It's a month till my annual camping trip with my longest-serving friend, Helen. The trip marks the anniversary of the start of our 50th year celebrations and therefore their end, allegedly.
Some of the pleasures of camping are unavoidable, and are largely to do with shedding - shedding walls, ceilings, fridges, the internet: baring body, mind and soul to the considerable elemental forces of a field in Wales. Some of those pleasures are, however, to do with acquisition - particularly, the acquisition of new equipment which allows campers to camp-lite.
It's a paradox, but camping shops are full of sleeping bags, tents, roll mats and cooking equipment all lighter, more compact and streamlined than the ones you already have. You need to buy more to have, to carry, less. The technology is alluring, and helps to leaven memories of soggy, heavy, camping without integral groundsheets, under canvas, on camp beds. My worst ones concern being a camp leader in a wet August in Cornwall. With slugs.
So yesterday, I popped into Millets for the third time in three weeks. Inbetween my visits, I've been thinking about what I can justify spending on new cooking equipment. Trangia, the Swedish ultralight camping stove specialists, have been seducing me with their impeccably designed stoves, mini-stoves, non-stick pans, kettles and mess tins. I have been imagining extending my camping recipe repertoire beyond various forms of risotto into scrambled eggs, friend eggs, poached eggs, coffee.
Millets clarified the situation for me yesterday by having most of these items in their sale. And by offering me an extra 15% off if I buy them in May. There's nothing like saving money to induce a flurry of spending.
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