Preparing for Winter V

Wednesday2000

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I missed a step, trotting briskly as usual down the stairs of our flats in February, sat down very heavily (I am very heavy...) and then sat down increasingly heavily on half a dozen descending stairs... I skinned my elbow through multiple layers of clothing, and I have never in my life been bruised like that - what my Gran called a "sit-upon" was jet-black for several weeks, quite alarming, as well as the general feeling of having gone over Niagara in a barrel. I think I was very fortunate not to need medical treatment and it's made me very much more careful.

Definitely watch your step, especially in crocs, slip-on slippers or suchlike (I was wearing slip-on sandals over socks, just to nip out to the car, and one flew off my foot as I stepped downwards, causing the slip). 

I fell down the stairs a couple of months ago. My slippers slid on the top step and I slid all the way to the bottom. I was really badly bruised. I threw away the offending slippers and bought some with grips. I think I was lucky too. I was here on my own as well as my husband was at work.

Primrose

I,ve given up using slippers for this reason. As you get older youbecome more vulnerable. I,ve taken to wearing Pavers slip-on zip up lightweight trainers.  They fit firmly round the heel and ankle, no risk of slipping off and are wonderfully comfortable. Wish I'd discovered them ages ago. Have actually bought a second identical pair to ensure continuity of supply!   Thoroughly  recommend them If you think wearing slippers with stairs might be risky as they fit securely on your feet without danger of slipping off at the back of the heel. 

cornishchick

Laura_Elsewhere said......

I agree about the sparkly threads being increasingly trendy and very scratchy. And of course the fabric is weaker as well... I have one pair of very expensive Proper Pyjamas that were 50 or 60 quid ten years ago, lasting beautifully, as well as a pair of 1950s official British Army stripey ones, but the modern ones are really "throwaway fashion", as are slipper-socks. So I am avoiding buying any new ones, as I don't wear them often anyway. 

A good example of Vimes boot theory of economics.... 

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms:

Laura_Elsewhere

@cornishchick absolutely yes! I love the Vimes Theory, completely true... 

I am preparing my elderly parents for winter - I've knitted them each a pair of ankle-warmers to help them feel the draughts less in their big old rattly house! Posting next week so they can start wearing them long before Xmas... 

Dad's (whcih will fit his slim legs better!) are the leg part of a classic gent's stocking, minus the turnover top and the foot, shaped to fit the leg; Mum's are alternating 5-round bands of k2p2 rib and simple purl, the latter then bulging out between the rib bands to give a lovely textured opulence! 

Greenglockenspiel

It was trendy to have metallic thread in clothing when I was a child in the 90s as well, I remember having some very itchy party clothes! 

Re slippers, I have some boot-style slippers which are very cosy and also not liable to slip off and cause injury <knocks wood>... I am a klutz who fell up an escalator on the way to work last winter and skinned my knee, which embarrassingly had to be entered into the health and safety book when I got there. Cold feet (and by extension dolly shoes!) make falls more likely!

MrsCD

I also wear lightweight lace up shoes in the house as I have a dread of falling on the stairs. I did the stair bump a few years ago and made up my mind to wear something that wouldn't slip off! 

3secondmemory

Primrose said:

I,ve given up using slippers for this reason. As you get older youbecome more vulnerable. I,ve taken to wearing Pavers slip-on zip up lightweight trainers.  They fit firmly round the heel and ankle, no risk of slipping off and are wonderfully comfortable. Wish I'd discovered them ages ago. Have actually bought a second identical pair to ensure continuity of supply!   Thoroughly  recommend them If you think wearing slippers with stairs might be risky as they fit securely on your feet without danger of slipping off at the back of the heel. 

I went and looked on the pavers website – I don’t like wearing slippers all day even if I’m in the house so a pair of indoor trainers would be handy

annieb64

MIL bought me a pair of pjs with a metallic thread in. I only wore them once.
I wear sheepskin slippers in the winter. The ones with a proper sole.In the summer I wear canvas slip on shoes in the house. I hate fluffy slippers and can't  cope with mules.

Eenymeeny

Thanks everyone, you've reminded me that when I first started working from home I used to wear shoes as I felt more business-like. I'm sure that you move more quickly and safely in shoes/trainers. I've got into wearing slippers while being at home all day and feel that I'm shuffling rather than walking these days. Time to have a root through the shoe cupboard... I must admit to shuffling around the garden in slippers often too....

Laura_Elsewhere

It's one of those funny things - both my Intended and I grew up wearing shoes in our very different middle-class households - I mean, you wiped your feet well when you came in, and if shoes were visibly muddy you took them off or got told off (!), but slippers were for wearing with night-clothes. I've only stopped wearing shoes since moving into a flat, but I do often wear old plimsoles around the house over thin socks, as they are near-silent (well, as silent as a heffalump like me is!) but for winter I do like thick fulled socks. 

Edit: forgot to finish saying about its being one of those funny things - almost everyone now seems to react with horror to the concept of wearing shoes in the home, and they all insist that everyone has ALWAYS not worn shoes in the home. Which is weird because My Intended and I, and our families, can't remember any of our friends of extended families ever taking shoes off on entering the home with the sole (ho ho) exception of a couple of Scandinavian families and Muslim families I was friendly with at school. 
But somehow, it's all got re-written so that taking your shoes off on entering your - or anyone else's! - home has somehow now been something "everyone" has "always" done... despite quite a lot of clear memories of its not being!