A touch of the old

I am shoe-crazy. My heart beats for anything called boots, ballerinas, sneakers, oxfords, brogues, heels. They give me a joy which I refuse to sacrifice for the well-being of my bank account balance.

Only recently, I gleefully took the lid off a shoe box and in it was a shining new pair of penny loafers. Sleek leather with a smart look. When was the last time I wore penny loafers? Possibly at least 20 years ago! This old trend is now new again. I love their androgynous aesthetics and wish I could wear the shoes right away (thinking, wrongly again, they would make me look more preppy than Alexa Chung). And did I tell you the shoes were on sale?!

I was eager to show them off to the world. But to my gut-wrenching dismay, I learned that as my feet slipped into the shoes, the particularly stiff leather would give me blisters. Very bad blisters. I wasn't going to return them however. No way. I scoured the net for clever advices on breaking in classic loafers the painless way and found one: wear the shoes with socks at home until the leather softens. Your feet gets the royal treatment without any blistering notes. Perfect!

That's what I have been secretly up to in the mornings while I prepare my breakfast, cook and go about my daily chores. The leather is indeed softer now but it's not yet an everyday flat and certainly not ready to meet my bare feet just yet.

Even so, I am patient.

That same day I received the shoes, I stared at them for a long time and then lovingly put the timeless classic back into the box and hid it (from the man. Hehe...) in my cupboard, like a hoarding squirrel.

Solitude and creativity

Karl Lagerfeld said this in Lagerfeld Confidential:

'People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can’t live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory.'

And recently in Brain Pickings, Bukowski was quoted:

'When failures gather together in an attempt at self-congratulation, it only leads to a deeper and more, abiding failure. The crowd is the gathering place of the weakest; true creation is a solitary act.'

Which inspires me to dump more quotes on solitude and creativity:

Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. - Ernest Hemmingway

Artists work best alone. - Steve Wozniak

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. - Goethe

Without great solitude no serious work is possible. - Picasso

I love my me-time but that doesn't always translate into productive work. Tsk tsk tsk.