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The best £39 I ever spent

Sun, 27 May 2007 17:49:49 GMT

I have done a little cycling in my time.... kind of half serious, mainly for fun and to get a bit fit (I am not built for running). As part of this cycling thing, every year I try and get what I call “bike fit” which entails being able to cycle 50 miles (80 km). Cycling this distance can build up a mighty thirst, and even with two bottles, I found myself running short of H₂O. So I bought one of these:

Basically a bag that holds water, with a drinking tube and contained in a rucksack. It holds two litres and I have found it indispensable. I also have a day sack that can contain the water bag, and can be used when walking. Slurp.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

The best £19 I ever spent

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:39:55 GMT

A few years ago I went through a phase of buying up some solar gadgetry. I think renewable energy is a no-brainer. Why go to all the effort to dig stuff out of the ground, burn it, then live with the consequences when we have a large celestial fusion furnace right on our doorstep?

So one of the things I bought was this little beauty, it is of basic construction, but it works brilliantly. During the summer months, I never recharge my batteries from the mains, and this makes it free.

All those leads mean you can charge nearly anything, especially if you have a car charger for your appliance. I love mine, although currently it is in a padded envelope due to a complete lack of sunshine. Maybe I should consider a wind turbine too...?

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

The best £35 I ever spent

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 05:39:11 GMT

Four or five years ago, these little beauties were quite new on the market, and were not that common everyday objects as they are today. I am certainly not an early adopter of new technology, and once I have bought something I will use it until it dies, so a lot of the gadgets I am surrounded by can look a bit dated.

This USB stick is only 32MB, but I love it. It has been dropped and broken into pieces, but after some open heart surgery with some super glue, it is still functioning today.

I love my stick.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

The best £149 I ever spent

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:12:13 GMT

Nearly four years ago Ren and I watched a programme on the BBC which introduced us to a new outdoor past time. But to participate in it, a GPS (Global Positioning System) handset would be required. So, as my birthday was approaching I thought I would treat myself to one of these:

The new past time was Geocaching (www.geocaching.com) and is essentially a treasure hunt using coordinates to help locate some booty. So over the coming weeks and months we got into the great outdoors and hunted for lots of “caches”. I will post about this more specifically another day...

In all the time we have been geocaching (yes, it is also a verb), my GPS has rarely let us down, and I don't begrudge a single penny of the initial outlay. You can probably find loads of these on eBay now (yes you can, for about £50, I just checked) as this model has been superseded, but I am going to keep using mine until it dies.

As the little known theologian Father Jack Hackett once said: “I love my brick!”.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

The best £5 I ever spent

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:10:01 GMT

Now, I have always liked coffee. I cut my teeth on typical "freeze-dried Tasters Choice" (thanks Jules), and progressed to cafetiere coffee, which is handy, as the Swedish ilk seem to love the proper stuff too.

In a typical work place/school you will find a coffee/tea vending machine, which is a living lie, as it does not actualy sell coffee, it sells something that poorly simulates coffee.

So what to do? I want the proper stuff away from home, without having to carry a mug AND a cafetiere around with me. Then one day I saw this in a cookware shop in Sailsbury, Wiltshire, UK:

Basically it is a thermally insulated mug with a built in cafetiere plunger, so you can charge it with coffee, go to work, add water (and anything else you desire) to give you that perfect cup of coffee. Whatever next? Coffee bags (like tea bags, but with.. er.. coffee in)?

That is All.

LostInTheWoods

The best £119 I ever spent

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:39:59 GMT

A couple of years ago I decided to invest some proper money in an MP3 player. Up to that point I had always bought cheap bits of rubbish off Bay from Hong Kong. The life lesson I learnt was “DO NOT BUY CHEAP CRAP OFF EBAY!”. This is a very important lesson I learnt after MP3 players crashing and dying while I was listening to my favourite 80's throw back rock. So pay heed.

Two years ago there were not many MP3 players in the shops (hard to believe now I know), but I bought off the internet, this little beauty:

It has served me well, I use it every day and I would be lost without it. It is more useful than any personal cassette player, CD player or radio I have ever had.

I just thought I would share.....

Taa Dah! (or How did I get here?)

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:24:29 GMT

It seems to me, anyone who can bash a keyboard is blogging.... so here we go, this is my attempt at this new fangled phenomenon.

First thing you have to do, is select a category for this blog post... seeing as I haven't got a clue what to write about (joining the majority of the blogosphere then), I have gone for 'life', as this might make me sound deep.

As it seems most people have been blogging for what seems forever, I am not sure what to put in my first post... but here goes... the title sums up what is coming.

About two years ago, I didn't make a decision, it kind of crept up on me, and imposed itself on me. The decision was to leave the town, and more substantially, the country of my birth. Lots of things came together at once.... boring but fairly well paid job... even crap accomodation was expensive... learning a language with little opportunity to use it... and my girlfriend was kind of missing her home country.

So I broke the news to all my nearest and dearest that I would be leaving behind, and it was quite a moving experience. For some it was a surprise, for some no suprise at all. I choked up telling my father... and I got very touching messages in my leaving card when I left work. Some people asked me "When are you coming back to the UK?". My answer was truthful, yet sounded odd when I said it out loud: "Erm... based on current plans... never. (gulp)".

So a moving firm was booked, bills paid, plane ticket purchased, most of our worldly goods sold at local car boot sales or on eBay, and we were gone... well nearly.

One of the last things we did before going was to tell my "Nanna", who was in her 94^th year, that we were leaving the country for good. Her hearing was not so good, but I think she understood we were going to live abroad, and not just go on holiday. Sadly, five days after flying to our new home, she died, and we soon were heading back for the funeral. She was my last grandparent to pass away, and I still miss her and the two granddads that my brother and I grew up knowing.

So fast forward eighteen months to now... looking back over the time since then, many of life's frustrations have gone, replaced with just a few minor ones... and life is good. I have now realised, that I do not miss the place of my birth, just the people I know, and have known there.

So in my next post, I'll tell you where we moved too, and some of the the things I have learnt and discovered since getting here.

Thank you for reading this post.
That is all.

LostInTheWoods