Rick's b.log - entry 2020/06/21

Litha (Summer Solstice)

Unfortunately, since 2020 has been such a brilliant year so far, this is what I got to see:

Well, I went for a walk (in the light drizzle), had a cup of tea, then went back to bed. I'm not surprised. 2020 managed to easily outdo 2016 as the year many would rather forget, and we're only halfway through.

Good news, bad news. Good news is that the heat of summer is (allegedly) still ahead of us, as the seasons tend to run about a month and a half after the sun's position. That's why summer holidays are in August (and today is the 'start' of summer), and also why the coldest winter weather often happens in February.
And the bad news... as far as daylight goes, it's all downhill from now until the bleakness of winter.
Remember this on December 16th. That's why I celebrated my birthday at the other end of this week. ☺

Tent

Weighing in at 1.13kg, it is a fairly small cylindrical package with carrying handle.

Pulling out the tent and unfolding it reveals a number of pieces inside. Two tent poles in short segments with elastic string to hold them together, some thick string for the guy lines, and some basic tent pegs. The poles and pegs in little bags made out of the same material as the base sheet so they don't case any damage.

There are instructions on the opposite side of the pack label. Written in numerous languages, though interestingly not English.
That said, this sort of tent is dead easy to put together. Instructions not necessary.

The basic principle is to extend the two tent poles and carefully slide them criss-cross into the guide tunnels running across the tent dome, like this:

When that is done, locate the lugs at each corner of the tent and push the poles into the appropriate holes in the lug. There will usually be two holes. One is for the pole, the other is for a tent peg.
It will take a small amount of effort as the poles are bent under tension. That's what causes the dome to erect.

The whole erection was done in less time than it takes to boil water for a mug of tea. Obviously if camping properly, it will take a couple of minutes longer as you'll want to install the tent pegs and guy lines. That said, it ought to be entirely set up from scratch in about five minutes. Useful if you're tired and just want to go to sleep.

Here's a view from inside. Note the aforementioned mug of tea by the door. ☺

The tent is a single layer of rather flimsy looking... what is it, nylon cloth? I wouldn't trust this tent to provide protection against anything more than a very light drizzle. That said, if you're going camping on a rainy day, you'll want one of those tents that costs seven times as much.

Finally, the thing that bugged me when camping as a child (a brief dabble with "The Duke of Edinburgh Award" scheme), was the difficulty of getting everything back into the bags. Luckily this tent is quite simple in this respect too. Fold in half down its length. Then in half again. Lay the poles, string, and pegs along the narrow edge nearest you and then roll up tightly. Then it'll just slide into the bag. Here's everything back in the bags:

Of course, with an enormous house and numerous outbuildings and plenty of land, the idea of having a tent might appear to be somewhat odd. I'll grant you that, and suggest that maybe it's some amount of my inner childhood leaking out. I guess I'd better visit eBay and see if I can find myself a Walkman... ☺
[later: holy crap! they didn't cost that much the first time around!]

More dead-easy Rice Cooker Meals

Meal one, using half a bag of frozen mixed veg (peas, carrots, potatoes, onions, and some spices) and three frozen burgers (broken into pieces).

Meal two is using the aforementioned frozen mixed veg (the other half of the bag) along with a measure of Japanese Koshihikari rice. This also works as a vegetarian friendly meal.

Suspicious?

And...

And more...

Now to enjoy a salad and yogurt while watching an episode of... hmm... I don't know. Probably Lucifer. He's delightfully smarmy, stuck up, annoying, so rather... British. ☺

I've just looked at my salad. It's use by date is the 28^th.

Your comments:

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VinceH, 22nd June 2020, 00:32

I have two tents. One is a two person tent, a broadly similar design to yours. As you say, dead easy to put up and put away. It's so long since I last used it, though, I can't even remember what colour it is!    The other is a smaller, one person tent. When I go walking somewhere there is a possibility of getting lost, that one gets put in my rucksack just in case. It's never been used in anger (thankfully). I've only put it up once, to try it out when I first bought it, and ISTR it was more of a pain than the two person one.

David Pilling, 25th June 2020, 16:09

Tents are disposable - see Glastonbury aftermath - no need to put back in the bag.

Rick, 25th June 2020, 17:35

> Stupid people think Tents are disposable.    There. FTFY.

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