A quiet day involving little more than a walk and a trip in to town to pick up a bracket to wall mount the new TV. You can tell it was quiet when a seasonal visit by Village Idiot gets a mention in The Journal. He was his usual self recounting tales of his Christmas Budget; £27.00, and the fact that he had already knackered his new Wellingtons shifting the lorry battery that he uses to wedge shut* the door on his fowl pen.
This provoked a rural Consumer Review and both VI and I agreed that there is absolutely no point in buying expensive wellies as they do not appear to have a longer lifespan than cheap ones. My last pair were Argylls that I inherited from my Dad who, in turn, acquired them from Ministry of Agriculture stores. These were at least 16 years old when they gave up the ghost in the January 2010 snows. I nipped on to one of the local feed merchants to get a replacement pair and briefly toyed with a pair of Hunters but these are for people with thinner calves than mine so opted for a replacement pair of Argylls. I noted, with mild interest, that Argylls are also produced by Hunter and state that clearly inside the boot.
I hated the damn things from the start. They were floppy and rubbery rather than firm but pliable like the previous pair and never gripped the foot properly as the old ones did. I persevered but never really bonded so it is with mixed feelings that I point out that they have worn out in less than 10 months. I kid you not - I haven't punctured them or ripped the upper - I have actually managed to walk the heels off them in under a year.
I only wear them when it absolutely soaking so it is not as though I have used them day in day out but my road test suggests that most of the £30 I spent on them was pure profit as a pair of Dunlops are about £12 and I am pretty damn sure they will give me at least as much mileage.
I cant believe I have just written a review of a pair of Wellies but, thinking about it, I wish someone had 12 months ago.
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* when I re-read this before publishing this read "wedge shit the door". Having seen the state of VI's fowl pen, either will suffice
Best Wellies that the Gorse Fox ever had had steel reinforced toe caps and a ribbed front. He bout them back in the seventies to wear on his motor bike... and they are still as good as new. (Only trouble is that he can't make out the name of the manufacturer... but thinks it may have been Dunlop)
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