Archive for the 'Shiny new kit' Category

Patience is a virtue

Posted by on March 27th 2007 in Shiny new kit

At last, the long wait is over. My GoLite Tarp2 has arrived. There's a bit of a boring story behind this, but what the hell, I'll tell you anyway, you don't have to read it!

Back in November of 2006 , James at OneOutdoors was having a sale. Tarp2s were going cheap but try as I might, the website wouldn't let me order one, then the site showed zero stock as they all sold out, so I thought I was going to miss out on a bargain. Undeterred, I emailed James, telling him of my plight, and he kindly set up a special order for me so that I could reserve a Tarp2 at the discounted price.

Well, things didn't go according to plan for James. He had ongoing problems getting tarps from his source. Much to his credit, James kept me informed at every turn in the proceedings, and gave me options to either cancel or wait on several occasions. You just can't fault that for good customer service, can you?

Anyway, I got an email from James on Friday last week, telling me that he had received some tarps, yesterday he emailed that one had been dispatched, and the tarp arrived this morning, so I'm a happy bunny, it was worth the long wait.

So, top marks for James (and Nicky, who put a sweet message on the invoice), who achieved triumph in the face of adversity.

BTW, you might like to know that there's a clearance sale of GoLite kit at OneOutdoors right now.

New kip-mat

Posted by on March 26th 2007 in Shiny new kit

A new Insul-Mat Max Thermo Long has just been delivered here (ordered on the 22nd March from Sierra Trading Post in the US - top marks to them and to UPS for the quick delivery). Being a saddo, I've already weighed it... Claimed weight 709g Actual weight without stuffsac 709g Stuffsac 22g Repair kit 10g

After much procrastinating, we bought a new scanner

Posted by on March 6th 2007 in Shiny new kit

The honeymoon slides have been languishing in a file for over a decade, viewed only occasionally when we've been able to borrow a projector. Last year, we tried to scan them with our ageing Plustek scanner but it really wasn't up to the job, so I asked for opinions from places various then we did some sums and decided that it would be cost-effective to abandon the self-scanning option and get them done by a lab. A good plan at the time.

Recently the situation changed. Lots of old family photos have surfaced and the need to preserve lots of images for posterity has forced our hand, so we ordered a cheap (<£60) scanner that would handle negatives and slides - a Canon CS 4400F to be precise. I must admit that I thought that it would only give mediocre results with our old slides, but I'm happy to report that it's a little cracker. Now I can look forward to spending hundreds of hours converting our family images to 1s and 0s.

 

The Nanoks arrived today

Posted by on January 17th 2007 in Shiny new kit

More kit! 🙂

They're nice and warm, lightweight and they pack down quite small - in the supplied stuffsack they measure about 3" square x 6" long, but they can be compressed to something resembling a bulging 3" cube (although in reality they'll live at the bottom of the sleeping bag and hence get compressed with it). They are an unusual fit - the elasticated top is at mid-calf height, so they feel like they need to be pulled up more, but in reality they want to fall down to ankle-height. It's no problem, though, because I fold them down to the ankle anyway. I like the fact that they don't bind on the inside of the sleeping bag because they don't have the dot-grip or rubber soles that so many hut/bothy/tent booties tend to have.

I reckon that I'll be happy with them. In an uncharacteristic fit of generosity I got a pair for SWMBO as well, so that she's got no excuse for stealing mine.

Sleeping socks

Posted by on January 15th 2007 in Shiny new kit

It's taken me ages to track them down here in the UK, but persistence paid off... I just ordered some Nanok Sleeping Socks from OutdoorCode. I figure that they'll do as tent-boots in winter. No doubt the cold-footed SWMBO will requisition them on our next wildcamp.

Top marks for Alpkit!

Posted by on January 9th 2007 in Shiny new kit
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It's less than 18 hours since ordering and the AD700 is here! It's "evil" black which looks great but after its travels it needed to go upstairs for a lie down (no pun intended) in order to regain some loft. Looks like I'll be setting up the bivvytent in the garden at the weekend so that I can see how the AD copes - let's pray for a good deep frost on Friday night. Hopefully I won't have to take advantage of Alpkit's 7-day returns policy and change the 700 for a 900.

The Tikes look quite mean too. If they don't keep the bivvytent nailed to the back lawn, nothing will.
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