New Shoes and Design Book

Yesterday in Kingston (London version) enjoyed a visit it's very good destination for shopping and I managed to get a pair of shoes from Clarks that I hope will see me through the Winter months.

Like an iPhone cowboy

Kingston is good for seeing street entertainers and the guy shown had a nice line in Country Pop (covering the super song Rhinestone Cowboy for example) - what though drew my attention to him was that the audio material (perhaps not surprisingly) came from his mobile phone to the amp.

As I get older I become increasingly irritated by people beyond their early years who insist on wearing trainers  for all occasions (and sometimes jogging trousers/trackie bottoms) - hope the shoes I have are sufficiently tasteful to avoid also the danger of being described as 'old man' shoes (no Velcro here).

Unlikely to suffer scuffing
(but they're not really blue)

I well recall that my mother used to take me along at start of term for new brown lace-ups at Clarks  - generally used to get scuffed quite quickly from football at break times though- good old trend surfing Clark's still have a UK high street shoe shop presence unlike many of their competitors (say  the fascinating Bata for example).
The assistants in the shop were surprisingly pleasant and helpful but I do think I might have detected a touch of  'that wasn't so bad was it sir?' in their attitude but maybe that was what was 'age appropriate'?

Amazon vs Book Depository

Curious why after more than one attempt to get hold of the useful  (Judith) Miller's 20th Century Design book Amazon have let me down (still shows on search of title) but I find that I (hopefully) can obtain the book from the Amazon acquired Book Depository - generally do not find this a good sign for customers of a large company - particularly as (presumably) Amazon should be  able to arrange some sort of transfer making life easier for their customers