Getting shoeless

On NYE last year, I was in the Botanical Gardens in Sydney, with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge as my setting. This year I lost my shoe on the way back from the Plough in Brackley. How life changes hey!

I’ll come back to me losing a shoe, as its quite a funny story, which in turn reminded me of another funny shoe related story from last year.

Me and two of my best mates went to London last year to see one of our favourite bands (Incubus) at the Brixton Academy.

Of course we had train beers and got a bottle of Captain’s to tuck into before the gig – as you do.

My mate (lets call him Dave for the purpose of the story), left his glasses on the train and it turns out he is quite blind without them – this will be relevant later.

We got to the gig (about ¾’s on the Captain’s had been consumed by then) and had a couple of beers. Dave went to the bar to get his round, whilst me and my other mate (lets call him Steve), stayed in the exact same place for the next half an hour waiting for Dave to come back.

Neither of us saw Dave again until the end of the gig – turns out he couldn’t see us or find where he’d left us…!

Steve and I made our way down to the front (on the edge of the mosh pit), just in time for Incubus to come on. It’s fair to say we weren’t on the edge of the mosh pit for long and both found ourselves on the floor 2/3 times each.

On the 3^rd occasion for Steve he got up and had a bloody nose; so as any good friend would, I picked him up and helped clear it up for him before looking down to see that Steve only had one shoe on.

I held back the laughter as he walked back to where he fell to look for his shoe. As he disappeared into a wall of people, I noticed something fly over my head and over about about 40 people in the opposite direction to where Steve was heading… you’ve guessed it, poor Steve’s right Converse had learned to fly!

This was the last I’d see of  Steve until after the gig…

About 10 songs later, the final song was played and I’d had a great time – even though the majority of it was spent on my tod.

I waited for the crowd to clear at the barrier to the VIP section on my own, only to spot Dave wandering round aimlessly in the VIP section – we still have no idea how he got there. Luckily, he had both shoes, a fully functioning nose but still no glasses of course – and the x3 double pints he went off to get were nowhere to be seen.

We left the venue and on the left hand side of the main entrance, sat on the steps, head in his hands, was our good mate Steve. I couldn’t help but laugh this time as he had no shoes on and only one sock on!

He had no idea where his other shoe went, but said that someone asked to look at his socks after seeing he had no shoes one. He lifted one leg up, and before he knew it, the sock was off and was thrown across the venue too.

I (being a good mate) asked the bouncer if anyone had handed in some shoes and a sock, and to my surprise he said “Converse?” He went inside and came out with both shoes and one sock, which Steve put back on (it was hideous).

It was a great night.

I wont bore you with the story of my shoe on NYE after all that, but if anyone reading this lives above the Costa in Brackley and has a broom that’ll reach to the roof of the old takeaway next door, please give my shoe a nudge, as his left footed brother is missing him.

Have a great weekend!

Danny B