Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 12: Calmly through the day (

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

I have muck boots from The Original Muck Boot Company. I luvs them with all my heart. Thick neoprene lining, toasty warm, waterproof and like walking on air.

I love my Muck Boots too but I do still have boot envy. Every so often I peruse the Dubarry website and sigh.

The Dublins were on Decathlon for £109 plus about £7 postage. Birthday present from DH @Spudlet?
DH bought me my first pair for Christmas 2014 on a recommendation from a friend when I said that I was fed up of soggy feet in winter, and I never looked back. I now wax lyrical to anyone who complains about cold and wet feet about the importance of decent winter boots. I'm sure I'm very boring. They've been to Reykjavik with me in -20C temperatures. With natural fibre socks (I have some Icelandic sheep wool ones), they are impenetrable.

It sounds like a very successful appointment @MissConductUS, I'm pleased to hear that you are feeling more positive.

Loving the boot porn

DH has discovered my Radio Garden app. He's spent the last 40 minutes zooming round the world, but he's now settled on a Finnish radio station which is as incomprehensible as it is jolly

Here's the LL Bean duck boot, lined in shearling.

Women’s Bean Boots, 8" Shearling-Lined

I love the leather loop at the top to help you pull the boot up onto your feet. I only wear a very thin sock with these.

It is still Cold Comfort Farm here. DH said our current situation has taken him right back to childhood and visiting his frugal elderly aunt’s house, where only one room was heated and every other room was freezing. DS1 had one of the borrowed heaters in his room today and had a better day. He’s all bandy and leggy with no fat on him, so feels the cold. DS2 says he can’t tell the difference from when the heating is on, though I noticed he was in joggers today rather than his usual shorts. Sodding is on my lap again. 👍

@soddingkitten, one more day closer to heat. Mt DS1 is like your DS2. Hr had worn shorts throughout the winter. Gets it from DH who is part radiator. DS2 is of the bandy, leggy breed and likes to wrap up warm.

They're lovely @MissConductUS!

Oooh, @Champagneforeveryone, I like the sound of that app. I've been looking for a way to play French radio as a way to further immerse myself (even though I know it'll be incomprehensible to me). We had a brilliant radio station on in France a few years ago where they clearly didn't worry about cursing in another language. One of their regular taglines was in English and declared that it was 'fucking great music'. It made us laugh every time.

I will have new boots when my foot is healed.
The one pair I can wear without too much pain is falling to pieces after 15 years. They have been repaired often.

Eggy those boots look brilliant. I had some money for Christmas which I was hoping to spend on new boots in the January sales. Still waiting. Have lived in my walking boots since the start of the year as they're the only ones that don't leak.

I’ve watched 2.5hrs of a senate select committee hearing and they’re still going. It is very dull.

No further leaks from washing machine.
Work has been busy, covering sickness.
End of second year MSc advances apace.
I was doing well with SSIW (Say something in Welsh) but have let it slip (see above!).
Walking shoes have featured strongly in the last year......

Ooh I’ve got those boots. Mine need replacing though because there’s a hole in one of them. I’m refusing to do it before next winter though. I’m not sure why, because it’s not like I’m going to grow out of them over the summer.

@Squirrel26

Ooh I’ve got those boots. Mine need replacing though because there’s a hole in one of them. I’m refusing to do it before next winter though. I’m not sure why, because it’s not like I’m going to grow out of them over the summer.

Ha! Definitely get them replaced.

My birthday is in August and when I spotted the hole, I told DH that I was going to make them last until then and put them on my birthday list (which is just the list I give him). He rolled his eyes and bought these an hour later. Said that they'd proved themselves to be decent boots so he didn't mind replacing them.

I have some calf high versions that I found on the clearance shelf at Countrywide when we were buying chicken food about four years ago, so I was just going to wear those more often. The tall ones are my favourite in the depths of winter though.

@sproutsandparsnips, fab to hear you're learning Welsh. I tried many years ago (being Welsh born and bred) but I couldn't make anything stuck other than 'please', 'thank you' and 'two pints of beer please'. I can recognise se words and know how to pronounce f/ff, but that's it.
What prompted you to learn?
Keep going on the MSc. What are you studying?

I have been thoroughly enjoying my chosen French radio station and have been having a disco-for-one whilst I do assignment stuff.

Something of a shock to realise that (all being well) DS will have his first driving lesson 9 weeks today.

Considering the past year has been the longest in history, that seems to have come round extremely fast

In more boot news, in case anyone is in the mood to be nice to their feet, some people called Equine Superstore have sent me an email to tell me they’re closing down their website to open a physical shop (I know nothing about opening shops, but, um, brave choice??) and are having a sale - they’ve got quite big reductions on country boots but the stock and sizes are pretty limited and none of them fit me!

(Disclaimer, I don’t remember ever buying from them, but I must have signed up for emails somewhere- I suppose if I don’t remember the service can’t have been terrible!)

They're lovely @MissConductUS!

Functional certainly, but perhaps not really lovely.

Interestingly, in 2014 they became the hot, must-have fashion boot, primarily among the urban toffs (note the skillful use of the Britishism) who have no need whatsoever for a boot like this. LL Bean makes all of the footwear they sell in their own factory in Maine. They were backorder for months. Even the Japanese went crazy for them, but only in odd colors.

New Popularity Of L.L. Bean Boots Sparks Scramble To Fill Orders

EggyPegg I live in Wales and work with a lot of Welsh speakers so plenty of opportunity to practise!
MSc is in Advanced Clinical Practice.
Everyone's boots look lovely, stylish yet practical. I have walking shoes from Lidl (quite good actually but in no way stylish).

I like them @MissConductUS! Even urban toffs need decent waterproof boots. I spent many years living with soggy feet in London because I didn't buy any.

@sproutsandparsnips, I was born and bred in South Wales so never an opportunity to practice there. Apparently there was talk of sending me to the local Welsh primary school, but I went to the English speaking one instead.

As promised, the photos of new boots with old boots (who are so tired, they no longer stand up)

Those are clearly some hardworking boots that have earned a retirement @Squirrel26 I looked at that store but all the boots I liked were size 4s only - I’d be lucky to squeeze my big toe into one of those

DS is watching Toy Story (for the 45th time this week, it feels). It’s been 26 years but I still want to go to Pizza Planet...

The snow is melting, and we now have vast slush puddles. I have a pair of fake Docs made of pleather for walking conditions like this. I refuse to wear duckboots (sorry, LL Bean).

Bootwatching has been quite interesting here during our 40 days below freezing. There are some very fancy boots out there.

I tried to get a dental appointment for my afternoon off, but they are booked solid.

No offence meant to you wrt duckboots, @MissConductUS*.

I had a pair in the early 90s before they were a Thing, and had to send them back as they irritated my achilles on long walks. LL Bean's customer service is excellent. I got a pair of 'snow sneakers' instead.

It’s annoying, isn’t it @Spudlet. My feet are size 5.5, which apparently is the average foot size for women in this country. No cut-price shoes or boots in the sales for Squirrel.

Mind you, if I did have size 12 or size 1 feet I’d look a bit out of proportion...

I am happy to inform you all that I now have my own team of high viz men to watch and observe in their natural habitat.
The are standing in a SD huddle earnestly discussing water pipes.

@mathanxiety

No offence meant to you wrt duckboots, @MissConductUS*.

I had a pair in the early 90s before they were a Thing, and had to send them back as they irritated my achilles on long walks. LL Bean's customer service is excellent. I got a pair of 'snow sneakers' instead.

No offense taken @mathanxiety, I assure you.

I don't actually wear them much since the men do the snow removal. I often keep them in my car if I have to go out when there's a lot of snow on the ground.

What's interesting is that LL Bean no longer refers to them as duck boots, but Lands End calls their exact knockoff boot a duck boot. And you are right, LL Bean's customer service is legendary. Lands End is really good too.

We had temps in the 40's here yesterday (about 6 degrees C) and will get more of the same today, so the snow mountains at the end of our driveway are starting to shrink a bit. There' also no snow in the forecast for the next week or more, so I'm quite thankful for that.

In other news, I woke up with my hip noticeably less painful than it was yesterday, so it seems that the hot good doctor's cortisone jab has done some good.

Excellent news on your personal flock of high viz clad men prok

DH cannot find his NI no. He is acting as if he has never heard of such an outlandish thing (which come to think of it, he probably hasn't) and is handing me shotgun certificates and passports with an increasingly bewildered look on his face