Monday 9th: Phone and black 20k powerbank charged overnight, ready for the test starting on Tuesday.
The test:
I charged my phone from the powerbank whenever it reached around 20%
I did normal things with the phone; I took pictures, bluetooth and location were on regularly, I checked timetables, I navigated to places, I streamed music and Youtube videos, I had a couple of Skype calls on the laptop using my phone as an internet hotspot.
Results:
On Friday 13th at ~5pm the powerbank was empty and the phone had 15% left.
Phone: 4200 mAh
Powerbank: 20000 mAh
Should be ~5 charges. Instead it was 3 full (overnight) charges (Tues, Weds, Thurs) plus some daytime top-ups.
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:
Ja, ist sehr gut! ;p
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.
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…
Disappointing 😔
..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 🙂
Sometimes you make sure you have enough food to get you to the next supermarket.
Sometimes you crash and don’t make it to the place you were aiming for.
Sometimes you take an extra day to hobble, wince and recover.
Sometimes you really don’t fancy another round of currants and nuts and sweetcorns.
Sometimes your nearest shop is a campsite kiosk..
Blackboard: ‘In our fridge/freezer we stock: …’Can’t remember the last time I had my shopping packed into a plastic bag..Not bad for a campsite shop..Sia, you make good icecream, work on your packaging!I’ll cook soon.. but first: icecream 🙂
My phone was almost dead (7%) and my powerbanks all empty when I woke up (the second time) this morning.
-> time to find a plug…
The ‘kitchen’ has a microwave and a 2-ring hob, and therefore two plug sockets -> I put my phone and a powerbank on charge and went to sit in the sun. I didn’t want to leave them and go too far away, and an hour isn’t that long…
I watched the grasshoppers and the ants and the dragonflies. I moved between the sun and the shade on the bench, then went to the log pile. I stretched a bit, looked around a bit, went to check on the phone…
“12%”
Joy.
“2 hours until full”
More joy.
I went back to my woodpile.
And then people appeared on the beach.
People with rakes and a wheelbarrow.
(Even in Sweden this isn’t normal beachgoing paraphernalia)
I watched more closely for a few minutes. It was an ‘older’* couple collecting seaweed/seagrass. She’d scoop some out with the rake and pile it up on the sand, while he’d pick it up with a pitchfork and fill the wheelbarrow.
The beach is quite long and there was a lot of seaweed.
I felt ridiculously lazy siting and watching them..
..and it wasn’t like I had anything better to do..
..so I left my woodpile and wandered over to the beach.
“Can I do that?”
She turned to look at me as if I’d just landed from Mars.
“Can I do that?” I asked again and put my hand out, gesturing for the rake.
I assumed she’d give me the rake and split the work on making and gathering piles with her (presumably) husband. Instead, she pointed at the loo block. “There’s another rake on the wall….”
The three of us worked in relative silence, punctuated by the occasional question in my direction; where are you going next, are you cycling the whole way by yourself, what do you do when you’re not cycling, … ?
Then a fourth person joined in. He nodded at me and said something in Swedish that could have meant anything from, ‘I’m joining in too’ to, ‘I’ll show you how it’s done properly’ to, ‘it’s a great day for seaweed fishing’ – I had no idea. When I asked him to say it again in English he shrugged and carried on raking. I think he might be the only Swede I’ve met this trip that hasn’t spoken English.. He was helpful though, we could round up the weed and drag it to shore from both sides without it scattering completely.
A good two hours later she announced that they were going to stop for lunch.
“I’m so grateful for your help! You can stay here tonight for free.* And yesterday.”
“Wow! Thank you! That’s great!”
*thinks*
“Are you going home for lunch? If you’re going to be here for a bit can I change some money for the shower?”
She took 3 coins out of her pocket, “Here. Is that enough?”
“Um. I don’t know.. how long do they last?”
“4 minutes.”
“Then I’d rather have 4, just in case…”
“Here”
“Perfect! Thank you, I’ll just go and get my purse to swap”
“No. That’s ok. Enjoy your shower”
10kr shower coins
There’s something very soothing about paddling in warm water with a rake, fishing out the seaweed and the algae.
Time for a shower and a change of clothes now tho 🙂
My powerbank had reached the dizzy heights of ~25%, my phone had at least got to 83%.
* I’m really not good at guessing ages, but they were (very) well over 50..
(The campsite I was aiming at was full when I phoned ahead to check. The one after that was another ~40km or so away. This one was almost directly round the corner when I found out.)
I needed lunch that wasn’t nuts and dried fruit…and there were supermarkets on my road so I didn’t even need to look for one 🙂
To be honest, if I hadn’t seen one, I would probably have been ok with the food I had with me, but there were two shops right there..
Part 1 – ICA
That one was on my side of the roadjso I went there first.
Haven’t seen a working one of these in yearsDirectly next to the entrance Then the fruit and veg – in fridges, curiously Mmmm… oh to have a kitchen! ;pA better choice?? Than what?Yogurt licorice..???Putting wasabi between all the cool stuff is a mean trickApples!Yup, great marketing. Put the crisps right next to the veggies..Chocolate protein pudding? Blueberry sopp?Flavoured cream cheese?Recipes based on current offersA KILO of mini meatballsFrozen prawny thingsThis may be the ‘choice’ that the ‘better choice’ was based against..Swedish jelly babies?German company, Swedish content. Can’t imagine many Germans buying liquorice sprinkles for their icecream, salty or otherwise…
So what did I buy?
Not pictured: the ‘healthy’ yogurt nuts and raisins…
Here they are: the ‘healthy’ pick’n’mix:
Part 2 – Coop
The thing I went in for, the salad, was the one thing I didn’t come out with.
Onto the next shop.
Pick’n’mix salad barSalad toppings: sweetcorn, onion, hand sanitiser…Interesting loaf of bread.. more like a stack of mini naans…🙂Um.. I suppose they’d last a long time..
[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:
View from the side. Right the band, left and middle all the drunk people..
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.
View from behind. There’s a barrier between the umbrellas and the pallet chairs.
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..
The pier past the seaweed starts close to the tent so I took my icecream to have a look before deciding to go back for my cozzie.
Took some pictures too ;p
Campsite, from the end of the pierTo the left, featuring the campsite’s second pierTo the rightNo jumping, but I did turn around. The bushes on the right are on a tiny island
10 minutes later I was in the [ridiculously warm] water 🙂
Luckily a family had the same idea so I wasn’t swimming by myself 🙂 and if very little kids can swim for 20 minutes at 10pm I can too..
Still no one in reception or answering the phone..
Also no one going in or out of the loo block 😦
Looks like it’s back to the Dixiklos..
😦 😦 😦
Driving off..
Edit: kind of? They were still super gross.. but better than yesterday. The truck apparently doesn’t empty them it ‘just’ washes them and tops up the water in the tank.. maybe?
Turns out if you take away the light, I can sleep later..
(Also, I must have been way more tired than I thought.. I fell asleep fully clothed with the lights on at ~10pm.. only got undressed and turned the light out a few hours later 😲🙈)
the Jess(e)way around 