NEW BOOTS.

 I had a grand Christmas. In exchange for a bit of animal feeding and veg peeling/turkey carving I got a wonderful meal and a new pair of boots. These are the second pair of Muck Boots I've had and they are good. I used to buy Hogg's wellies but they got a bit narrow and hard to remove. I did have a pair of Dubarry leather ones from Ireland but they got to be really stupid money, over three hundred pounds last time I looked and the soles wore out very fast. You did get two for that and you could send them back for a re-sole but Timpsons couldn't do the job, they are the king and queen of wellies. Five years ago I switched to Muck wellingtons and have enjoyed wearing them. They have leaked for the last two years but as long as I didn't walk in deep things I was fine. Some of the holes were due to a design fault and some were down to welding and angle grinding. I won't do welding in the new ones as they cost a fortune and obviously aren't designed to cope with the rigours of the welder and cutting torch. 

The lass at the feed shop explained all this in terms even I could understand when I tried to swap them for a new pair last summer. She had the spiel off pat so I guess I was far from the first to try. I did try, really tried, told her that I always pulled my jeans or overalls outside my wellies when doing hot things as I'd once had a blob of molten metal fall inside a wellie and It's not something one forgets. Cheeky Sarah told me we all forget things and it gets much worse at your age. She wouldn't let me try on a new pair as I'd stopped off with a wet foot and she said it stank of cow shit. Mistaken she was it smelled mildly of pigs.

You can see the big hole in the wetsuit material and it's not caused by sparks. Some of the others are but the big hole is clearly faulty design. Normal folk round here live in wellies, they might risk a wander out without on the four fine days a year or if attending a wedding or funeral but even then one is risking having wet feet. The soles have worn well except for the heel and Sarah put that down to my walking stupid. Bloody Scots; pound to a penny had I been a black lesbian vegan in a burka I'd have got a new pair free. 

These are the new ones, notice that despite their denying a fault in the conception of the boot they have extended the rubber bit upwards.

They have also popped bigger grippy bits on the heel. I bet folk were slip sliding all over the place in the old design causing unnecessary work for our NHS. Probably down to Matt Handoncock sending them a letter to protect our NHS by popping bigger cleats on the heel so either way not down to me walking funny at all.

Have a good week. Looks like we are leaving the EU Ponzi scheme but it will take a year or two to tell whether we have been shafted. Looks good so far and I never believed it would happen.