New shoes!
Yes! I’ve gone all out to put together a set of decent kit for my holiday. Xiaoxiao and I took the train to Leeds yesterday where I bought a pair of Merrell Stormrider GTX with some new fangled version of Gore-Tex. I’ve never been a person for spending lots of money on branded clothing or shoes but I’m fairly impressed with these.
Granted, they’re not the best looking shoe in the world (although mine do look slightly better in a khaki/grey sort of colour). The “model down” looked pretty smart and the one below that was pretty much perfect. The problem with the cheapest was that it had no “waterproofing”/Gore-Tex, which meant my feet would probably sweat a lot and they might get a little wet in heavy rain. The other pair were great as they had Gore-Tex but they were uncomfy as hell. I spent ages deciding between the two until I finally decided to try the most expensive pair on—a great fit, comfy and with the Gore-Tex.
I’ve already got a great big (I mean really massive) rucksack sorted so I’m pretty much set. I’m still missing a few odd bits and pieces: I have no smaller rucksack to carry around but I’m going to borrow Xiaoxiao’s (with hindsight I should have bought one of those rucksacks that have a smaller rucksack that zips onto the back); still no camera, but I’ve now decided to buy this in person in Shanghai—with any luck I’ll have it all bought and sorted the day I arrive (since I arrive early on a Monday morning, Shanghai time); I still have a few bills left to pay and I need to extend my travel insurance (and maybe give the nurse a ring about my Malarone tablets for malaria). My passport (with visa) and flight itinerary are sat in a nice safe place (right by the front door so anybody can steal them) and somewhere I have a train ticket down to London for Saturday afternoon.
I’m staying over in London with a friend on Saturday night, which will give me plenty of time to get to the right terminal at Heathrow for my Virgin flight at around 3pm on Sunday.
Otherwise I’ve not been up to much. I’ve been sorting a PC and a laptop out for somebody, as well as shifting a few pantiles about next door. Tomorrow I think we’ll be doing a little more work next door—we have to finish off the floor I talked about previously.
Well, time to go find something else to fill my copious amounts of free time. I guess I could finish tidying up the mess I made when I dropped all of my bags in the front hall…
Update! I almost forgot to mention that I really have finally imported the galleries from China, as well as the Kyoto Temple galleries. “By my caculations”... that’s the last of them. About time too!
June 15th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
personally, i think the black one looks better than the one you bought. because at least it’s easier to go with other colours. anyway, as long as it’s comfortable to wear it doesn’t matter:>