Have you got it in 5?

If you haven`t guessed where I changed from 5 to 38, here`s what happened.

I went into our local branch of Stead and Simpson to buy a pair of shoes yesterday. Should be an easy enough thing to do, to get a pair of ordinary, comforatble shoes for work. But as I looked along the shelves there were high heels, clumpy manly looking shoes, toeless ones all totally unsuitable for everyday wear, and then in a corner towards the back of the store I found what I was looking for.... but no size 5.

Instead there were 36, 37, 38 ,39.... I hadn`t a clue as to how these traslated into English sizes. Must be a chart somewhere I thought, but a glance round the walls didn`t reveal any such item. Have all shoe shops in the UK gone into these sizings, or is it just this firm? Why can`t we keep our old sizes or at least have dual sizing in footwear? Do they just like making life difficult for us.

And, yes, I did get a pair of shoes in the end. I picked up one, of the style I wanted to try and said "Have you got this in a size 5". The assistant went and found them and came back with a 38 and it fitted!