Feral pigeons, totties and painted nails

Today I was able to people watch, as we’d parked in a side road adjacent to the shopping precinct.
Whilst Hubby was out looking for something in particular, I stayed in the car with the dog as it was too hot to leave her and as she’s still in season I don’t want any repetition from strange (and un-neutered) dogs on the High Street!
We were in touch with each other via our walkie talkies, and I was given a running commentary of various street buskers and lack of luck with his shopping item!

Feral pigeons aren’t as attractive as woodys.
They tend to look mangled, matted, dirty and untidy, as if they’ve just fallen down the chimney on a rainy day. Most of the ones I saw today were almost black, and extremely fat, so the pickings must be good. Funny how young kids, especially boys, love to chase them.

Now the totties in my title refer to footwear.
Being a hot day, many people, male and female, were wearing either open toe sandals, flip flops or what I would term as ‘flats’.
In the UK, shoe shops are full of cheap shoes with no heel which have paper thin soles that you can feel the smallest stone through. They come in a variety of colours, some with laces, some with velcro, some with just elasticated sides like our school plimsolls used to be in the 60s. Others are ‘leather’ or plastic, but the end result is the same. They will last a few outings as the insides will come out with your foot when you take them off, they’ll hurt and offer no support to your arches, let alone help your back posture.
My £3 pair went in the bin last week when I forked out thirty quid for a decent pair of trainers with sensible tread on them to stop me sliding down the gantry on my backside.

Every so often though, a Totty would emerge.
How they managed to walk was staggering.

High heels, platforms, stillettos (and some of those were BOOTS), and the design I call ‘Centre Heel’ where the heel itself is half way between the arch and back of the foot.
I tried a pair on once and nearly landed flat on my face as I seemed to be defying the laws of gravity.
One woman was dressed to the nines with shoes to match, and I could almost feel her blisters.
Why or why do we abuse our feet this way?

But it was the nails that held my attention today.
I was a nail biter until I met Hubby in 1989. I had a set of false nails as a kid, complete with finger tips that you slotted over the top of your own fingers (they may well have come from a joke shop actually)!
False nails have come a long way since then.
You can have the stick on variety, with or without polish, French polished or not as most look real when applied correctly. If you have the money, you can have acrylic nails built on to your own (whether a biter or not) then have them filled as your own nails start to grow underneath.
Whether those I saw today were false or not, it was the colours that were the most dazzling: brilliant blues and greens, yellows, purples, glitter, even motif decorated.
Whenever I applied polish, I always managed to smudge at least one before it was dry, or it would chip after a day or so.
These days, I try to keep them tidy and not too long, though sometimes they split which suggests there is something missing in my diet (more chocolate!!) .
Only once have they ever looked this good.