Autumn leaves - more pointy shoes

Sometime round about 2004 my original pointy-toed brown shoes were starting to wear out.
But then I found these in an expensive little shop in Wellington Arcade, Hobart. They were half price or I probably would  not have felt happy about buying them.

If you look carefully you can see that they're covered with a wonderful autumn leaf pattern, just like the real autumn leaves from 100+ year old grape vine lying underneath them.

But to see that you'd have to get your nose really close to my feet, and I would not advise that.

Black, flat and exciting

In May 2004 I spent an almost perfect week in Melbourne. It was the longest I'd been away from my boys since becoming a mother eight years earlier and the knack of being alone with no responsibilities came back surprisingly quickly.

I stayed in a wonderful hotel and got to sleep all night. I went to an inspiring conference during the day, and in the evening I swam in the hotel's stunning Infinity Pool, went to a show with my half-sister, saw another show by myself and revelled in walking along the South Bank late at night in mild weather with life going on all around me.

It was during the conference that my two colleagues introduced me to the Lunchtime Shoe-Dash. The catering for the conference was substantial and if one was honest, it wasn't strictly necessary to eat morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea (I certainly didn't bother with dinner once the sessions finished).

My colleagues turned out to be seasoned shoe-shoppers and felt we could skip lunch, pop into Peter Sheppard's shoe shop in the city and be back in time for the afternoon session. So we booked a taxi which was waiting for us as soon as the morning session finished and hit the town. I didn't buy anything but it was a lot of fun.

But at the end of the conference I had a couple of hours to myself and did some very productive shopping. I bought these shoes in Flinders Lane, and they are flat, comfortable and completely irreplaceable. The soles have been replaced, the inner soles have scrunched up under my toes, and the laces have broken but despite several abortive attempts I haven't been able to find anything else that combines comfort and flair.

By the time I came home of course I was missing my boys terribly. I took one look at my younger son and asked "How long has he had those spots?". Turned out he'd developed chicken pox at some stage during my absence, but no one had noticed.

So not the perfect week, but pretty close.

Green pointy shoes

In September 2003 we did the obligatory family holiday to the Gold Coast and Theme Parks thing. The younger son, at four years old, wasn't tall enough for most of the rides which meant I didn't have to go on anything really scary.

We had a lovely apartment with a stunning view and spent a lot of time swimming when we weren't whizzing down giant roller coasters.

Towards the end of the week I negotiated myself a couple of hours of shopping time at nearby Pacific Fair.

I saw these wonderfully pointed shoes in almost the first shop I went into, but checked out everything else before returning and making the purchase. They had purple ones as well, and I thought for a while I should have bought those too (even though I'm not really a purple person) because the green ones were so successful.

Sadly I can't wear them any more but I'm keeping them as my last reminder of high heels and don't-mess-with-me toes.

The Red Shoes

In May 2003, I took my seven year old son to Melbourne for the weekend.

We had a little apartment in Flinders Lane and I wanted to show him all the things that make Melbourne special - trams, underground trains, Luna Park, shopping.

I soon discovered that he had a much greater tolerance for queueing for rides at Luna Park (several hours) than he did for shopping (10 minutes).

Nevertheless, I managed to grab these shoes from further down Flinders Lane. This little lane way has proved to be a rich source of exciting and affordable shoes ever since.

The best thing about these shoes is that they are red. As a former redhead, I wasn't really introduced to this colour until the last decade or so when my hair had started to fade.
So I still feel quite bold when I'm wearing red.

And the shoes have little criss-crossy things going on at the front. What fun.
And fur!  These shoes are not only aesthetically satisfying, they're fun to touch!
And they've got rugby studs underneath, because you just never know when you might be tripping merrily along in your best red shoes and suddenly have to negotiate a football field.

But that would be bad for the fur. Did I mention the fur?

Yes, these shoes are the full package. They're the sort of shoes that complete strangers stop to admire and sure, they may be a little scuffed now, but when I wear them with my red jacket, I am so ready to kick butt.

Twinkle toes

In 2002 I discovered that shoes could be exciting.

My sister and I shouted our mother a weekend in Melbourne so that we could see Man of La Mancha starring Anthony Warlow together.

It was our first Mother-Daughters weekend since we'd left home following university. We left our kids at home with their dads. My boys were 6 and 3, my sister's, in Sydney, a few years older.We had a lovely apartment near the gardens and  thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, agreeing we must do it again soon. Sadly, we haven't.


I bought these shoes in Myer and they seemed really radical, because of the wonderfully pointy toes. They were certainly the first shoes I bought that people stopped to comment on.

In 2002, brown was the new black, and surprisingly stayed popular for several years.

I don't wear them so much now that black is back.