We were tired from being out fairly late on Sunday night. However, I had noticed that one of my walking shoes had worn through on the sole. When I checked at home the sole on the other one was split as well. No wonder I was getting damp feet!

I have another pair of fairly solid shoes, but they are Mary Jane style with open top, not good for wet days.

We went to one outdoor shop where they were having a Black Friday sale. The staff didn’t seem very interested, but I found a padded long jacket for about half price, so we bought that. They did not appear to have waterproof shoes and I was a bit worried about the boots coming up to my ankles as I could have problems when walking with them (based on past experience).

We tried another shop where staff were immediately more knowledgable. I was able to get gore-tex shoes with good tread on the sole and because they are made of material (not hard leather), I am hoping that they will make good walking shoes. Stephen said ‘what about when you go to the opera’, but I don’t think I really care. The shoes are sneakers really, but will people look at my feet?

Anyway, I could always take the Mary Jane shoes in a bag to the theatre if it worries me. I have been worried when out walking in my other shoes that didn’t have any tread left on them.

Because Stephen is usually the subject of my photos I asked him to model the coat and shoes for me for posting here.

We had a call from Stephen’s cousin Ron to say that he was feeling better and would we still like to go for a visit. We worked out that we can go next week for a couple of nights, and that has been arranged. We will go on Monday and return here on Wednesday. That will give us three days to prepare for our coach trip to Prague. We have contacted George (our exchangee) because we still don’t have the address of our next home exchange. We know it is in the town on Brandys Nad Labem somewhere. All has been arranged for Lesley to meet them at our house in Perth to give them keys, etc.