Silver Lining

One of the things I've meaning to do since me & The Boy's trip to the 'gorms was to put together a One Pot Kitchen for him. The stove he used was a wee bit too big to fit in the Alpkit MyTi Mug along with a gas canister, Buff and Spork.

Trail failed to deliver on their promise of a free Markill Hot Shot way back in April when I subscribed (more on that later) and I've been keeping a weather-eye open ever since. I was quite chuffed with myself when I bid on, and won, a Hot Shot that had been listed on Ebay. But that has come to nought, the seller coughing up nothing but excuses and lining herself up for my very first helping of negative feedback.

Last weekend, I found myself in Sterling Village, Tillicoutry (nr Stirling), accompanying The Future Mrs D on a mission of great importance. Luckily for me, there's a Mountain Warehouse there, formerly a Karrimor clearance outlet but now full of generic own-brand "stuff". Not the kind of place I'm known to frequent but I can usually kill 5 or 10 minutes mooching about inside. While wandering the aisles, a box caught my eye; a wee Coleman F1 stove. The price sticker looked wrong, way too cheap for what it was. I checked with the lassie on the till and it was indeed correct. "I'll take it", says I.

A result then. The F1 is lighter than the Markill by a long way. It's simple, cheap and folk seem to like it. I'm happy now :o)

Plastic Fantastic

Bought a copy of Anquet Great Britain (North) a couple of weeks ago for £50, via Ebay. It's a revelation. Despite being IT literate and fond of most things geeky, I'd never considered getting into digital mapping. I like paper maps and have done for as long as I remember.*

I used the Ordnance Survey's OS Select service a couple of years ago and was impressed at the ability to choose an area to centre on. (Cruach Ardrain, in my case)

Anquet's another kettle of fish altogether. Hours of fun! I'd recently bought a decent printer (Canon Pixma iP4300) and a Garmin Geko 201 + data cable (£75, again via Ebay) so I'm now the proud owner of a complete "never get lost again" package.

The icing on the cake is the fact that TFMD has an A4 laminator. Oh, the joy :o)

I now have a pile of plastic-coated A4 maps, comprising my "hit list" of hills that I'll do this year AND, what better reason do I need for finally getting around to making Podcast Bob's "strapamaptome"?

So, when it's pishing down and blowing a gale outside, I can be inside, virtually wandering the hills and having a tremendously good time while I'm at it.

*The Future Mrs Duncan is, at this moment, in Ikea looking for a frame for my Bartholomews half-inch to the mile, map of Skye and Wester Ross. Cloth mounted, it's a thing of beauty.

Little marvel

Bought a Leatherman Micra via Ebay last week as my current SAK is a bit on the heavy side. The Micra's got everything I need (went for the scissors option rather than pliers) and it's a lot smaller. Might mean it's easier to lose tho'. Time will tell.