At some point in the last month, I noticed some random post on my Twitter feed about Lockdown, saying something like “My shoes must think I am dead”.

This might or might not be the tweet I saw. I say this due to the fact that in researching this post, I did a search on Twitter to find the tweet, and found that more than one person has made such an observation.

And so on and so forth…

Well, let me add to that: my shoes, if they were capable of any thoughts, independent or not, would think I was dead.

And, you know what? That’s fine by me. I don’t like wearing the things.

I’ve not worn shoes or socks full-time since I started working from home this year, round about early mid-March. The last time I’ve worn shoes was when I needed to come into the office to pick up a laptop- that was me shod for a couple of hours at most- and then again, when I had to drop it off to it to someone in a car a couple of days later- and only for approximately 3-5 minutes in order to pop out of the house. Apart from that, my feet have been bare: nothing on them when in the house, and when I venture out, it’s been sandals or flip-flops.

The last time my feet have been this bare for such an extended period of time was for a couple of months a couple of years ago when I was inbetween jobs in the summer-autumn period, and even then, I was still wearing socks and shoes on occasion- I did have to go to in-person job interviews after all. So, over two months of going full-time barefoot is something new for me, and I’m quite liking it.

If it was my choice, I’d do this all the time. When I’ve not been required to wear shoes, I’ve become quite famous amongst my friends for wearing sandals without socks pretty much all year round, or at least from about early spring to just before winter. Usually for me the rule of thumb is that if it’s 10 degrees Celsius or above, then it’s time to bare the toes.

However, sometimes even in winter it can be temperate enough- I’ve remember being out in sandals on Boxing Day and New Years Day on occasion. One time my record for wearing sandals was mid-November. I thought that record would be unbreakable, barring the odd mild day, but a year or so later, I was be-sandaled at a similar time of the year one evening. It was raining, and slightly cold, but it didn’t deter me. I went off with my husband to see a movie, and when we came out, it was snowing. We got the bus home, but it didn’t kill me. In fact, I quite liked the way my toes reacted to snowflakes landing on them: turning up the heat, and melting them. The rest of my body was properly insulated for the season: I had a jacket, scarf, a jumper, and was therefore warm inside, so my toes were essentially reacting the same way that my hands were.

(NB: This was, is as usual in Glasgow, a minor snow-shower, which tends to wash away in the rain by next morning. I wouldn’t recommend the same approach for proper snow, but I’ll mention that in the next paragraph…)

Generally, though, if it’s too cold for sandals, I still tend to chose to wear my shoes without socks. I remember during the “Beast From the East” tramping through snowdrifts in hefty hiking boots that were not only hardwearing enough to tramp through snowdrifts, but also warm enough to wear without socks. And if I have to wear socks, I tend to wear brightly patterned thin socks with smart slip-on shoes that I can slip off at a minutes notice.

I’ve even got closed-toed sandals for when the temperature is not enough for open-toed sandals. This has enabled me to wear sandals pretty much all year round when I can. These were the sandals I was first wearing when I did my daily walk in early March when I started working from home. As the temperatures crept up towards the end of March, I switched to open-toes. I have a backless pair for when it’s mild, and I’m wearing longer trousers, and a waterproof sporty pair for when it’s wet weather- since I won’t let the rain stop me. My feet are going to get wet anyway, so they might as well get wet in style.

Since the onset of late spring going into summer, and it’s been warm enough to go out in shorts, my current go-to has been the Xero Cloud, a minimalist Huaraches-style rope sandal, which is as close to walking fully barefoot as you can get. (And on sunny days, I’ve been walking barefoot in the grass of our local park too.)

Once the toes become bare, I adorn my feet with toe rings and anklets, and paint my toenails. Why, it’s almost like I want to celebrate the fact that I can go barefoot! Don’t ask me why, it’s a personal choice. It’s not like I’m going around naked, and even when Scottish weather reaches “Taps Aff” temperatures, I’ve very loathe to expose my moobs in public as so many of my fellow Glaswegian males are wont to do.

What will happen when the lockdown is over though? Well, so far, my best guess is that we’ll still be working from home for some time, and so I’ll still be shoeless for a while yet, and any move back into the office will be phased, so I’ll eventually be easing myself back into the land of shoe-wearers. Until then, I’ll be enjoying every minute of my shoes and socks thinking I am dead.