Today has been a mixture of good and not so good for me. For although I got out for a barefoot walk earlier today, I fear that my efforts over the last two days may have resulted in a muscle strain or two. I was out fairly early this morning and got to the beach just after nine. I knew today would be a challenge as the soles of my feet are still sore from yesterday’s walk. And as soon as I took my first few steps it became apparent that I would be unable to tolerate much walking on the uneven concrete surface that forms most of the path along that part of the beach front.

Fortunately there is, for some of the time, a grassy area that runs alongside the path. So I walked on the grass where I could despite the fact that at only around 3C there was a heavy dew and my feet were soon very cold which made occasional walking on the concrete even harder. For some sections I put my flip flops on, but I soon noticed an ache in both calves and in the muscle between by big and second toes on the top of my left foot whenever I walked with them on.

After about half an hour I turned around and began to make my way back. There is a part of the walk on the sea side of the sea wall where you can access a concrete walkway. As the tide comes in this becomes submerged and today the sea was just beginning to lap over the edges as I made my way back. So I decided to remove my flip flops, pull my track bottoms up over my knees, and walk along the walkway as the waves came in over my feet. This made walking on the concrete much easier, but I was surprised at how high some of the waves came crashing in and ended up with wet track bottoms as a result. Nevertheless, it was great fun and was surprisingly not as cold as walking on the grass.

Bt the time I reached my car I had been walking for about an hour and boy did my calves and feet let me know it! Even now as I sit here typing this in the evening there is quite a bit of discomfort in that muscle on the top of my left foot and my calves are very sore. I realise that this is probably due to walking in flip flops, but my soles are still sore and certainly not yet tough enough to go the whole day barefoot outside, and having now gone five days without encasing my feet in socks and trainers I really don’t want to go back to wearing them.

I’ll wait to see how they feel tomorrow and if I am still sore, particularly in that muscle between my toes, then I may have to let caution be the better part of valour and put on trainers. Hopefully however, a good night’s rest will allow my body to recover enough to allow me to stick to flip flops.

Plans for tomorrow are far from settled. I was planning to travel to the other side of England for a football match but there is going to be an overnight frost which may mean the match doesn’t go ahead. I won’t know until I ring the club tomorrow morning whether I’ll be travelling to that match or whether I’ll have to ring some other clubs and wait until I get a ’game definitely on’ reply before picking which match I go to.

This is a very common occurrence in England between the beginning of December and the beginning of March and is a ritual English football fans are very familiar with. Whichever match I go to I’m likely to be travelling through London which means using the underground. I’m still very unsure whether to keep my flip flops on or go barefoot.

The advantage of going barefoot is I’ll be walking on flat shiny tiling which means my soles should meet few problems save any objects on the floor. But I am very nervous about the reactions of my fellow passengers. With so many people in such a small area I’m almost certain to run into types that will either ridicule me or be abusive. Twenty years ago I would have just thought ‘sod ‘em’ and gone for it. But being now older and far less confrontational I really don’t want the hassle. So the chances are I’ll stick to wearing flip flops and see what kind of reaction that gets first.