Thursday, 26 July 2012 13:53
All about the shoes!
PSYCHOLOGISTS CLAIM that women feel ‘richer’ and ‘more intelligent’ in high heels. And women in the UK, particularly in the North of England, now wear the highest heels in Europe following the trend set by heel-maniac celebrities such as Victoria Beckham. The average heel worn by British women is 3.3 inches, closely followed by Spanish ladies wearing an average of 3.2 inches. Yet in France, where women are on average shorter than either the Brits or the Spanish, the heel height is a sensible 2.4 inches. British women are revealed to now be among the shortest in Europe, with the average 18- to 29-year-old measuring in at 5ft 4ins (163cm) – Spanish women top that by just one centimetre.
Published in
This Week
Tuesday, 12 June 2012 16:25
“No more shop stores anymore...”
SO THERE we were watching England play France in the Euro 2012. What else is there to do on a miserable Monday in the Midlands? As the clouds poured torrents on Tamworth a small group of us work mates plus Mark from Mercia Newsagents (see previous editions) gathered, somewhat pessimistically, to watch the spectacle. Luckily, the outcome was okay.
During the course of the match the conversation made many turns - as they are want to in a situation with a bunch of chair-bound, slightly merry ‘football experts’ and lay-philosophers. During one of these turns we somehow got onto the state of the nation’s high streets. Now Mark, who owns a high street shop, has much to say on the subject. His bette noir are the ‘outta-town retail parks’ that siphon his potential customers away.
It started when one of our group remarked on the quality of the pub’s TV picture. “Yeah,” said Russ, who is a no-nonsense Brummie, “it’s great. Better than the old days when you had to keep reaching round the back to adjust the vertical hold.”
“What’s vertical hold?” asked Smudger (No, of course his name isn’t Smudger but you have to protect the innocent and ignorant) as he scratched his huge mop of ginger hair. Oops, that might give it away!
“It doesn’t matter,” said Mark, “you’re too young to remember. It’s long before HD.”
“The future,” announced Smudger, “is 3D. Did you know that Mick Montgomery’s got one? He said it’s like being there.”
Glancing at the screen Russ said, “I wish I was there...”
“Why,” asked Smudger going into dullard mode, “would you wanna be at Monty’s?”
“Not at Monty’s, you t**t,” groaned Russ, “there, there - at the ground.”
“Uh huh,” he muttered and wandered off to buy another drink.
“I’d like to adjust his vertical hold,” laughed Russ.
“He is like my brother used to be,” grinned Mark, “but if he made stupid remarks we’d send him out the pub to watch the match through the DER showroom window...”
“Blimey,” quipped Russ, “that’s going back a bit. I haven’t seen a DER store in years.”
Now, for those not-in-the-know DER were shops that existed (back in the mists of time) primarily to rent television sets to its customers. The shop window would present potential ‘rentees’ with a vast wall of TV sets piled on top of each other and all tuned to the same station.
I ventured, “I think they disappeared from our streets even before Timothy Whites did...”
“Flippin’ eck, Wattsie, you ancient sod,” chuckled Russ, “Timothy bloody Whites. Whatever happened to them?”
“They went the way of many,” said Mark, “I mean, whatever also happened to C and A?”
“C and A?” quizzed Russ, “didn’t that stand for cheap and awful?” And we were off... Off on a trip down memory high street, lamenting on the loss of our childhood stores, before finally arriving at Woolworths. “Mind you,” said Mark, who now saw an opportunity to get onto his favourite subject, “it’s the bloody fault of places like Ventura Park. Wrecking it for the high street.” He added, “Look at Clinton Cards, they’re now on... the cards!”
There followed a listing of stores deleted from our town centres since the fall of the mighty Woolworth. We came up with: Peacocks, Pumpkin Patch, Game, La Senza, Virgin Megastores, Blacks Leisure and Jane Norman. “And,” said a finger wagging Russ, “not to mention Habitat and Barratts.” Ah, whatever happened to Habitat? I used to enjoy wandering around their stores.
As two of the group were like me, ex, ex-pats from the Costa Blanca I mused, “The sad fact is that many town centres now remind me of the ‘locales’ on the CV70 (on the way up to La Nucia) where, for every shop occupied four or five are empty.” Mark started to sing, paraphrasing The Stranglers, “Now more shop-stores anymore...” At which juncture I feel it is clearly time to take our leave.
Watts in Tamworth, thankful at least for the Co-op!
During the course of the match the conversation made many turns - as they are want to in a situation with a bunch of chair-bound, slightly merry ‘football experts’ and lay-philosophers. During one of these turns we somehow got onto the state of the nation’s high streets. Now Mark, who owns a high street shop, has much to say on the subject. His bette noir are the ‘outta-town retail parks’ that siphon his potential customers away.
It started when one of our group remarked on the quality of the pub’s TV picture. “Yeah,” said Russ, who is a no-nonsense Brummie, “it’s great. Better than the old days when you had to keep reaching round the back to adjust the vertical hold.”
“What’s vertical hold?” asked Smudger (No, of course his name isn’t Smudger but you have to protect the innocent and ignorant) as he scratched his huge mop of ginger hair. Oops, that might give it away!
“It doesn’t matter,” said Mark, “you’re too young to remember. It’s long before HD.”
“The future,” announced Smudger, “is 3D. Did you know that Mick Montgomery’s got one? He said it’s like being there.”
Glancing at the screen Russ said, “I wish I was there...”
“Why,” asked Smudger going into dullard mode, “would you wanna be at Monty’s?”
“Not at Monty’s, you t**t,” groaned Russ, “there, there - at the ground.”
“Uh huh,” he muttered and wandered off to buy another drink.
“I’d like to adjust his vertical hold,” laughed Russ.
“He is like my brother used to be,” grinned Mark, “but if he made stupid remarks we’d send him out the pub to watch the match through the DER showroom window...”
“Blimey,” quipped Russ, “that’s going back a bit. I haven’t seen a DER store in years.”
Now, for those not-in-the-know DER were shops that existed (back in the mists of time) primarily to rent television sets to its customers. The shop window would present potential ‘rentees’ with a vast wall of TV sets piled on top of each other and all tuned to the same station.
I ventured, “I think they disappeared from our streets even before Timothy Whites did...”
“Flippin’ eck, Wattsie, you ancient sod,” chuckled Russ, “Timothy bloody Whites. Whatever happened to them?”
“They went the way of many,” said Mark, “I mean, whatever also happened to C and A?”
“C and A?” quizzed Russ, “didn’t that stand for cheap and awful?” And we were off... Off on a trip down memory high street, lamenting on the loss of our childhood stores, before finally arriving at Woolworths. “Mind you,” said Mark, who now saw an opportunity to get onto his favourite subject, “it’s the bloody fault of places like Ventura Park. Wrecking it for the high street.” He added, “Look at Clinton Cards, they’re now on... the cards!”
There followed a listing of stores deleted from our town centres since the fall of the mighty Woolworth. We came up with: Peacocks, Pumpkin Patch, Game, La Senza, Virgin Megastores, Blacks Leisure and Jane Norman. “And,” said a finger wagging Russ, “not to mention Habitat and Barratts.” Ah, whatever happened to Habitat? I used to enjoy wandering around their stores.
As two of the group were like me, ex, ex-pats from the Costa Blanca I mused, “The sad fact is that many town centres now remind me of the ‘locales’ on the CV70 (on the way up to La Nucia) where, for every shop occupied four or five are empty.” Mark started to sing, paraphrasing The Stranglers, “Now more shop-stores anymore...” At which juncture I feel it is clearly time to take our leave.
Watts in Tamworth, thankful at least for the Co-op!
Published in
Watts In Britain
