High winds, high heels and a really good juggler

    The wind came from the north today so, while it was cold, it didn't strip the flesh from your bones or freeze your marrow or do any of the hundred other awful things that the Southerlies can do to your body. Still, it was a strong wind and walking into it was difficult, not just for me on a pair of bad legs but for many people who, heads ducked into their chests, were struggling along.
    Which brings me to the subject of women in high heels... okay, not the smoothest segue in the world but bear with me for a second or two. Women in Wellington are addicted to high heels. That may be because this is a capital city or maybe it's because there are lots of banks and insurance companies and real estate agencies doing business here or maybe just because Wellington women like walking around in high heels. I don't know why they are addicted to them, just that they are and that means that they have to learn to walk on them in winds that can be strong enough to stop a grown man in his tracks on occasion.
    Some women have mastered that skill; in fact, here in Wellington a lot of women have and, believe me, that's no mean feat.
    So it was that earlier today, as I pushed into the wind on my way down to the ferry terminal, which is close by the railroad station, to check on boat rides to South Island, I saw several women in open-toed stilettos marching along as though it was a sunny summer day on Rodeo Drive and not a gray, chilly afternoon in the Land Down Under and Over a Bit. Later, on Lambton Quay, I saw dozens more women striding along wearing a variety of high-heeled shoes and boots and thinking nothing of it. Me? I was in a pair of hiking sandals wearing two pairs of socks to keep from losing a couple of toes to frostbite and wishing the wind wasn't blowing so hard because I really had to fight against it to get where I was going. I stopped and had a cup of coffee to think about the fact they were cruising along while I was having trouble keeping my balance while wearing flat sandals... okay, truth be told, I stopped to have a cup of coffee because my hands were cold and my eyes were tearing slightly from the wind but while I was inside having it I did think about all those women and I came to some conclusions.
    First, you have to not just want to wear high heels on a day like today, you have to NEED to wear them.
    Second, you have to have remarkable balance to move into a wind that is blowing your hair straight back like a flag snapping in the breeze while walking on four-to-six inches of narrow heels on sidewalks that are often made of bricks.
    Finally, and maybe most important of all, you need a high degree of confidence to wear high heels on a windy day in Wellington. You can't be tentative in heels when the wind is gusting at 30 or 40 mph. Instead, you have to stride forward in the certain knowledge that what you are doing is not simply fashionable but, in some mysterious way, righteous as well.
    I also ran across a very good juggler on Lambton Quay Thursday. Unlike the young man on Cuba Street, who couldn't keep three bowling-pin-like things in the air at the same time, this old timer kept four green tennis balls going in a high wind.
    Pretty darn cool.

High heels in a store window... I would have taken pictures of women walking down the sidewalk in heels but, uh, that would have been kinda creepy...

The guy was really good, juggling four tennis balls in a high wind... very cool