Florence and the Machine Barefoot at Glastonbury 2015

Trust Florence. What a queen of awesome.

well hello Mr Wallflower

Warm this weekend? Why not head out without your shoes...

The MetOffice are forecasting a first* taste of spring this coming weekend. Finally, after a fairly lengthy winter we are going to be rewarded with some warmth. I'm looking forward to it and getting out in the sunshine.

But what is more glorious than simply being outside in that first warmth of the year - that day when you wear only a t-shirt and yet still feel warm? Doing it without your shoes. Yes, there is little nicer than letting your feet loose outside, especially if they've been cooped up indoors and/or shod all winter. Get them out, on the grass and in the puddles or mud. Stretch your toes and enjoy spring at last.

Enjoy the day and may you put your best bare foot forward!


* after that crazy warmth right back at the beginning of January.

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Cold Feet? Try Removing Your Socks First.

Nowadays I must admit that I am not a full time barefooter. I don't want to let you down, but that is the case. However, still I find myself frequently shoeless for all sorts of reasons, most of the sorts of reasons that I took it up for in the first place.

This morning I woke up and dressed my feet as typical these days, and as today is a little chillier than expected I popped on some thick socks for warmth. But just a few hours later and my feet had decended into a deep chill. Perhaps it being a Saturday I'm only padding round the house rather than cycling anywhere so my feet have not really been doing much work and as such not keeping themselves warm. Never-the-less there they were with nice supposedly thick socks on for warmth yet feeling frozen.

The solution I have learnt for this is to whip of the socks. It seems somewhat counter intuitive - reduce their thermal insulation and my feet will be warmer? Yet this is exactly what happened. One of the top advantages of my solid barefoot days was the complete lack of cold feet (and cold hands come to think of it). They just were warm all the time, especially in bed. These days of shodness my feet are frequently back to their cold ways. However, take of my coverings exposing the skin to the cold and they feel so much warmer.

So go on - liberate your feet from their surroundings and feel the warmth, even in the cold (it's kind of what they're designed for).

Cold feet? Shead those socks

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www.nickbailey.co.uk

Barefoot DIY

Doing a bit of renovation at home and discovered that barefoot is a great way to accomplish this. Not only are feet easier to clean than socks and less messy than shoes (we don't have shoes indoors due to Asian tendencies) but you can utilise toes for grabbing hold of pieces of skirting board as you saw them at 45 degrees without using a specialist tool. Perhaps I should get one of those angled cutting guides, but this worked just as well.

Sawing barefoot? What could possibly go wrong.

Hobbits Bare Feet

I watched the new Hobbit film last night and was pleased to see some rather good barefoot action from the hobbits. I guess this is to be expected considering their penchant for going barefoot (probably due to the oversized nature of them). However, even still there was running and jumping on jagged rocks and across icy surfaces. Well done to Martin Freeman and the rest for the hours of makeup they must have put in to get their feet on.

Good barefoot action in The Hobbit - Battle of The Five Armies

Barefoot Friday

It was particularly nice to be working from home and keep my shoes at bay for the day. One of the principal reasons I'm not barefoot these days is that I cycle 5 miles into work and for that I appreciate my SPD clip-in cycle shoes (on my top recommended A530 pedals). When I get to work I've also been told that going around barefoot is not acceptable (which is a great shame) but I still manage to slip off my SPD shoes when we're going out for lunch, as walking around in cleats is quite annoying.

I now have toasty warm evening feet as a result.

Prague Barefoot

Not recently, admittedly, but I was reminded last night of my barefoot adventure round Prague back in 2008. The streets were lovely and clean and the joy of smooth round cobbles was something else. I arrived with only my suit and no shoes, my luggage having been lost in the airport. Thankfully a couple of days later I did have a new change of clothes and could wonder round looking a little less weird.

Barefoot Heather Run

I was walking with my family in the Peak District this summer with heather of such a astonishing purple colour that photographs don't quite do it justice. The weather was also so glorious and the grass soft that I took off my boots and skipped down the hill back to the car. Glorious. Reminded me of my first barefoot mountain experience in Wales up Sugarloaf.

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Footlose

Fully Waterproof Footware

What happens in Croatia when a sudden torrential rainstorm floods the city streets? Off go the shoes and barefooting becomes the way to go. I found the smooth cobbles somewhat slippery though so care had to be taken on the submerged surface.

Monty Don Approved

There was I, watching Gardeners' World, when low, the great Monty Don un-dons his shoes and promotes barefooting in a public garden on primetime British television. Well done Monty, what a star. There really is little better than being in the garden barefoot.

National Trust Barefooting

The National Trust are advertising Barefoot activities for kids. Apparently it's one of the top ten things to do before you're 11 ¾.

The Best Barefoot Walks for Kids - NT

Barefoot Running

One of the next things to by on my Amazon basket:

Check out his website here:

http://www.chrismcdougall.com/
And in particular his TED talk through which I first heard of him (and barefoot running):
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_to_run.html

Eddie now running barefoot?

Noticing a lot of barefoot running from Eddie Izzard - https://twitter.com/#!/eddieizzard

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run? | Video on TED.com

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run? | Video on TED.com
Some good evidence to run barefoot, I remember the amazement when I first ran barefoot, but I do normally wear running shoes. But after watching this I think perhaps I should look a little more into the barefooted possibilities of running.

Barefooting down a Korean mountain

Yesterday I hiked up Baegundae mountain just north of Seoul, South Korea. I went up in my hiking boots (only their second time on a real mountain). Walking up we passed a couple walking down barefoot, carrying their shoes. I was a bit jealous.

The whole ascent was breathtaking and the views at the top were superb. We had a snack of kimbap (rice rolls, like sushi) on the summit rock and I decided to take of my shoes.

We then climbed down the mountain taking a different route to the way up. I was thinking I'd have to re-shoe myself when I got to the first stream. But instead Suyeon decided to take her shoes off as well. So there we both were hiking down this mountain barefoot. Awesome!

Today my feet feel quite different. Not in pain as such, but certainly they feel alive.

Barefoot on the BBC

I've now barefooted myself on the the BBC Hampshire website, being interviewed by the lovely Indy Almroth-Wright who was brave enough to go for a barefoot wonder with me during the interview. Check out the article here:
Nick Bailey - BBC Barefoot Interview

Barefoot fix?

Came across this link:
http://lifehacker.com/383740/fix-your-achy-body-by-walking-barefoot

Asking Out Barefoot

It was not by concious act that I happened to be barefoot when I asked my girlfriend out, thought I was quite pleased to find that it was the case. I was (and still am) quite bearded. Thus, remaining a geek, I can report that the barefoot bearded geek, while not 24/7 any more, is still alive and kicking (and successful in the very thing that many said would be impossible).

Go eccentricity!