Retiring times and acquisitions

It's hard to describe how much better a Sunday is when you don't have to go to work on a Monday. It's longer, fuller, richer, more relaxing. Take today - I got up about 7.30 (actually, that's not completely true - I came home pissed and slept on the couch so I didn't really have to get up at all, I kind of just had to roll towards the television), had a fried egg, fake cheese and tomato sauce bap with coffee (generously provided by Grrr) and watched the DVD I rented for last night, which we didn't watch last night because we accidentally spent the evening in the pub. Then I washed the dishes and the sheets (separately), made a hommus, burnt some old business cards and played with my new camera. The second half of Chelsea v Spurs is now on, followed by England v France then I might possibly watch a bit of Plymouth v Watford before heading off for Nine Inch Nails in Brixton. And I don't care how spannered I get or what time I get home because I don't have to go to work tomorrow. This is a good quality Sunday

Anyway, on a less gloaty and more travel-related note, we're in full acquisitional mode and things are coming together nicely - seems ironic that in order to travel with as little as possible we find ourselves buying more stuff than we have for years! I won't go in to details on the new underwear and cycling socks; or maybe I will but not in this post. Today I will focus on some cool stuff we have bought.

For the next six months, this will be our new home. Yup, it's the Vaude Taurus Ultralight 2 person tent. Weighing in at under 2kg and less than 50cm long when packed, it's excellent for carrying on the bike, but I suspect will prove very snug with two people wedged into it. At least Grrr's thin. We are yet to practice putting it up, which is something we need to address in the near future. Unfortunately, the tent is slightly larger than our garden and I fear the cops would move us on if we tried to pitch it in the park - perhaps ninja-style night pitching in random public spaces will be in order.

For all our energy needs: our groovy new Solio charger. Solar powered - fully charged in about four hours of full sunshine - it can be used to recharge our mobile phones, the DS, iPod, Walkman, etc. Sadly it doesn't have quite the kick to fill up my iBook and won't be able to charge the camera battery (I don't think - still trying to find out if we can get a connector for that!) but it certainly cuts down on all the chargers and leads we normally cart around to support our pathetically gadget dependent lifestyles - and it's lovely free, green energy! Working alongside our solar battery charger, we're pretty much green energy fiends for this trip.

To record the majesty of our journey (no, really), we've got this little beauty - the Canon Ixus 900 Ti. It rocks. Wanted something really compact and easy to carry on the bike, but which had some manual functionality and decent performance in low light or reasonably close. Obviously, the 10million megapixels is bollocks - I'm not really going to blow my pics up so they can be seen from space - but I've been mucking about with it for a week or so and I'm impressed so far. Took it to the British Museum for a test run at indoor, often low light conditions and some of the pictures are great. The digital macro setting was good for close up work and with adjustable ISO you can bring camera shake right down without a tripod. I've not taken many outdoors shots as yet, and as always it has a million pre-programmed settings that you are never going to use (Foliage??), but double thumbs up at this stage. And it has a viewfinder - which I find helpful as I'm still struggling to get into the habit of composing a picture with the camera held a foot from my face (tragic, I know).

Here's a pic I took of a candle last night:



I don't think I've ever bought this much stuff at one time in my life - and I have to admit, I can somewhat see the lure of consumerism. Getting all this stuff has been genuinely exciting and fun - even if every decision is agonised over seemingly endlessly (I am too ashamed, utterly ashamed, to admit how long it took us to decide on the tent...). Still, we're going to have not a hell of a lot for the next six months, so I'm content to soak up the joy of acquisition for a couple of weeks. The big questions remain: what kind of stove and what kind of cookware. Compelling, I think you'll agree.

Heads up to any London readers - I'll be having a drink this Friday, March 16, probably at the Princess Louise from about 5.30pm. If I haven't been in touch with you, stick a comment below and I'll make sure I let you know the final details as soon as I know them. And don't forget the Morning Bride gig on Saturday!