may not always be the best or fastest way around ;) but it is MY way around
I wanted a new powerbank, to add to the ones I have which are probably no longer as powerful as they once were.
After much deliberation (and making the guy working in the shop sneeze 😖🤧) I bought the following:
1x powerbanks a 10000mAh
2x powerbanks a 20000mAh
1x miniature charger (with USB-C output, supposedly upto 20W)
1x USB-C to USB-C cable
Look!
It has a hook and everything!
🙂
Not sure it’ll make the cut, spacewise, but it’ll be good for ‘normal’ trips if nothing else.
I also bought soap and hair ties and an assortment of other exciting things.
D brought some pictures of volcanoes to work to show me. The pictures are amazing…and part of a very effective advertising concept. The catalogue camping/outdoor equipment includes a series of [extreme] travel reports, ensuring that you keep reading and ‘accidentally’ look at their gear and the pack lists and the favourites and recommendations. It’s not immediately obvious what’s for sale and what’s just what someone happens to be wearing or carrying or using. It’s incredibly well done 🙂
As I flipped through the rest of the catalogue I came across an article about a small hammock-making company focussed on being as ethical and climate-friendly as they can. That set off an avalanche of hammock related thoughts and research.
It seems they’re not the only company making lightweight hammocks and thinking about their effect on the world. I read about several others, all with a slightly different angle. Organic cotton, well paid staff, reduced emissions, recycled/recyclable materials, European production, using the scraps for other projects… etc etc etc.
***
Nearly 20 years ago, when I went to live with people who had hammocks instead of beds, I decided I wanted a hammock too. I started playing with the idea of taking one camping a few years ago, when a friend said he’d done it. Trouble is, things like wall plugs and statics and mosquito nets and weight and the ‘right’ kinds of fibres are each enough to bog me down for weeks and I never got much further than reading and overwhelming myself in the research and putting it all off for ‘later’.
This time round I was more trigger-happy and actually bought something 🙂
Or more accurately two somethings.
I picked this up from the neighbouring town:
So cool 🙂
Also a testimony to the power of subliminal advertising.
Not that I bought it new or from the companies mentioned in or issuing the catalogue.
I figure the most ecologically beneficial purchases are the second hand ones using what already exists. This one was brand new, from one of the companies I’d just discovered and was on sale within cycling distance. Seemed way too good to miss 🙂
What a great way to spend a Saturday evening 🙂
Then I bought a ridiculously lightweight one online, also second hand, also from one of the newly discovered companies.
I assume the blue one will mostly live on the balcony and the light one will come camping with me.
I went to buy folders and came back with this:
It’s an aluminium (credit) card box, with a powerbank built into the back.
They had some without powerbanks too:
But they were so similar I went with the powerbank one. My thought was something like this: I can put my cards in it and keep it in my pocket without bending them and it’ll be RFID protection too because it’s aluminium.
When I got it home an unpacked it, I decided that it might have been a good idea, but it was a ridiculous box.th
The inside dividers would have probably been less flimsy if they’d been made of bin-liners…
..and the powerbank’s capacity was tiny..
..and the box didn’t fit comfortably into my pocket..
..and it has a micro USB cable..
..but apart from that..
..it was fine.
It went on the giveaway table at work and it’s gone, so hopefully someone else is happy with it 🙂
🙂
[N.B. this was written in my head and started on screenpaper when I got back. I fell asleep between uploading the pictures and finishing the text so I finished writing after the evening and backdated to fit]
Someone was singing here when I rode past. Sounded pretty good so I made a note to put on a dress and come back once the tent was up.
Once the tent was up and I’d unpacked a bit, I was tired and cold and kind of sticky. I wanted a shower and to curl up in a ball somewhere soft and warm. I didn’t want to ‘people’. I could hear the music from the campsite, I didn’t need to go anywhere.
I unpacked my shampoo and my comb and my towel and put on my flipflops and my cycling jersey-windstopper-combi so I could leave the relative warmth of the tent..
..and then I put my shower stuff down and zipped up the tent door and walked along the beach to the party.
Like you do.
It wasn’t actually cold, probably 19 or 20 degrees, and there was a good path directly from the campsite to the bar. It mostly wasn’t actually on the beach, but so close it makes no difference. It was dark, but not so dark that you couldn’t see the white sand of the path against the dark of the grass next to the path. There was no mistaking the direction either – the music was loud enough to be heard from the campsite a good kilometre and got louder the closer I got, although there were a few competing stereos on the piers..
15 minutes later I was there:
The first people I noticed outside were so drunk that even wiggly lines were difficult. What looked fun earlier was now distinctly not fun-looking. The beachy-look had been exchanged for a ‘going out’ look. My bike kit might have been a tiny bit odd earlier but now it really really didn’t fit in. But I was there and so was the music and turning round and going home seemed wimpier than I wanted to be. So I looked for somewhere to sit that wasn’t inside.
The third pallet-bench was free part from the backpack to one side, so I sat on it. That meant the band was behind me and that felt stupid so I turned round and knelt on the cushion and leaned over the ‘fence’. That gave me a super view of the guitar players and all the drunk people around them.
One of the drunk people leaned over the fence from the inside and asked if I didn’t want to come in properly (which in retrospect and in a different mood might have been fun) but I absolutely didn’t. She turned back to her friends at her table and poured everyone more of whatever they were drinking.
Half an hour later the bands (they swapped every 10-15 minutes) had all finished.
Background music was turned on and the general noise of people ‘talking’ drowned it out.
I got up and walked back to my tent, picked up my shower things and went to the shower block to discover that the shower block was open but the showers only worked with 5 SEK coins of which I had precisely none.
I gave up and after a ‘Katzenwäsche’ came back to the tent..
..and was asleep more or less instantly.
That mesh some backpacks have suddenly makes sense…
And this, dear children, is why you should pack your spare glasses.
And remember to put your glasses in the tent pockets when you take them off.
*sigh*
Time to find an optician…
I also bought a super fast data cable and a couple of SD cards. You never know…
This should have been delivered on Monday while I was at work but they took it to the post office instead.. (apparently no one was in the building.. possible but unlikely)
Awww, so pretty 🙂
And they’re silver so they match the bike better..
And they’re so much more stable than the old ones 🙂
One of the screws came undone on the way and a spacer was missing, presumably fell out of the gaping hole in the box.
Is there any better Kalorienbombe to take cycling?
Is there any better way to make flapjack than via a late night Skype call with a friend? *
* (If so,. I imagine it only involves said friend also having the following day off work ;p)
This one fits perfectly 🙂 and it has a pocket. Theoretically for the cable or a mouse but I have another case for cables. This is perfect for SD cards..
Leftover from a barbecue party in May.
Super bright, clip on/silicone band. I’m not entirely sure it’s road legal on the brightest setting..
What’s the best thing to do when you have so much to do, you don’t know where to start?
Catch up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while 🙂
Obviously.
🙂
Getting in ~40 km and assorted small-ad pick ups while you’re at it is a bonus (or was that the other way round?)
Either way it was a pretty solidly packed evening, even without counting the time spent getting lost..
But then, as the saying goes,
If you don’t have time for a half hour break, you should take a full hour.
And it was all worth it. Even the wrong lake was beautiful.
I want to take my laptop with me. There’s something to be said for a keyboard.. I wanted to pack said laptop into something bike basket friendly, preferably also dust and waterproof. A neoprene case seemed to be a good idea.
Look what I found on the small ad site!
It’s too small for my laptop, but I wanted it anyway and all the cables and powerbanks fit in it 🙂
the Jess(e)way around 