Monday 4 August 2008

mmmm, lovely tents

I have been at the Big Chill this weekend having a generally splendid time. While I was there I came across the the good people from www.belltent.co.uk who were full of practical advice and had loads of display models for me to check out. I managed to bore the pants from my various friends with my enthusiasm for the canvas creations and by sporadically dragging them in to sit in one of the various different models of tent.

I have ordered a 5 metre* tent with a fixed heavy duty groundsheet, just like the one you can see here. The extra metre in diameter above that of the 4 metre tent is very noticable with a huge increase in headroom and floor space. As my only living space I know that I will come to appreciate the extra space. The fixed groundsheet should protect me from all but the most severe flooding and is thick enough to take quite a lot of abuse.

It was well ventilated with 4 large semicircular flaps that can be unzipped to reveal a mosquito netted windows about a foot from the floor. They seem to work very well, it was a very hot day and it was perfectly comfortable inside. The whole tent stands 3.5 metres high which is a pretty damn big space, I may get my geometry out at some point and calculate the internal volume of the shape when I am suitably bored.

He also had a couple of stoves which I have become unreasonably excited about but I will get some pictures and do a post in due course. Seeing the tents in the flesh has really enthused me and I can see that with a bit of cunning and discipline I will be able to live very happily in one. This weekend I intend to go on recon missions to a few campsites and make some casual enquiries under the cover story of a contract worker coming to the are for a few months and see how I get on, I may even take my new tent if it arrives before the weekend.

* Metres are best. Anyone who insists on clinging to the arcane witchcraft that is the imperial system should be denied computers and given pencils. How many yards are there in a mile? 1760. What on earth does that number have to do with anything? How many yards in 13 miles? Eh? Eh? It is a system so arbritrary that 16 ounces make 1 pound, 14 pounds make a stone, 2240 stones make a ton and you have to start doing fractions if you want to measure anything smaller than a yappy dog. We have ten fingers and all of our day to day mathematics are decimal so please, government signage people, quoters of fuel efficiency stats, watchers of weight, just let it go. I know that 202kg is a bigger number than 32stone but it doesn't make a difference to the size of your ass. Really, it's true, I promise. Come with us, join the advanced computer using people of the 21st century and gaze upon our transparent matrices of numbers, all perfectly lined up with flashy lights whizzing along them and the elegant, logical nomenclature. Welcome to the future luddites.

1 comment:

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