Shopping for shoes

Ranjan has been wanting a pair of shoes for quite some time. A few days back he informed me that he had bought a pair of shoes on line! I was flabbergasted as my man is so finicky about footwear. He judges people by their shoes and women by their feet. Thank heavens we met in winter when I never got a glimpse of my feet before Cupid ket out its bow or our love story would have stopped after a glance at my not so pretty feet! So when he told me to expect a delivery and to have the money ready I was for the worst. Mercifully the shop allows you to try the shoes before you decide to keep them.

The package arrived and we were all excited. By all I mean self and the young lad who works with us. We opened the box carefully and out came a shoe! I burst out laughing. It was a slip on as that is what was ordered but that is where Ranjan's perception and reality parted. The shoe was one of those never ending shoes that are in fashion, with a boat like look and shoes that go on well after your toes end and to crown it all they had synthetic soles. My man wears leather soles! When he put them on, Deepak, the lad who works for us immediately said: these are not for you. I was still laughing. Needless to say the man was disappointed. We all knew what had to be done. We repacked the shoes and gave them back to the waiting delivery man. Anyway they were a size too big. My man has the tiniest feet you can imagine. But he would not give up and wanted to show me the pair he felt he had ordered and believe were not the ones in the box. After a long search we found them and to me they looked like the ones that had landed home. Ranjan called the store and was told that these were the smallest size they had. End of the story.

Since that day he has wanted to go buy a pair of shoes but being chemo week the shopping trip had to be postponed. I promised to take him to South Extension as I felt it was the place he may find what he wanted and as Saturday was the day we all got the lovely surprise of Cat's arrival it was 4 musketeers that went shopping: Ranjan, Cat, Shamika and I! No one listened to me so instead of going straight to the two shops where I thought he may find what he wanted, we meandered from shop to shop with Ranjan rejecting everything in sight and not finding his beloved slipons with rounded toes and leather soles. At one point he kept saying that he wanted Florsheim shoes. Now as they do not make women's shoes, I did not know where the store was located. I hung my hope on Clarks but even there he did not find what he wanted. I could see him disappointed like a child and I promised him to find the Florsheim store. There was a last shop left and I urged him to at least take a look. I preceded the posse and imagine my joy when I started descending the stairs to the men's section and saw F L O R S H E I M written in bold letters! The Gods were smiling.

It took another 30 minutes to find the right size, toe, fit and colour but finally he set his eyes on a pair that he liked. It was not the one the girls liked as they wanted him to add some style but in the end he won the battle and bough the shoes he wanted. He was smiling like a kid who just got his favourite candy. The shoes were packed and paid and we headed home.

It had been a lovely moment with no elephants around!