‘I
never want to put those things on again.’ – Lorna
Ford

Lorna was less then impressed, but here for the record,
is the sanitised version, courtesy of hubby Alex. What we
would say is that Lorna’s main objection was that the boots
weren’t a good match for her ankles, a common problem with
women who generally have lower ankle bones than men. Fit is
very personal and it’s hard to like a boot that hurts
you…

A bit garish…

On first glance they are a bit garish, or rather as my
son described them “they look like moonboots”. Well blue and
grey aren’t to everyone’s liking, but I didn’t think they
looked to bad. And they felt good. They were very light but
had lots of lateral support, if a bit lacking in the toe to
heel support.

They promised to be waterproof and breathable, so we
decided to give them a try, out on Cannock Chase for a
couple of hours. It was mostly dry underfoot, but there’s a
lovely boggy area and a little stream to cross to test out
these very properties.

Bony ankles

We started out nicely, with Mrs F enthusing that they
were nicely comfortable on the feet, although she didn’t
like the high cut of them on her bony ankles. To combat this
we tried a couple of different lacing methods, none of which
worked, and eventually Mrs F was complaining that they were
rubbing her ankle bones.

Then the stream appeared. Not deep, but deep enough for a
thorough test of the waterproofing of the boots. In the name
of Graham Thompson Mrs F entered the water – a good 4″
deep – and there she stood. The water beading off the
surface of the untreated boots quite nicely. She stomped
around and smiled – they seemed to be watertight!

Out she came and off we wandered back towards the car.
All the time they had been worn the quote “you get what you
pay for” had been chanted, but this chorus changed as we
walked along to “oh, I’ve got a wet toe”.

The boots had let in just where the upper met the rand,
just by the big toe. The lining was good, but water was
allowed in through. The glue which secured one to the other
didn’t quite make a good seal.

Ok, so it was a tough test, one that many, more
expensive, boots would also fail, but it was all we had to
test them. Mrs F refused point blank to stomp through
the only bit of bog we found in case she got stuck.

At the end of the day, Mrs F was happy to take the boots
off, and doesn’t want to put them back on again! These boots
cost £18 – it costs that to get a family of four
into the cinema.

The Aldi range goes on sale from April 4 at all of the
UK’s 262 Aldi stores. It’s a ‘Special Buy’ which means
they’re only on sale while stocks last. For details of your
nearest Aldi outlet see the Aldi
UK web site where you can also read about the frankly
rather disgusting sounding Choco Pillows – ‘Crunchy
chocolate flavoured wheat and rice cereal with chocolate and
hazelnut flavoured filling. With added vitamins.’ Yum…