The tale of the exploding shoes.

Sometimes, ordinary things are very humbling. At the weekend, for instance, I went jogging with my wife, for the first time in years. It showed...but not in the way you might expect.

As we were leaving to go for a run, I had the problem of what shoes to wear. I reached for a pair of walking boots, but my wife stopped me: "Why not put on your running shoes?"

Running shoes? Did I even HAVE any?

It had been years since I had run, deliberately. So long had it been that I was unsure whether the running shoes that waited in my cupboard were even mine. I said so, too, to Syahidah.

"Try them on." she said, in true Cinderella fashion: if they fit, they must be mine.

I tried them. They fit...but tightly, at the toes, as if I had gotten slightly bigger since I last wore them - which is possible if another kind of growth is considered.

At first, we walked fast. This, I found, was quite acceptable. We walked for perhaps five to ten minutes. Then, however, we began to run. My whole body rebelled somewhat at the exertion, wishing instead, to continue to walk. I felt years of inertia burden me.

Yet, I looked sidelong at my sprightly wife and tried to keep up. She clearly found it a very easy thing to do.

We jogged for some minutes before I signalled that we were to resume walking. It seemed fair, at first, to alternate the two. Some minutes later, we began to jog again. The intention was to carry this on until we completed the loop, through leafy territory and found our way home again.

After some minutes, I heard a slapping sound. Looking down I noted that the sole to my running shoe was coming away on my right foot. I told Syahidah about it. "We will have to walk then", she said.

I was somewhat thankful for my shoe's failure and dropped to a walk. It didn't help much, however...since the shoes proceeded to decline gradually, thereafter.

Once we reached a park, Syahidah urged me to jog again - and I did, on the grass for a few minutes. My shoes, however, were having none of it: both soles were now coming away fully halfway down the shoe.

"We will walk home." she promised, to some relief in me.

All the way home, I made this clacking noise, as if I wore high heeled shoes. It was most amusing. Since I was beside Syahidah, perhaps people thought it was she who made the noise.

At home, I showed my boys the disintegrated shoes, and told them: "I was trying to keep up with mummy! She is a crazy runner!"

They scolded her for endangering their father so. I allowed myself a little smile at their concern.

Syahidah never explained that it was the age of the shoes and not the youth of my competition that destroyed them. It was better to watch their amazement at what running after mummy could do to a pair of shoes.

No doubt, when they grow up, they will remember the Day Daddy's Shoes Exploded.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals.If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)