Tuesday 11 November 2014

No such thing as bad weather


I had a brilliant day yesterday. After weeks and weeks of waiting followed by the drastic cock-up due to my inability to read a tape-measure, I picked up the correct item, prepared it and installed it - all in one day.

This simple thing has finally unlocked a couple of other ways of enabling me to earn a living, and I have just enough time to finish one more job before the 'C' word begins (no, not that one unless I make another wrong measurement) and we all get frozen in for at least a month - I hope.

I almost do not care if there are power-cuts - actually, yes I do. It is difficult to warm yourself over a candle, particularly an artificial one, and I really do need to watch 'It's A Wonderful Life' - again.

Jack@ has just posted a very 'C' word themed piece, and the rest of you are split down the middle as to how you reacted. This will be the first Christmas for 22 years that we will not have the kids round, partly because they have grown up, and partly because their mother has sworn to have the entire Christmas off because of the usual rigmarole of working flat-out until 5.30 on the Eve, then going home to work her arse off in the kitchen as the rest of the family have bitter and heated arguments next door.

I think she made her mind up at around 11.00 pm last year, but I bet she unmakes it at around 5.30 on this one.

The trouble is that her parents were too cool to celebrate Christmas, so life in this household was like living under Cromwell's reign for the whole of her childhood - or so she would have you believe. She made up for it - in a very big way. I caught her buying presents in Bicester Village, so I think she already has.

I bought myself a present already - a pair of these fake fur-lined snow boots above. £23 delivered from eBay, size 12.

You know how people become vary wary of dogs after they get bitten by one? Well I feel the same way about Timberland foot-ware. I was frost-bitten by them. Every time I see an advert for Timberland I have to suppress the urge to violently destroy it.

When I went to minus 40 degree Canada (celsius), I took with me a very expensive pair of Timberland boots which purported to be the warmest ones on the market. I stepped outside the warm hotel and into the frozen, snowy wasteland of mid-winter Quebec, and within ten minutes I could not feel my feet. I had to go back into the hotel.

Some kind soul went to a nearby hardware shop and bought me some lace-up rubber boots with a fake fur lining - for $20. My feet were like two bits of freshly-made, size 12 toast. Sadly, they wanted these boots back when I left, and you cannot buy them in England.

When I told H.I. of my intention of getting a pair of the above, she asked, "Are they ugly?", to which I replied, "Yes. Very."

"Oh no," she groaned. She would rather I lost all my toes than walk out in a pair of ugly shoes - and she says she is no fashion-victim.


15 comments:

  1. There goes another chance of monetising by advertising...

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  2. The older I get, the more comfort I need ……. although, I still like to be fashionable, hip and cool !!!!
    I'm sure that your Christmas will be lovely and you will be doing rude things with balloons and baubles as usual !!
    ….. and, you'll just have to take my word about my derriere …. unless I get really drunk and sit on the printer. Then I'll show you. XXXX

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    1. That's what people do at Christmas parties, isn't it?

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  3. I have a pair of sturdy Timberland boots -. and they are fine for the leaves in autumn, but very heavy, and yes: warm only to a point. As to necessity and beauty - especially for shoes, a difficult topic.I love High Heels, but I am not daft: running through Berlins means ballerinas or boots. And very warm ones in our Siberian winters here in Berlin.

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  4. FOR ME IT'S THE SOCKS THAT CHANGE. Light and airy for summer (if at all), and Icelandic seal hunter, Russian Gulag specials for winter.

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  5. I am now weighing up whether to buy the farmer a pair of these for Christmas - my original idea was to buy him a personalised number plate until I found that DVLA had one in their SALE for £2400!

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  6. I do hope you have a good C celebration. I suppose it's what you make of it.
    I am following your diverging career path; I'm contemplating the same and am quite interested in the directions some blogger acquaintances may be turning.

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    1. Giving up weaving for a life hitting hard stone?

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  7. I bought some snow boots a couple of years ago and have never had the chance to wear them yet.

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    1. I am so sorry to hear that. What a waste of fucking money.

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  8. When living in Germany I was fortunate to be able to buy a pair of fur boots with fur lining -- toes get warm and toasty just thinking about them! Had them in Quebec when it was -25C -- feet warm and toasty -- everything else -- not!

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