Shoe Shops.

When I was a kid they used to have x-ray machines in shoe shops. They were big wooden boxes with a slot at the bottom where you inserted your foot and a screen at the top where you could look down into the sickly green glow and watch your toe-bones wiggle about.  At some stage the boffins realised it was unhealthy to have all that radiation washing around- and the machines disappeared. They were fun.

My mother taught me that you don't skimp on shoes. Especially not with children. I used to buy my kids the most expensive shoes that money could buy, even when I couldn't really afford it. Ailz likes to remind me of the time- very early in our courtship- it may even have been our second date- when I took her to Clarkes in Bolton to kit the kids out for the new school year- and we had to wait an hour for their little feet to be measured and fussed over-  and Mike and Joe rolled around on the floor and were loud and annoying. She says she must have been very keen to be with me not to have turned on her heel and walked away.

We were in Wyndsors yesterday. Wyndsors is very cheap. All the windows are papered over with bright green posters announcing just how cheap they are. The shoes are on racks and you help yourself. Ailz's dad bought slippers and Aiz got a pair of sandals that cost her all of £2.00.