Since my Hoka Tor Ultra Hi vs Inov-8 RocFly G 390 GTX gear review post is quite popular, I thought I would do another one for the Hoka Trail Code GTX. Sadly, my Inov-8 RocFly G 390 GTX died in May after about 6 months of weekly walks, so I bought the RocFly G 390s as they were half price. However, they only lasted about 3-4 walks before the sole peeled apart. I sent them back and got a no-hassle refund, and I wasn’t too sad as they weren’t that comfortable anyway. I needed a new pair pretty much immediately, so I went to the Hoka store in Covent Garden with the intention of buying another pair of Tor Ultra Hi. Alas, they didn’t have any, so my second option was the Kaha 2s. Yeah, no. They felt like orthopaedic shoes: massive, heavy, clunky, and not at all agile. I can
Housing in the UK is broken. It’s either too expensive to buy, too expensive to privately rent, or, if affordable, in a bad state of disrepair. My flat falls into the latter category. My situation I live in social housing, in a small housing cooperative managed by a large housing cooperative. I have written before about how important and transformational having a home has been for me, but it has not come without struggle. Struggle to obtain it (a different story), and struggle with the landlord over disrepair for the entire time I have lived here. I obtained the keys in February 2021 and immediately reported signs of water ingress in the hallway. I followed this up the next day with photos of how the paint I applied had literally rolled off the walls due to water saturation and damp. The landlord’s managing agent acknowledged the report and said they had
I’m still on my lard kick because I’m still on my pork crackling kick, and I need ways to use up the excess rendered lard. I have now made lard lotion twice as well as two batches of cold pressed lard soap. I am very pleased with how these two batches have turned out, given that this is the first time I have attempted to make soap. I mixed the lard with different fats, liquids, and scents each time to see the different effects. The orange one is my first attempt and it’s orange because I used palm oil alongside the lard, as I had some leftover from my yam pottage phase. I also used olive oil, rose water, and rose geranium essential oils. The scent is lovely and has really lasted, so I will be rose geraniuming again one day. I made the batch in November and it was cured
As a mad-for-walking person with mash-up feet, I thought I would write a gear review comparing two pairs of hiking boots: the Hoka Tor Ultra Hi and the Inov-8 RocFly G 390 GTX. As a reminder, I have Morton’s neuroma, osteoarthritis in the ball of my right big toe with a small bunion, and historical achilles issues. Whilst the latter has mostly cleared up since starting a ketogenic diet, I have discovered that I can still get a little stiffness after a long hike. Or at least I do with one of these pairs of boots… Right off the bat, I should say that I love Hoka shoes. I switched to them on the advice of my physiotherapist and podiatrist after wrecking my achilles wearing Vivobarefoot shoes. I have not looked back. I have Challengers for the gym and every day, and Cliftons for road running. I unreservedly recommend them. As
I’ve gone mad for walking and will need to update my bio from an obsession with microbes and fungi to one with hiking. I am starting to suspect that my carnivore experiment earlier this year slaughtered a colony of fibre loving microbes which were controlling me and making my every act be one of microbial veneration. Sorry bacteria, but at least the residual colonies are getting nice days out. Anyway, hiking. I love it, but alongside my achilles tendinopathy, I also have Morton’s neuroma which makes walking very painful after a few kilometres. Thankfully my Hoka Tor Ultra hiking boots are helping the achilles element, but they unfortunately do bugger all for the Morton’s neuroma element. The pain I get when the neuroma kicks in starts off with a kind of tingling numbness at the base of the middle three toes, and then very quickly turns into a sensation of burning