those soles look identical to the Payless product.

Did your 'ghost writer' pen the first half sentence, and forget to brief on it's meaning? In kind. "The bourgeoisie lauding it over the proletariat as history demands. How right was Marx?" We were too weak with hunger to walk 50 miles ....

For some, not me. I haven't eaten dead land grown meat since circa '86. But the cat .....

Just to prove that money alone can't make something perfect ..... This is larger picture (made from a composite) that has been ever-so-slightly compressed, as the original looked to have been stretched. Shocking creases ... £737 - in a SALE!

Does anyone here NOT think this looks like mouse droppings? Discovered this behind a skirting board today. I hope it's old. (No I didn't test for moisture content. ) We've had a cat for a little over 2 years, and he's a 'bit of a one' for bringing the makers of this stuff home, half dead/half eaten. If we had one here still, he'd have found the maker. When I lift the floorboards close by, I'm hoping to find a dessicated carcass.

In short, an adventurer, which is wholly in keeping with your family tradition. (Argue if you will. ) Unlike you (or Puffer) I was brought up much closer to the coal-face. As I get older, I realise our family shares horror stories really, not fond memories of growing up. We didn't live off the juice of a cracker while we travelled, we lived off the juice of a cracker every day I can remember. Mrs Freddy's family pretty much had it the same way. Her dad would be fed, and her mother, herself and her two sisters, would share a meal between them, not much bigger. When I first met Mrs Freddy's younger sister she wasn't much bigger than a bag of bones, and I was only a couple of pounds heavier. When I have mentioned here about my waist size of 26/27 inches in my late 20's, you might now understand why. I was never over-fed. Unlike some others, my life had what I will describe as 'bad influences' in it. I'm sure others here will have mixed with these types at some stage, but may not have been subjected to their influence for long, or possibly at all. Drugs are not the only life-changing 'alternative' path. Perhaps I laboured that particular point too much? Thing is, none of us know what life might have brought us if we trod differently. I've gotten to where I am (alive) and largely happy with my life, without the guidance I could have used while growing up. The core of my life has been accumulating a modest property through wit, rather than hard work. And providing myself with a small nest-egg that will help me survive should every opportunity of providing myself with an income, dry up. What is the phrase my mothers uses when talking about me? Is it "dances to his own tune" perhaps? To repeat myself; had I chosen an alternate route, I almost certainly would be long dead by now.

I'm into wearing a heel, because I like the way they feel on my feet. For me, it's that simple. I would wear a shoe or boot with a small platform for the comfort aspect, not then having to worry about stones or shaped pavers hurting my soles, but even small platforms stop my jeans covering a heel. Wedges I like too, for both the shape, and the quietness of the heel usually. I have found high block heels produce an amazing amount of resonance when landed on something solid, which wedges just don't produce. What's not to like?

If ever I come into an unexpected bit of funds, I may do just that, but the people with the lasts to make a boot that I would want, are even older than me. (I refer to those gentlemen who used to own/run The Little Shoebox of course.) If I am lucky in health, I might have 5 years of high heel wearing/walking left in me. I am tempted to say I could be buried in those 'made to measure' thigh highs - for my trip to another world, but I know two things about the likelihood of that. 1. I'm not getting buried on land. 2. If I don't make arrangements to the contrary before hand, I'll be getting cremated, which is NOT what I want. (Mrs Freddy has been quite clear on this. She'll organise whatever is easiest.) But you are fundamentally correct, in that the best chance of me getting something that fits, is to have it made.

Because you went along a different path .... That different path had you meeting a less accommodating group, who may have spiked your drink for the humour of it .... Or a different girlfriend that had HER interests at heart not yours, and might find you more compliant if slightly drugged.... It's all conjecture.... I know for sure, if I had taken that 'other route' (professional photographer) I would certainly be dead already, and dead for some time. I have friends who went to the London College of Fashion, and getting an 'in' (access) to rising stars would have been simple. I had already started doing work for wealthy people, and those in the hairdressing industry. It would have been a very natural move. And so would the excesses that came with it. For example, I mooted at "unexpected results" from going out as girl/girl with my then, girlfriend.... We were invited to, and attended, a very private fetish party in the West End. It was financed by a minor political figure (we were told) who might have been some MP or Minister's Private Secretary. The venue was a hotel suite, with a bathroom the size of my house. The bath was practically a swimming pool with rails around it, and steps to get in. Four poster in the bedroom, that got some action - after we left. We were invited to stay for the after party, party, but I have never been into group sex and I didn't want to encourage my girlfriend into it either. Another time, again while in girl/girl mode, we were invited to and attended as guests, an 'after gig' private dinner given by the owner/publisher of a well-known fetish glamour magazine/business. Which I believe is still alive today. With access like that, it would not have been hard to edge my way into some photographic work for him. But again, that work brings excesses, that I would have succumbed to - I'm sure. Mrs Freddy knows nothing of these adventures, but would still confirm with the little she does know about my past, I'm lucky to have survived it. My conventional upbringing may have made my life slightly less colourful than it might otherwise have been, but it also kept me away from the excesses that would have led me into a lifestyle few cope well with. And this assumes I would have done well with the 'other' career too. How much worse were my chances of survival if I had failed at being successful in the job? Perhaps earning a living shooting porn .... Seedy glamour? Meeting girls using coke to get through a session? No, on balance I'm glad I took the route I did. Safer, but got me a much longer stint here.

That isn't necessarily so. I have always been a bit wayward. Some ventures into certain avenues have thankfully come to an abrupt end. I once had a little dalliance with cannabis, or something like it. (I am no expert in this field.) It didn't end well, and it caused me to swear off any pharmaceuticals unless made by a reputable (cough) manufacturer and bought in a retail packet. Your enhanced involvement with what sounds like the ground-breakers of the hippy movement could have ended up with you addicted to something nasty. My limited experience in this, suggests the route can be fast, and only slowed by the immediate absence of product. I'm minded to the Peter Green story, he of the original Fleetwood Mac lineup. Generally understood to be one of the greatest musicians of the that time, if not of the century. Drug use back then, almost came with social pressure to experiment, amongst those who had ready access. While some would say Peter Green always had something of a fragile mind, on his first/only LSD 'trip' while in Germany, the experience sent him into a virtual oblivion for 30 years.

Again, true. This isn't a big deal for me this time, as the shoes fit so well. The Zara version has the same, shoe+sock design. While it was some time ago, I did once own a pair of heels from Honour, that were completely 'sock' material with no reinforcement/support around the foot. They were high, and made of stretch black shiny material all over. They felt like a slipper, and were extremely unstable because of that. I owned them for literally days before moving them on. Black/shiny/high, they sold very quickly. The shoe plus 'sock' taken to an extreme .... Removable shaft? I'd quite like to have a one piece, close fitting thigh boot, just because .... These are terrifically popular with men for some reason, that I suspect is routed in historic association. Design your ultimate fetish look, how could it not include high heeled thigh boots? Plus, you don't have to have shaved legs to feminise them (legs). Are they not (almost entirely) fantasy? Though fashion and girls seem to love them - if they can get a pair that fit!

These - I hope .....