Do you know the meaning of “discalced”? I did not! Read on for an explanation.

A famous professional colleague who I shall call “Dr M ” to protect her identity, is a unique example of a mirror image. 

As I speak we are both overseas! What’s mirrored about that I hear you ask! Well I can guarantee that EVERY time I travel, so does Dr M, but when I am in the Southern Hemisphere she will be in the north or otherwise at diametrically opposite parts of the same hemisphere. 

When I am pushing a bike up an incline at 9%, she is pushing a leather Louis Vitton travel/shopping bag up a hill in London, Milan, Paris or New York. 

Whilst I am staying at a basic bed and breakfast drinking water sourced from the nearby moat of the medieval castle, Dr M is staying at the Manhattan Intercontinental drinking Moet.

Serious shopping for Dr M is spending all morning in the Prada boutique buying a pair of red shoes whereas serious shopping for me is rushing to the nearest Pharmacy to stock up on toothpaste and dental floss.

We both are lapsed in the religious sense. I was nominally Church of England (not Anglican in the 1950s) Dr M was Catholic. Although it is said as we all know “once a Catholic…..” So it was that booking into York House and learning that it was originally a convent, I immediately had visions of my mirrored colleague residing in these hallowed halls. But just as rapidly I realised from what I have described, it was pure fantasy. 

Her decadent habits would not get her into a Carmelite’s habit let alone past the first of the 47 steps to the nunnery door. 

Finally, and this is the crunch, York House was in 1759 the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites, the term “discalced” means without shoes or bare footed (with dispensation, sandals). 

Should Dr M see the error of her ways and become not only a Nun but also discalced, I, being a friend of Dorothy, would be more than happy to accept a donation of the red shoes.