New chic shoes

I have a quiet fetish for shoes, or rather for loafers, casual shoes which don't have laces. I've mentioned this a few times in the past, notably buying shoes in Florence and in Sorrento. I see that I've even created a 'shoes' tag for this blog. I also bought a pair of leather lace-up shoes during our first visit to Florence in 2002 (?).

Over the past few months, I've seen many adverts for 'New Chic' shoes popping up whilst browsing the Internet; of course, none appeared today. At one stage, I decided to give in to temptation and so ordered the 'Men Large Size Old Beijing Style Casual Cloth Shoes', which are very much the sort of shoe that I like. These are remarkably cheap, so I ordered two pairs: one in brown and one in blue. As my shoe size varies between 42 and 43, I decided to play safe and ordered them in size 43. They arrived quite quickly; I started wearing the blue pair the day that they arrived and had no adaptation pain, which can happen with new shoes or sandals. My wife was very appreciative of their appearance.

After a while, I realised that the inner soles of the shoes were exceedingly thin, which made walking distances (over a kilometer) not a good idea. My wife suggested buying inner soles in a shoe shop, but then I had a better idea, which I implemented today. I have a pair of fake leather crocs, also size 43, which my wife doesn't like; I took the thick, rubber, inner soles from those shoes and inserted them into the Beijing shoes. Fortunately they fit like a glove, and I've just come back from my first walk with them. It will take a few days to get used to the new feeling - if the shoes were slightly too large before, now they are a perfect fit - but I'm sure that I have improved the shoes.Now it feels like walking on air.