Thoughts

Firstly, I would like to say that I am now a changed person due to one happening of Tuesday: I bought my first pair of Converse. Whereas before pumps were my single domain, I can now march forth with prominent feet in the ranks of thousands of other teen-people and young adults who for so long have captured my envy. I have become one of a type of person who is anti-trainer, anti-pikey, anti-asbo and pro-guitar; I'm making a social statement which is recognisable from Converse's birthplace in the USA to its furthest migration in the East (Japan, China? The conquest of Converse is surely embraced by like-minded people in more obscure places than these) and for once don't mind promoting a brand becasue Converse stands for far more than foot-fashion. Converse is about individual expression, as shown by the various designs you can get it in (hi-top, ankle, regular, textured, patterned... blah), but within the context of a global community of All-Star endorsers. With other people who wear the brand there is an immediate familiarity, whether it be in the shared tone of lurking grunginess or simply the evidence of similar taste, and this familiarity is an unifying force, uniting race, creed and culture in a common statement.

Yeah, or something. Might have got carried away there o.O

Anyway the second thing I have to write is that my new Converse have the added bonus of being really practical, mainly due to them having laces and so strappable to my feet. Having lived solely (haha... sole...) in pumps for, like, a year, the feeling of wearing laced shoes was weird yesterday, it was a bit like having clumpy caskets tethered to my feet. I'm back in pumps today because I'm wearing a skirt so would have looked delinquent otherwise, also because it was raining hard this morning and didn't want to get my new Cs dirty on the walk in. Actually ended up getting the bus (for free - wahey) so disaster-aversion planning was unnecessary, but meh, the point is that although I'm enjoying once more to be able to swing my shoes off my toes and flick them over my heels and stuff the advantage of having shoes stuck to my feet for me is undeniable, particularly when it comes to riding my bike. For example, the other week I was riding to work and had got to Beckenham Junction when the lights turned red. According to the highway code, and under fear of squashage and mutilation by cars, I stopped at the lights in the green bike bay at the front of the queue, and waited. I can't do that balancing thing that some cyclists seem to manage so have to remain static with a foot on the road instead of wobbling about madly. Anyway I was poised to push off immediately when the lights turned, with my pedals all at the right angle and brakes off; which they did, and I did. Except not all of me left the bay. The shoe of the foot that had been keeping me upright was left behind and to the mercy of the rainy car tyres following behind me; I had to cycle over to the other side of the cross-roads with one bare foot, which was pretty embarassing, and try to work out what to do! - should I hop over through all the cars and try and get it, or wait until they'd stopped again and suffer the public humiliation of hopping out in front of them to get my mangled shoe? Meanwhile, many pedestrians and (I'm sure) motorists were having a good laugh at my situation. Fortunately a Noble Pedestrian gallantly ran forth and plucked the stranded pump from the road, sprinted accross the crossing and handed it to me. I recieved it with a painful laugh in an attempt to hide my embarrassment. But actually it was quite funny and I ended up having to try and keep myself from laughing too much as I cycled off, fully shoed. After that I've been wary at crossings etc. and have managed to avoid the Cinderella effect but now I have Converse this should no longer be a problem! Having laced Cs also means I don't suffer having my shoes shoot off my feet when I try and push against a wet pedal, which has happened before. So, woo: Converse are practical and funkeh.

xxx