Pupdate

After returning from the Lake District last month I took a closer look at the maps of our local area and discovered some new walking routes that are right on our doorstep. The boys seem to enjoy having a good run around on them:

Malaysia and Singapore

There was enough to this trip that it got its own blog post series, but here’s one of the photos that I didn’t use.

New Luggage

I generally travel hand luggage only, except for family holidays where we’ve been sharing a bunch of roller duffel bags acquired from Target in Kissimmee over the years. Sadly one of those duffels didn’t survive our Easter trip, and the remaining ones are a bit scruffy. It was time for some new gear.

Big Bags

Rachel wanted a ‘spinner’ bag, I didn’t. Neither of us wanted hard luggage, and neither of us wanted samey black bags. It turned out that the Eastpak range had something for both of us, in an almost matching pair.

I got a Tranverz L, which is a 121 litre roller duffel. It was more than enough space for a two week trip. In fact it’s probably a little too much, as if full this bag would likely be too heavy for most airline limits.

Rachel’s 80 litre Trans4 L spinner has a bit more structure to it, but only 2/3 of the capacity. It was still plenty for two weeks away.

Both bags weighed in at just under 20kg when packed (which included a bottle of fizz in each), and there was LOTS of space left in mine[1]. They seem to have made it through their first trip (and 4 flights) pretty much unscathed.

After the trouble with BA losing one of our bags at Easter we put AirTags in these, and it was reassuring to see that they arrived with us at each airport (though a little annoying to get alerts about left behind luggage every time we left the hotel)[2].

Backpack

I wanted something with a little more capacity than the Eastpak messenger I use as my ‘personal item’ bag on US trips, but my Lowe Alpine Pax 30 backpack has never been smart, and is looking decidedly shabby after some 20y of service.

When I came across the Lowe Alpine Pioneer 26 I loved the retro styling at first glance.

It’s smart enough that I don’t feel awkward carrying it into a fancy hotel, but also very practical. For the trips out and back it comfortably swallowed everything I wanted to keep with me. The laptop compartment is safe and secure, and saves having to bring along a sleeve. The top pocket is perfect for my hat, and also stuffing in pocket items when going through airport security. It fitted perfectly into the at seat stowage for the long haul flights, and goes into a narrow body overhead sideways. Out and about in Malaysia and Singapore it carried umbrellas and a hydro flask, with huge space left for any shopping we might pick up.

There are times when I’ve packed the Pax 30 solid, and I wonder if the smaller capacity might bite me for similar occasions down the line. But also I’ll probably get something less structured for hiking with anyway. Here’s hoping it lasts as well as my previous Lowe Alpine backpack, as so far I love it :)

Solar diary

The anniversary of getting the panels installed rolled around, with a total of 4393.9 kWh of generation.

The end of the month also brought on the quarterly reading for Smart Export Guarantee. All being well, I should see a payment of £59.19 – woohoo!

More importantly I’ve reduced the electricity I import by 2782 kWh over the year, which is £859.64 at present rates (and was more earlier in the year)[3]. There’s also been some saving on the gas bill. So it’s looking like the system will pay for itself in 7-8 years.

I bought one of these

The lightning port on my (now >3y old) iPhone SE 2020 is starting to get very persnickety[4], leading to some tense mornings where it hasn’t charged overnight, so the obvious answer is a charger that doesn’t use the port. So far I’ve woken up to 100% each morning, and I’ve not noticed it getting too warm. I do however need to remove the metal ring/stand from my QuadLock case, which can lead to it being left behind.

Notes

[1] Thankfully the straps do a great job of holding in any slack so it isn’t flapping around.
[2] Yes, I know that the alerts can be suppressed, but it’s a chore.
[3] This ignores that we’ve been using the hot tub during summer months, which would usually add around 200 kWh per month to the bill, but by using its timer we’ve been heating it pretty much entirely by solar.
[4] Not helped I think by the QuadLock case I use which just a little bit stops the plug from seating comfortably. I didn’t have any such problems with my previous iPhone 6S, which lasted over 5y.