Saturday: the joy of stats and of course, the V+ box

I often look at the stats pertaining to this blog and am heartened to see that it's read across the globe.  I am slightly surprised about some aspects though: does Blogger have a translation service because otherwise people not conversant in the Queen's English wouldn't be able to pick up on the subtleties of my humour, but perhaps you're all reading it just for a quick gawp at my pictures anyway?  I am always happy to receive positive feedback though, but negative stuff I just don't really need to hear because I get enough of that at work!  I do enjoy reading the search keywords people type into Google though - both 'foot fetish' and 'Birkenstocks' came up quite a bit.  Fair enough.

Right - shoes - I wore my Doctor Martens red knee length 'Elena' boots to the school fayre yesterday and they received quite a few complements and Father Christmas even wanted to borrow them!  You'd think that he'd be rich enough to buy his own, wouldn't you, but I'm guessing that even Lapland is feeling the heat of the global recession?  For all of those who can't remember what the boots look like on, here's a little reminder:

Cool aren't they?  They're a little wide though because I don't think my feet are broad by definition - although I did use the measuring thing in my copy of The Shoe Tailor catalogue - don't judge me! - and I came out as an E fitting although I'm very comfortable in a Clarks D fitting and in my humble opinion I don't think my feet are particularly ungainly.  Talking of such things, I tend to wear the 'normal' width in Birkenstocks as the narrow tends to be reserved for women (or indeed men!) with smaller, daintier and more delicate feet, which isn't me. 

The wonderful shopping channel, QVC - available via a cable channel near you, mine is provided by the mighty Virgin Media - produces a short series of Birkenstock shows in the spring and early summer which are always worth a watch or can even be recorded on your V+ or other PVR device if you so desire.  The format of the show features Nicki, an employee of Birkenstock for many years, showcases a series of styles, some of which have been uniquely manufactured for QVC and discusses them in great detail with one of the channel's resident presenters.  It's well worth a watch and especially for all of you foot fans out there because they only seem to stock women's styles and the models, as you'd expect, have rather lovely feet.  The conversation between Nicki and the other presenter is often banal in the extreme but you do pick up a great deal of important information about the brand and indeed the styles in question - such as the fact that the 'Gizeh' style's toe post is egg timer shaped instead of straight because it doesn't irritate the feet and the sole of a Birkie has bone shaped ridges for stablility.  I could go on for hours about one of my favourite subjects, but I won't.

Finally, here's a strange snippet from the Duchess's past - whilst on a bus travelling though the Old Street area in London the other day it reminded me of an incident which occurred back in September 2010.  A colleague of mine took me to see a pub/strip club for some inexplicable reason and I recall that I was wearing a Boden summer skirt and a pair of Birkenstock coffee coloured Mayari sandals.  I wouldn't recommend to any readers that it's either a particularly good place to go with a colleague and indeed that's not really the dress code, but hey ho.