On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:00:28 +0100, Reka wrote:

In article ,
says...
~I seem to have been asleep for much of this thread - probably because I'm way
~past Kye's "nearly thirty". But everyone else is doing such a good job I think
~I'll just sit back & enjoy it, despite what seems to be Reka's attempt to drag
~me in.

Hmmph! I'm not dragging anyone. It's just that the usually the older
generation "brags" about the walking through the knee-deep snow (or
apparently in your corner of the world, the dry, hot barrens) all the way
to school...

My primary school was only half a mile up the road (black bitumen). So I walked
to school, home for lunch, back to school, & home in the afternoon. Townsville
was hot enough that we all went to school barefoot. Have you ever tried walking
barefoot on bitumen at noon in a tropical summer? We all developed soles like
old leather. Even when we went to high school (& wore shoes & socks and a *tie*
- oh the culture shock!) the shoes came off as soon as we got home. At 17 I
spent a couple of weeks in hospital, and my feet peeled! About 1/8 inch of
horny callous peeled off both soles. I've been a tenderfoot ever since.
Dave Gillingham
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