All That Glitters

Since returning to Australia in January, you couldn’t exactly say it has been boot wearing weather. It was winter when I boarded a late afternoon 747 and left Tennessee. Accordingly, I arrived at Sydney Airport wearing a pair of cream tassel cowboy boots and a leather jacket. But I have worn neither item since.

It’s been just too damn hot. On some days 40 degrees hot. That’s 104 fahrenheit, American readers.

Using the logic of function over fashion (yeah, right…) you might think that buying boots would be completely out of the question. But I’ve never been a logical woman, especially in matters of footwear. And these suckers were too hard to resist, for reasons thus:

- GOLD GLITTER

- CUBAN HEEL

- BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICE

Emphasis on BARGAIN BASEMENT. I found the boots at a suitcase rummage in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. In amongst pile after pile of ill-fitting jeans and t-shirts with awful decals, there they were. Glistening. Perfect. Irresistible. Hands down the best 10 bucks I’ve dropped since landing in this fair country.

I’m on a bit of a shiny outfit trip at the moment. On Tuesday, I had a date with the acclaimed twang program In The Pines at FBi Radio so I decided to bust out this highly flammable leopard print number for the occasion.

I know, radio is not a visual medium. But a happy tone of voice is important. And who isn’t happy in a golden, animal print synthetic shirt?

I’m not the only heartbreak singer who loves a touch of gold. Check out my hero Tammy Wynette in this clip with George Jones from the late 1970s. Though the country super couple were married for almost seven years, they had been divorced two years when they filmed this version of ‘Near You.’