A long story about shoes

Unlike most women, I do not like shopping for shoes. I have size 3 feet. Most women's ranges only start at size 4. Most children's ranges end at size 2.

To further complicate things, I have problem feet. I have very high arches and my feet don't pronate normally. I'll let the experts from here explain:

"Normal feet have a normal-sized arch and leave an imprint that has a flare but shows the forefoot and heel connected by a wide band. A normal foot lands on the outside of the heel, then rolls inward (pronates) slightly to absorb shock... High-arched feet leave an imprint showing a very narrow band connecting the forefoot and heel. A curved, high-arched or over-supinator foot does not roll inward (pronate) enough, so it is not an effective shock absorber."

See below - the footprint on the left is normal. The footprint on the right is what mine looks like.

Because of this, I am supposed to wear ridiculously expensive custom-made orthotic inserts in my shoes at all times to give my feet the proper support and stop me putting strain on my knees. My orthotist tells me that they can't "fix" my feet. I'll have to wear the inserts forever.

But I don't. The inserts only fit into closed shoes. And wearing closed shoes in South Africa in summer is not practical. Also, because my feet are a weird shape - wide in front and narrow at the back - I battle to find closed shoes to fit me in the first place, nevermind ones that fit my ugly pieces of plastic in them.

The long and short of this is that my feet are often in spasm and I have developed an intense dislike of shoe shopping.

When I find a pair of shoes that fits and doesn't hurt me, I wear them until they fall apart. I have about three pairs of work shoes and I alternate between them during the week. If I'm going out I wear a pair of my "pretty" shoes that give less support, but I can only walk in these for a few hours before my feet are killing me, which is a great pity, because although I loathe shoe shopping, I can appreciate the beauty of a pair of gorgeous heels.

I don't own many pairs of shoes and when I lose a pair for whatever reason it means that they have to be replaced, which is generally a nightmare.

I have had three pairs give up the ghost recently. Two died of sheer exhaustion and the other pair demonstrated that it was not trustworthy when it dumped me down a flight of stairs and landed me on my ass due to lack of traction (note to self: don't buy shoes without some sort of grip on the soles again).

Thankfully, as pair three died (a beautiful black pair of kitten heels my mom picked up in Dubai), I had in my possession a voucher for Green Cross from my folks (still from Christmas) that I had been planning to spend on a pair of silver sandals for summer. I love Green Cross shoes because they support my feet better than most and don't leave them aching at the end of the day.

Well, farewell dreams of silver sparkly pretty shoes. I am now the proud owner of this pair of work shoes:

I think they're quite pretty and I am very chuffed. I know it's sad, but it feels like such a triumph to have found a pair of good shoes with so little trouble.

Now I only have two more pairs to go. How I wish they could be something like these:

The end of the interview

At last! I'm sure that's what you're all thinking. But here are Shania's last few questions and my answers:

4. Do you have any further news on the abused little boy who used to live in your complex?

Yes. He was eventually removed from the home for his safety. I'm not sure where he's been placed for now, but his grandparents have hired a lawyer to try to get him back to them in the Ukraine.

5. Did you resolve your feud with "L" over the story miscommunication?

Yes and no. We emailed back and forth and supposedly sorted things out, but we haven't spoken since and it's still a touchy point.

6. You've lived in a lot of places. Where is your favorite and why?

I honestly don't have a favourite. Every place was special for me at a time in my life, and there's things I love about all of them. I loved the chilled lifestyle in Durban and the fact that everything's quite close together - you don't have to drive very far for anything. And I love the subtropical climate and plants and the amazing fruit. Not the mokeys though or the tourist season in December.

I loved the beauty of Cape Town and the summers. I miss going for sundowners on a beautiful beach with my Cape Town friends and I miss knowing where everything is (Table Mountain is a great landmark that makes it easy to know where you are). I loved driving through to Stellenbosch and the wine routes and being so close to my best friend, Nicola. I don't miss the heavy winter rains and the salaries there were rubbish, so we found it incredibly difficult to make ends meet.

I loved being close to my family in Pretoria and also being near to my friends from my Gap year. I love the afternoon thunderstorms in summer and the history of the place - the monuments (old and new) and the union buildings. I love being able to find my way around; I love the Irene Country Market. I shopping is good and there's lots going on. But the people can be snobby sometimes and there's still a lot that hearkens back to the apartheid era.

And Joburg... I hated Jozi for the first while I was here, but now I've learnt to enjoy the arts and culture, the friendliness of the people, the opportunities and the diversity (of people, places and everything else). I love owning a house here and I ADORE my church. I've been a member of numerous churches before, but this is the first time I've been this passionate about it. On the downside, traffic sucks, the pace and ratrace are insane and there's less to do that doesn't involves spending money.

7. Are you unpacked from the move?

On the whole, yes. Aside from a few boxes that I'm pretending I can't see ;-)

8. Have you ever thought of opening an internet store for your jewelry? Or something like etsy? Just curious.

Yes, but never seriously. I'm a bit scared of it, for some reason. Probably because my jewellery has always been a hobby, so it needs to take the back seat to work and family. I guess I worry that I'd let people down. Or that people wouldn't like my stuff enough to pay for it!

The end.

I promise ;-)

Meme

TSC did not sleep well last night. Which means that I did not sleep at all last night, between his tossing and turning, kicking me, trying to cuddle with me (it's flipping hot here at the moment so spooning is not an option) and generally being a pain in the bum. Plus, I am not feeling well. My stomach does not appreciate the KFC I fed it yesterday at all.

As such, my creativity today is faring as well as the world economy and I cannot think of anything vaguely witty or interesting to post about. So I'll leave you with another random meme I was tagged to do. Like most others, you have to write random facts about yourself and, seeing I have a never-ending store of randomness, I don't mind if I've done it before. So here goes:

RULES:
1. Link to the person that tagged you
That would be Sass

2. Post the rules on your blog
Done

3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself

• My name means palm tree in Hebrew. Go figure.
• I don't do designer labels or brands. I'd rather buy five cheap shirts that I can chuck out when I'm bored with them than one designer item that will cost a fortune and that I'll probably stain the first time I wear it. I'm the ultimate bargain shopper.
• I have a dream of having a room in my house with triple volume ceilings and padded walls with a floor made entirely of a big trampoline. Is that weird? Yup, I'm sure it is. But seriously, how COOL would that be?
• I like health foods. Not all of them, but I prefer seed bread to the white store-bought bread, which doesn't taste like anything. I can't handle full cream milk - it's too rich for me. And I'd take a chicken salad over a burger any day of the week. I guess I was brought up eating relatively healthily and so that's what I'm used to. TSC is the complete opposite and it was honestly one of the biggest areas we struggled with when we started dating.
• I prefer even numbers to odd ones. Unless the odd number is a multiple of five. Those are ok too. My radio volume is always set on an even number or a number ending with five and when I need to do something, for example get up from my desk and print photocopies, I wait until the time on my desktop is on an even number or a five. So not 9.43, but 9.45. Can anyone say OCD?

4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs

No. I respectfully disobey this one. If you want to do this, please go ahead and let me know. But I'm not tagging this time.

5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

As above

6. Let your tagged peops know once your entry is UP.

As above