Nangle Natters: New shoe diary

Do you remember when you were so excited about having new shoes you wore them straight out of the shop, with the old battered trainers you’d walked up in, rattling about in a brand new shoe box? When did that stop happening? Or maybe it’s just me. These days the only articles I wear straight out from the shop I bought them in is a jumper or shorts – having been driven to the purchase by the intemperate weather. I’ve gone straight into the sea five minutes after purchasing board shorts on the seafront, and I loved them just as much as any flash boots I had to shoe-horn my feet into in bygone times.
It seems to me that glee at a new treat has been replaced by the ability to do exactly what I want to – when I want to do it. Plus, and I hate to say this, but years of needing stuff has left me a bit bored with the act of shopping.
I have new shoes now, because I was feeling the cobbles through the soles of my old ones. And I do really like my new shoes. But that bliss, that giddy spinny feeling of a new acquisition – that’s not here anymore. I get that from the sea.