I Heart Shoes - Closing the Chapter

Something About Me!

I like to post every day (keeps it sort of interesting - and keeps me out of mischief) and so to fill the gaps when I can't think of much you might want to read (like my wine dilemma over here!) I will be telling you (possibly rubbish and boring) facts about me. So...to kick off we will start with my obsession for shoes.

I know what you're thinking....predictable / unoriginal...much! I forgive you. BUT I went a step further than most 20 something girls. I turned my obsession into a business!

For 3 years I imported shoes from Asia and wholesaled them online from my own website. I also dabbled in dropshipping but it was a bit too complicated for my small brain capacity.

I sold stiletto shoes, peep toes, platforms, ankle boots, knee highs, thigh highs, stripper heels, sexy steel heels, kitten heels, black, red, white, pink, blue, two-tone, stripey, lace-ups, killer heels and probably a few more. You name it I had it. My only criteria was that they had to have a heel. Strictly no flats!

Last year I made a massive decision (it's been a bit slowed-down because of the worldwide financial issues - not just my own). The decision will be revealed at a later date. Got to keep you interested somehow!

So at the end of last year I sold my domain name (it has since been snapped up by an adult / erotica site - it was a fantastic name though so I'm not too surprised!), sold-off nearly all of the 3,000 pairs of shoes I had left, from my final order, at extremely reduced prices, and relinquished responsibility of the back rooms of my dad's industrial unit back to him. I think he was pretty pleased to get rid of the ladies shoes / lingerie that had packed out the back half of his manly (can we say "grrrr") construction equipment unit. Bless dad! He once told me that he never thought it be sick of the sight of ladies lingerie...until I moved the stuff in. I'm impressed I managed to achieve that!

I still have about 200 pairs of said shoes left over. These are all stacked up in my old room at my parents' house - they have a 5-bedroom house for just the 2 of them so don't feel too bad for them. Although I do dread the day I go to their house, let myself in and find my mum strutting around in a pair of 8" platform stripper heels! I would literally die!

Anyway, I've decided to get rid of the last 200 or so pairs of shoes. I thought I would keep them in case I changed my mind on "the decision" and it would be my way of starting up again. Today though, I changed my mind and I'm about to close the door on that chapter! Instead of wholesaling this lot though I'm going to make a quick buck (although it'll take me a while to do...so maybe a slow buck) and list them all on EBay, that way I should make a bit more out of it instead of rubbishy wholesale prices.

NB the picture is just the ones I actually kept for me and not for the "just in case"!!

What's Up Pussy Cat??

April is rapidly approaching and because I'm a bit slack on using up my leave from work throughout the year I always seem to be part-time at work Feb & March. I'm on my 3rd 4 day week (I have 2 left to go!). Today the day was spent Ebaying all the crap I've accumulated over the past...oh, I dunno, 25 years? Ok, so it's going to take me a bit longer than a day. But I made a start anyway. I also bid on a few things. I am aware this isn't really the way to get rid of stuff, but I felt I needed that new clutch bag and some new shoes! Ebay is a great place sometimes! Oooh, I also sold a bag, which I only paid £30 for, for £54! Excellent.

Anyway, whilst I was trying to Ebay Tatty (mr cat extraordinaire) had other ideas. He decided to try and sleep on the laptop to get my attention. I went to get a drink and came back to find him dancing on the keyboard! Funny boy. I pushed his fat little bottom off and he stood behind the screen staring at me for a good 45 mins!!

I think he could definitely win a staring contest!!

Miss KP, where to begin!?

I met KP in the first year at secondary school when we were 11, by the age of 12 we were best friends (it wasn’t always so peachy).

At 14 we (the entire bad crowd, not just the 2 of us) were already going out to bars and clubs (this isn’t as bad as you would think as our legal drinking age is 18 – we looked older than we should’ve). Also, our parents were aware and as long as we were at the pick-up point at the time they told us to be everything was good. Ok, so you may think our parents were irresponsible, but actually we were quite a sensible group and only did what we wanted to do – we weren’t the easily lead type! Plus, for my parents anyway, they had tried everything in their power to sort out my sisters crazy behaviour and none of it had worked so I think when it came to me they figured they were better off to keep me on side.

Anyway, our parents pretty much let us do as we pleased (I think this must’ve been agreed between them) but there was always a condition or constraint (i.e. you can go out but we will pick you up at such and such a time).

…and so, the debauchery began

KP and I both lost our v-plates (much the same as “l-plates” but not for driving) before we hit 15, yes pretty young! Looking back it was pretty bad and I definitely wouldn’t want a child of mine (not that I currently have any) – it wasn’t particularly glamorous.

Ahh, I have this terrible habit of going off in a totally different direction! We’ll get back to the “first time” another day when I have nothing to blog about! I’ve also developed a terrible habit of turning posts into novels! I wonder how many posts I need to do for my writing to actually be novel-esque!?

Ok, back to KP

KP was, and is, a serial dater. Growing up she had 1 main boyfriend, we’ll call him Burt. They were forever breaking up and getting back together again. On reflection they were really bad for each other! In between broken up episodes KP had numerous boyfriends, flings or whatever you want to call them. KP and Burt broke up for good when she moved to Sheffield for uni after school (N.B he was 3 years older than her, in a dead-end job and going nowhere fast – but he was a lovable rogue!). A couple of years later we discovered he had in fact had a baby with someone else whilst with KP – that definitely took a reunion off the cards!

Long story short

KP moved to London to work for an international foreign language school (she speaks fluent Spanish and French) a couple of years ago, following a promotion she is now in charge of one of their UK schools and is due to move to her new city this week!!

Sorry for all the rambling – I’m just trying to do a quick recap on the past (but for me quick turns to slow and dragged out quite easily – must improve!) so I can cut to the present without having to do a lot of backtracking!!

B to the EX

I started off writing the most recent secret but soon realised that you need some background first or I will be forever blogging in the past and I want to go real-time, so I will try and round up the secret givers as best as I can over this coming week.

Bex

Bex and I met aged 18, first time living away from home, we were possibly the worst 2 people to be living together.

Bex was from the mid-north and me from the south, we were both a bit crazy with wicked sense of humours. Being students we didn't stick to the going-out rules from home (i.e. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights), we went out Monday through Thursday and the whole of our residence (all 4,000 freshers!) stayed in over the weekends. In our block there were 7 floors, each floor had 2 flats and each flat had 12 students. Bex and I were the only 2 girls in flat 14 on the 7th floor!

Every weekend was spent wondering around the several blocks of flats in our mini-village in Southampton making friends and drinking a lot!

At the time Bex had a serious boyfriend (they split up in the 2nd year) and I was free, single and loving life. Bex confessed she was sometimes jealous as I didn't have to worry about a) what bf was doing at his uni and b) If what I did would upset anyone, for example our first night at uni there was a gathering of us and the 10 boys from our flat in my room, they all started to leave the room, 1 boy left:

Jen: Can you get in my bed so I can go to sleep.

Cokey: Get in your bed?

Jen: No, I said get out of

Needless to say I woke up in the morning and Monsieur Coke was still in my bed.
Back to Bex...

After uni Bex and I lost contact for a few years, it's difficult living so far apart to keep in touch when you have different things going on. I know that's a lame excuse (OMG, I haven't said "lame" in years!!) but it's my excuse so suck it up!

Anyway, we found each other again and I now get daily emails from Bex. She has a boyfriend, lets call him Dumbo. Last year Bex admitted that Dumbo has hit her (she filed a police report then retracted it - bad girl), we both know he's cheated on her, he uses her for money and a place to crash, he's a 26 year old child not wanting to grow up (can you see the love i harbour for this dude?), he cannot commit to her...and the best is yet to come!!

I've grown more and more intolerant towards Dumbo and I've never even met him. I really don't like disliking people but he's definitely on that list!

Bex is a serious candidate for the "boy trouble" category as it's all she ever seems to have.

She's a perfect girlfriend in my eyes. She's beautiful, she's athletic (she's actually a sports model and is a lookalike for a famous tennis player (I shall not say which as you might Google her)), she's a dancer, an excellent friend, she's bright and confident.....a real shining star!

I do love my Bex! But I don't love her issues.

Keep reading to find out what the latest of Bex' dramas is - I assure you it's the craziest thing you have ever heard, and the next friend to be introduced is KP.

Introductions - A Helping Hand

OK, so here's an overview of my 'characters' - I will fill the main few in now (but as it's 3:22am and I can't seem to think properly) and every time I post about another friend I shall add their info down here too!

Jen - That's me! I am the secret keeper and a friend to most I'd like to think - but you can't please everyone! I have a lot of secrets of my own, not necessarily because they're really bad, but for me I've always thought that old saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" was wrong and it should actually be "a problem shared is a problem doubled"...this will become clearer as my secrets come out!

Mitch - Bless her! Mitch has been my friend since school, she joined when we were 16 so she was bit of a latecomer! She was bright, bubbly, funny, beautiful, exciting, vivacious, exotic and everyone wanted to be her friend...She was also everything you'd want to be until last year. The previous year she met, and moved in with, her BF, let's call him...actually, let's just use his real name...Tom. Tom was pretty nasty and with Mitch's self loathing spiralling out of control she became anorexic. On Valentines Day 2008 Mitch weighed in at 4st 9lbs (65lbs) - for a 5'5" 24 year old that is pretty terrible! The road to recovery has barely begun so I'm guessing you can figure out some of the issues that'll come with Mitch.

Bex - Bex was my roommate at uni. We had some of the most amazing and hilarious times together, we were quite a bad pairing and were forever getting each other in to trouble. Bex is a confident and beautiful dancer as well as other things.

KP - Possibly the funniest of the bunch. Miss KP has recently taken the plunge with a new job, new responsibility and a totally new city! Not knowing a soul in her new town I'm sure she'll have some stories!

Toni - I've only known Toni for a short while, maybe 12 months, but she is an incredible girl. She has had severe depression since the age of 13 and I think she deserves a medal for coming this far. She's only 22 yet is extremely wise...although clearly not on everything or she wouldn't be on here! There's a chance I will cave and tell Toni about this blog so I thought I may as well use her name!

KPC - AKA BF. KPC stands for "Kung Pow Cow". KPC is a black belt, a surfer and my best friend!

This is all sounding a bit miserable, but trust me it isn't. I have have put a bit of a dull spin on things, but mainly because I have my first post for each in mind and they aren't pretty. A lot of things seem to have happened recently and so there's been a lot of advice flying around. I'm amazed I ever get any work done!!

...and we begin

Let's Get Started

I would like to consider myself a good friend. For the first 25 years of my life I have been confided in, I have listened, I have give the appropriate responses, I've been thoughtful and not given my blunt and honest opinion, I've been very aware of "the real issues" and not just the problem I've been presented with, I've kept secrets and I have been a good friend! So, I can hear you yell...

What's wrong with that?

Well, you would be right to ask! After 25 years of keeping my opinions to myself I've decided to share them with the world. Have you ever felt like someones life is getting so ridiculously out of control you might explode if they tell you one more unbelievable story and you just have to nod, be patient and give some good (yet not always 100% honest) advice?

Just lately I've found myself becoming inpatient with my friends and to be honest I would really rather not. I love my friends to pieces and I don't want to get annoyed with them because I definitely get that it is so much easier to give advice than take it...but come on girls, how many times will you let him cheat on you (etc etc)??

I'm hoping that being able to share the secrets of their lives with you will stop me from being irritated by my the lovely ladies - friends shouldn't be irritating! On the other hand, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just becoming intolerant in my old age - we'll see!

My 2nd reason for this blog

I already have an un-anonymous blog somewhere else but it's sort of topic related and recently I've found it a bit difficult to blog there as I can't really blog off topic - well, I know I can, but there's something stopping me! That something could be the fact that my parents & friends do occasionally stop by there to check-in!

Since reaching quarter of a century I've become a bit nostalgic...yes,it's true, I have in fact squeezed a lot of 'stuff' into those first 25 years of my life and I really wish I'd been introduced to blogging when I was about 14! It would've made for interesting reading for the 25 year-old me!

I digress - So anyway, whenever my friends and I actually get to meet up the one thing you can guarantee we end up talking about is the past, boys, school, uni, jobs, boys, boys, bla, bla and bla. It's always the same, yet every time we remember something new! So, when I have no secrets / whinges for you I shall be delving into my own personal archives for something juicy for you. I am a little concerned because we were a bit of a bad crowd when it came to some things...but for us it was all harmless (I actually laughed out loud when I wrote that) fun and we loved every minute.

I endeavour to not regret a single word I write (unless it's a typo from my sometimes dyslexic fingers) and if something offends you I would encourage you to either give me a second chance, to redeem myself, or avert your eyes and find another fantastic blog to read.

Over and out for now.

jen x



Next Post - Introductions