Retail report and a meme.

[sister_luck]

The Easter break has arrived.

I celebrated this yesterday by finally choosing and collecting my birthday present which meant a drive along the backroads - the motorways being clogged with holidaymakers - to one of Germany's ugliest cities where my stepmom works in a sports gear store in one of the first shopping malls to be built around here. She had promised me new hiking boots, and I settled on a really comfy pair after trying on several others - which gave me blisters on my fingers from the rather abrasive nylon shoelaces. Stepmom was weirdly nervous and introduced me and the boyfriend to her co-workers and her boss.

I also bought two blouses for school - both are horizontally striped but in different colours with a white base and both apparently make me look taller which is a good thing. I was also looking for skirts and some music, but couldn't find what I wanted that was reasonably priced.

The historian in me finds the Wikipedia birthday meme fascinating, so I have to have a go. You already know the drill, so I won't bore you with how to do it.

March 4

Three events

• 1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.

He's the one who according to legend is asleep with his knights in a cave in Kyffhäuser mountain in Thuringia, Germany, and that when ravens should cease to fly around the mountain he would awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness. According to the story his red beard has grown through the table at which he sits. Note that we seem to have stolen this legend from the Celts.


• 1950 - U.S. Premiere of Walt Disney's animated film Cinderella.

The first film I saw at the cinema - though this was in the late 70s.


• 1991 - Most primitive form of World Wide Web is put online.

And where would we be without it?

Two births

• 1948 - James Ellroy, American writer


• 1961 - Sabine Everts, deutsche Leichtathletin und Olympiamedaillengewinnerin

She won the bronze medal in the heptathlon in the 1984 Olympics in L.A. and I included her because she attended one of the schools where I was a pupil.

One death

• 2005 - Nicola Calipari, Italian secret service agent

Comments

[chrissie-linnit.livejournal.com]

Spouse and I are terrible when it comes to walking boots. He has to have a new pair at least once a year, and when we go out he takes forever to decide - yet always chooses the same make boot (and unless I run downstairs to the boot cupboard to look, the make will have to remain unknown).

I walk far less than him, and I've had the same pair of Salomon ladies hiking boots for four years now... I live in dread of them falling to pieces because they are soooo comfy. Wearing new boots in is HELL!

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

My new boots are Lowa - the selection wasn't that big as they have still got all the ski stuff on display, but I'm very happy with them. Wore them to groceries shopping yesterday. Not that appropriate, but just wanted to break them in (though they won't need much breaking in).
My old boots are falling apart - I got them when I was 16!!! Which means - what a scary thought! - I've had them half my life! They're leather ones and while the leather is still fine, the soles are useless now. They've been to NZ with me and up a few mountains, but didn't get much heavy use in the last couple of years.

[candlelightfrot.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I once wore out a good vibram sole on a new pair of leather Red Wing boots - that I had just broke in after an easy month of city/country wear - in just one month! I was out in SW Montana doing geologic mapping in the mountains and most of the terrain was over hard limestone and dolomitized limestone. That rock really wore down the soles.

I had to go buy a new pair before I was through out there, luckily the new pair didn't wear on me. And thankfully I had an uncle who was a cobbler! One good thing about Red Wings the uppers wear for ages, and you can always retread the outer sole.

But I've coveted some Lowa boots/shoes (low ones) for years now, but the price and the width question. Like many makers of boots they don't have a varied width (at least what I have seen in the US); and my feet are extra-wide! I usually have to settle for the American brand, Red Wing, which isn't bad they have wide widths; but they don't even look half as comfy as Lowas. At least I found a good trainer from New Balance in 6E!

Where did you see Cinderella?

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Ooops, looks like I didn't finish that sentence.
I meant to write "in the late 70s" or something like that. - Will edit that in a bit.
I saw Cinderella at a cinema in my hometown and it being my first visit (I must have been 4 or 5) I don't remember much of it, just the huge flight of stairs in the palace. I believe that my other memories from the film are from later encounters. The whole idea of sitting in a huge room in total darkness with a bunch of other people and the huge colour screen fascinated me. We only had a tiny black-and-white tv at home, so that was a revelation for me. I loved the seats and the whole plushy interior.

Those European boots are expensive over here, but not quite as expensive as overseas. When my hostdad from NZ was here, a pair of Meindl boots was his most-loved souvenir - and we even got them in the sale. I think he spent about a third of what he would have spent downunder.