Six working days to go! Six! Ahahahahaha.

(And miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.)

I’ve had pretty much all of work that I can stand today, so have decided to take refuge in mooning over all things outdoor. This morning I utilised that trick of gritting my teeth and then reminding myself that THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT WORKING DAYS TO GO BEFORE I GET TO GO ON HOLIDAY, which immediately turned that end-of-year-end-of-tether loving feeling on its head, and now I’m feeling a little bit better, if not demonstrating any sense of coherence whatsoever.

But no matter. This post is dedicated purely to the loveliness that is new gear.

Like these:

Which fit funny the last time I tried them on, but having narrowed down my list to the 5.10 Anasazi velcros, the Mad Rock Mugens and the Evolv Elektras, and subsequently having ruled out the Anasazis because they are perhaps best reserved as modern instruments of torture and deciding that the Mugens are too padded and hip-looking for me (do they still stay ‘hip’?), ended up back at square one with the Elektras again.

Now that I’ve completed the longest sentence in the world, I’ll tell you what I really meant to do, and that is to nod sagely in agreement with anyone who tells you to try on every pair in your size in rock shoes - even two pairs of the same size - because when it comes to the degree of snugness you want, minute variations can make some fairly considerable differences. Maiden outing at the wall on Wednesday!

In other news, ultra-lightweight backpacking with my current daypack would probably be a little optimistic, so a new pack is also on the cards. It’s probably going to be either the Osprey Aura 50 or Aura 35:

Oh, and because it’s probably going to be chucking it down when we get to the Lakes, these:

Which ought to fit in the age 11-12 version.

This post has been brought to you by the letter FED-UP and the number 8, and is clearly meant to be of interest primarily to me.