When determined travellers arrive wearily at their destination after a long journey, one of the first things they are inclined to want to do is kick off their shoes. Hardly a nice thing, one would think, to do to arguably the very things that worked hardest in getting them safely to port. Yet, the way I think of it, taking one's shoes off is as much a reward to them for suffering the pounding they did along the route, as it is a relief for the traveller to free the feet after being kept enclosed for a long time. Shoe aficionados also tell us how necessary it is to air footwear regularly to ensure that they last long in good condition and provide many years of comfortable wear to their owners, so it's all good.

Shoes. Interesting things shoes are. Like most of the things we human beings put on ourselves, shoes tend very quickly to mould themselves to our unique foot shapes and soon become "old favourites"� without which we somehow feel a little "off balance" and "undressed". Hats, jackets, even spectacles, they all eventually come to "fit"� us in special ways that give us comfort, security, confidence and the like. Ever put on someone else's slippers or spectacles and felt how "strange"� they felt? Even things that are the same size as your regular item?

Yet, if we are really honest with ourselves, these same old favourites of ours were once new, unfamiliar items that we might have felt somehow didn't quite fit our shape, style or taste. We may even have contemplated returning them if newly purchased or giving them away if worn or used just long enough not to be able to be returned.Time, perseverance and slow but steady "growing into it"� suddenly produces, one day, a personal item that has become like a friend and you find yourself increasingly favouring it above other similar possessions. Professor Higgins discovered that about Eliza Dolittle in "My Fair Lady"� and eventually simply had to concede that she had crept under his skin, with him having become "accustomed to her face"�.This phenomenon is what business and management types have been calling "adapting to change"� or being "change fit"� over the past decade or so. I call it, simply, stepping into new shoes and "walking this way"� with determination!

In and around this website there are many new vistas waiting to be seen for the first time, or fondly revisited. I invite you to don your favourite footwear and start or continue your journey to whatever place with which you think you want to become accustomed or renew an old association. I will be "just around the corner"�, or "on the street where you live"�, ready to take the next few steps with you as you enter those parts of the world your heart and soul are telling you to explore.

So, put on your shoes and let's take the first steps. Together we will surely discover new excitements, leaving footprints for others to follow, whilst mapping out new tracks for ourselves as we go beyond our horizons. I hope you are ready for the trip! Life beckons all intrepid adventurers.

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