Leathery Faced Lovers

I can’t for the life of me remember how long I’ve had these boots, but I’d hazard a guess of at least ten years. It must be a while, as I’ve had them re-heeled at least once.

Though not so light as to invoke similarities with Ang Lee’s wire-work in ‘Crouching Badger, Hidden Demon’, I’ve always been incredibly light on my feet, so have rarely needed shoes soling or heeling. Also, even before Morton dropped by and left me his neuroma, I tended to live life in trainers or walking shoes so the fancy heels only made it out for work or ‘occasions’. There’s a trendy fashionista in here somewhere but she normally only pops out for an hour or so at the weekend, in between being dragged up and down fells by a crazy Irish Setter and the bald man.

So on a true CSI tip and without carbon dating, I can determine that because these gently worn shoe boots have been re-heeled they must have been in my life for around a decade. That and the fact that because I can’t remember buying them and the past ten years have been a hazy blur, they must have been born into my wardrobe around the turn of the millennium.

I cannot deny it, there are some creases in the leather but they’re more Sean Connery than Keith Richards. The term 'worn well' rather than 'well worn' comes to mind. They’ve not had a life of hard drugs, nicotine and cheap whiskey, no their life has been much simpler and some might say more boring, only coming out to play in the past four or five years for the occasional gig at The Corporation in Sheffield (http://bit.ly/7PTdXJ) and for winter nights out on the icy streets of the North. Of course that could be any time from the 1st of October through to the 1st of May in any given year.

I realise that they don’t have a very high heel, I believe the term is ‘kitten’, but the pointy toes possess an anaconda grip across the widest part of my hobbity shaped foot. So like the vast majority of my leathery lovers they need to go to make room for all the wonderful things that I’m welcoming in to my life. Like shoes with evocatively sexy names such as ‘Bramble’ , ‘Camille’ and ‘Pudding’.

I made that last one up.