I went shoe shopping Saturday, hoping to find a pair of shoes that would be sturdy enough for walking lots in Glasgow and environs but be less bulky to pack and drag around than my (incredibly filthy at the moment) sneakers.

What did I find instead?

Pink. Lots of pink.

But pink, it turned out, was just the tip of the shoe-fashion iceberg. There were shoes made of rosy-pink brocade, shoes with many sequins and lots of shoes that looked as if they'd desired to be ballet slippers (and toe shoes, at that!) in a former life, complete with ties to be wrapped around your legs and turned into bows before you could go anywere. Given some of my inclinations toward entropy, I shuddered at the thought of how many times a day I'd have to re-tie/re-adjust/ those ribbons and ties. We're not even going to consider what would happen to them in mud and rain.

I had to avert my eyes from all the huge cork platform shoes that are still out there in the universe and from lots of other pairs of shoes/boots that would both out-weigh the sneakers I don't want to pack and be more awkward as well.

Walking shoes? they were in short supply ... but there was a nice little pair of flats that came home, designed for dancing, the manufacturer claimed, but clearly able to stand up to a fair amount of walking -- and heavily discounted as well. And they're not really pink, either ... just sort of muted pale purple. The manufacturer calls it "grape".