Its hard saying goodbye to an old friend even worse bidding farewell to a pair of friends but my trusty Teva Sandals and I have said goodbye for good.
We have done some traveling together and many have suggested, rather rudely I thought, that they were long past their sell by date.
But who is to say and how old should an old pair of shoes be before they become discarded?
I cannot find the invoice for their purchase but I must confess there is a picture of me wearing them when my hair was blond and I was the Captain of a sailing charter yacht plying my trade in the islands of the Eastern Caribbean.
So you could say it was only right and fitting that they have stayed in Barbados while I have returned to the UK to plan our next adventure.
Together we have travelled to the Maldives on more than three occasions, the Seychelles, the pampas of Argentina and the highlands of Patagonia. They have seen me shod in Seoul in South Korea and have been hidden from view in St Barts. They have trodden the sands in St Tropez and got wet in the Greek islands.
Porto Cervo was a little too smart for them last time we dropped in for some superyacht racing with Perini Navi aboard The Maltese Falcon but no one said I thing when I rocked up to Jade Mountain in St Lucia wearing them.
I did not take them when we sailed around Cape Horn because I thought my toes would get too cold but they did get to see Sable Island off the coast of Canada where it can be warmer than you might at first think.
They have walked the docks during the warmer boat shows and got stolen once when I left them at the foot of a superyacht gangway. Fortunately for me they found their way back!
They were right at home in the desserts of Arizona and did not look out of place climbing El Tiede in Tenerife. Together we have walked through vineyards and farmyards we have trudged through valleys and forded streams.
The straps got bolshy one day and I thought they had retired but then the carpenter on board Sea Dream gave them a whole new lease of life and for a while it looked like they might actually outlive me.
But they are gone now and have probably been rescued from the bin by some Barbadian fisherman who will take them to sea and live together happily for another ten years or so.
Me? I am searching the Internet for their successors, its just as well they are not here because I am not having a great deal of luck and if they were to hand I might just slip them on and say to hell with the idea of finding new