The rainy season has continued this week and it’s the first time I have noticed an unusual parade of footwear.

I would never have thought that gumboots could be a fashion statement but it has been done and in a far more colourful way than the ugg boot moved on from being something that wouldn’t be seen outside of the house (or Australia for that matter) to being worn around town.

Over the past two weeks, I have seen knee high gumboots as well as ankle-length and some even in between the two. Not only that, instead of the standard yellow or black, they come in every colour you could possibly imagine.

To top it all off, I’ve even seen patterned ones. I’m not talking about Thomas the Tank Engine on the side, I’m referring to bright purple boots with big white stars or a classy navy blue with diagonal yellow strips (it amazes me what passes for fashion).

The piece de la resistance was the bright pink gumboot with a heel higher than the shoes that I wear to work. How’s that suppose to be safe during the wet? I guess this proves that fashion isn’t always practical.

The gumboot has certainly moved on from being footwear for brickies / labourers, farmers or young children into one of the must have articles of this year’s rainy season.

Mr Shallot hates them – a lot.

* Thanks to Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the title to this post. Is there anything these guys didn’t write? Apparently it was a No 1 for BJ Thomas in the US in 1970 and even won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1969.