Prejudice vindicated on shoe purchase expedition.
I was on Oxford Street on Sunday, buying shoes. Oh I know what you're thinking - you're thinking, "ooh, new shoes, how exciting". And of course normally you'd be right, for the purchase of a new pair of shoes is almost always a happy occasion and I can't be the only person who thinks that instead of half-heartedly trying to interest you in polishes and protective lotions the staff in shoe shops would do far better to offer you a glass of champagne, in celebration of the joyful event. Sadly however, on this occasion my exuberance was dampened by the fact that I was having to replace the Jeffery West boots which Tom, of Tom's Shoe Repairs, had pronounced dead the previous weekend. He'd shaken his head, had Tom, and told me there was nothing he could do. He knew how I was feeling, because he'd once spilled a pot of paint over a pair of Jeffery West boots, and hadn't been able to rescue them either. Well I didn't want to weep in front of Tom, even if our shared heartbreak had brought us closer together, so I thanked him and returned home to set about the grim but unavoidable task of finding a new pair.
I'd bought the original boots in 2004 and spent £180 on them - this was and remains the only time I'd ever spent more than £100 on shoes, but of course that was before the credit thing - you know, the financial something, whatever it is. Well anyway, in the current economic climate I was worried that such an extravagance might be deemed rather vulgar and ostentatious, and turn the public against me, like Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. Oh I know what you're thinking - you thinking, "but wardytron, the public loves you, everyone knows that". But the public can be fickle, as we all know, and I didn't want to take any chances of negative headlines in the Daily Mail - "MAN BUYS EXPENSIVE SHOES IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE" is the sort of thing I can do well without. Also, I'm quite mean, so I decided to economise somewhat, eventually finding the shoes below for a bargain £55 in Barratt:
Well as I say, I went to Oxford Street on Sunday to buy them, remaining unfailingly polite to the staff in the shop despite their insistence on half-heartedly trying to interest me in polishes and protective lotions instead of offering me a glass of champagne. As I was leaving I noticed a distinguished looking man of about 70, white-haired and dressed in a Prince of Wales check overcoat and green corduroy trousers. There was an affluent look about him, and on his arm was a much younger woman, in her 30s, and of southeast Asian appearance, possibly from Thailand or the Philippines.
Well naturally I didn't want to leap to any unsavoury conclusions; after all I knew nothing about this couple other than their immediate appearance and had no knowledge of the details of their particular association and it would have been quite wrong to start bandying around terms such as "mail order bride" and so on. It was wholly unacceptable to make such a supposition based on nothing but prejudice, when for all I knew he could have been the one that was after her money. So I resolved to dismiss these offensive preconceptions and to assume that, despite whatever outward appearances and an age gap of thirty to forty years might suggest, theirs was a partnership of equals; a partnership based not on money but on mutual affection and respect. At that exact moment she turned to him, smiled and squawked, "WHAT YOU GONNA BUY ME?"
I'd bought the original boots in 2004 and spent £180 on them - this was and remains the only time I'd ever spent more than £100 on shoes, but of course that was before the credit thing - you know, the financial something, whatever it is. Well anyway, in the current economic climate I was worried that such an extravagance might be deemed rather vulgar and ostentatious, and turn the public against me, like Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. Oh I know what you're thinking - you thinking, "but wardytron, the public loves you, everyone knows that". But the public can be fickle, as we all know, and I didn't want to take any chances of negative headlines in the Daily Mail - "MAN BUYS EXPENSIVE SHOES IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE" is the sort of thing I can do well without. Also, I'm quite mean, so I decided to economise somewhat, eventually finding the shoes below for a bargain £55 in Barratt:
Well as I say, I went to Oxford Street on Sunday to buy them, remaining unfailingly polite to the staff in the shop despite their insistence on half-heartedly trying to interest me in polishes and protective lotions instead of offering me a glass of champagne. As I was leaving I noticed a distinguished looking man of about 70, white-haired and dressed in a Prince of Wales check overcoat and green corduroy trousers. There was an affluent look about him, and on his arm was a much younger woman, in her 30s, and of southeast Asian appearance, possibly from Thailand or the Philippines.
Well naturally I didn't want to leap to any unsavoury conclusions; after all I knew nothing about this couple other than their immediate appearance and had no knowledge of the details of their particular association and it would have been quite wrong to start bandying around terms such as "mail order bride" and so on. It was wholly unacceptable to make such a supposition based on nothing but prejudice, when for all I knew he could have been the one that was after her money. So I resolved to dismiss these offensive preconceptions and to assume that, despite whatever outward appearances and an age gap of thirty to forty years might suggest, theirs was a partnership of equals; a partnership based not on money but on mutual affection and respect. At that exact moment she turned to him, smiled and squawked, "WHAT YOU GONNA BUY ME?"