Ever since we each brought our first pair of Ara shoes in Florence we have been converts to buying this brand.

Ara are known worldwide for their comfortable fit but rather conventional and conservative styling, which doesn’t bother us as comfort more important than fashion when you are travelling.  However, Ara are expanding the range to be a little more fashionable looking in a bid to appeal to younger women. Personally I think the shoes are just fine.

Ara are constantly developing improvements such as the new gel sole, which is said to make you feel as though you are walking on air, the concealed elastic in Ara’s ballerinas or an adjustable solution that involves removing the strap to transform a sandal into an open-toe mule.

What I love about my Ara sandals and shoes is that they are so light that I hardly feel as if I am wearing shoes at all.

Last year I went to Sydney and brought a new pair of sandals and two pair of closed in shoes (pictured, from ’The Shoe Shop’  in Northbridge, in preparation for traveling.
I have given up the sneakers as they are too heavy for walking around in all day sightseeing, and they take up way to much room in my small suitcase.

Apart from the stylish knee-high boots at the top of the page, that have a combo leather material mix and a gore-tex finish to keep your feet dry  - here are some of the other great ARA styles available from Shoebuy.com:

Simply click on the pictures below for more information.
      
     
     

ARA sandals are the most comfortable shoes we have ever worn. So naturally when they eventually wore out we set off to buy some more. Easier said than done. They are made in Germany and we were unable to find local stockists when we were first looking for them. So we thought we would buy some when we went to the US for the Affiliate Summit.

Oh my god, we couldn’t find any in New York, the one store that was supposed to stock them didn’t have any, and the only other store we could find was in Canada.

So much to our dismay we returned home ARA sandal-less.

This is no good I said to Paula, surely someone in Australia must stock these shoes. So onto the internet to the ARA German site which I then translated into English with my new found Google translation tool, and sure enough there was a contact for Australia.

So I emailed the contact and a very nice gentleman responded with a whole list of addresses in Australia and New Zealand. Which is very helpful because I will be going to NZ in September with my hubby on a family visit.

So I contacted a store in Sydney and the stocks that we are after haven’t arrived yet, they are expected next week. So this will mean a trip to Sydney, Oh dear, what a shame.

The sandals we purchased “Korfu” are very similar to these

However there are lots of great styles available.

So Paula has been checking out accomodation at our favourite Hotel and we will be off to stay at Star City for the night when we go to pick up the shoes. We are hoping to take Demelza, my granddaughter with us and maybe we will go and see “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” yet again.

This show is just fantastic and after the dismal showing of Mama Mia on Broadway, we reckon this show should be staged there.

We had heard about a brand of handbags specifically made for travelers so this is what we were looking for. These bags had a number of benefits although it also meant paying double the cost of a regular handbag but the benefits appeared to be worth it in the long run.

The bags have wire reinforced shoulder straps and bottom and side panels which mean they are slash proof. And they also have tamper proof zippers and a facility to attach the handbag to a secure item which I guess is when you are sitting at a restaurant or cafe and don’t want to have the handbag sitting on your lap for the entire meal.

What I love though is that it has plenty of compartments. I love compartments!!

The shop didn’t have the colors we wanted but will have them in today so I will add another post with more info after we pick them up.

This morning I waited in a line of thousands to get one. Well I might be exagerating a bit - there was probably only about 50 people queued up but fortunately I was about 10th in the queue. We all stood there discussing what we were going in to purchase. Some were there for the bargain upright freezer but it seems most were there for the camera. This concerned me a bit as even though I was tenth in the queue if I didn’t go to the right part of the store I could still have missed it. I had also heard that they sometimes only have about 6 of an item available for sale. So consequently I spent most of my time thinking about all the strategies I could use (apart from knocking down the little old gentlemen in front of me) to get to the cameras first.

The strategy I thought would work the best was to go straight to a sales person and ask where the cameras were located. This worked a treat. As we entered the store most of the shoppers rushed to the back where the electrical products would normally be found. Me and a couple of others went straight to a sales person at the front of the store and she happened to have a box of the cameras at the checkout ready to sell. Woohoo, I shouted. Well I didn’t actually say woohoo, it was more in my head than anything as I didn’t want to cause a riot from the back of the shop as they all surged to the front as a result of my excited cries.

So now I am sitting here working out how to use it and so far it looks like a great little camera. I am not expecting miracles here as it is only $179 but as long as it does the job I am happy.

It is so tiny and can easily fit in my handbag or backpack so this is definitely going to be a new addition to my travels.