the library of damage
or "OH NO I DROPPED MY CAMERA"August 2006 update:
Yes, the jeans are gone. So are the shoes. Fortunately, I found a new pair of jeans that both fit me, and fit my pedantic tastes. Yen dumped the sandals she bought in Italy - the second pair she dumped.
Amazingly, everything else survived. Bugger. I had hoped for a lighter pack coming home. Oh well.
July 2006
I thought it would be fun to keep track of the things that are getting damaged on this journey. Some of these are beyond repair. I get the feeling that I'll be returning to Australia with only the backpack to keep me warm. Not even my underwear will survive the rigours of the hand washing routine of hotel living.
So far I've only dropped my camera once. Which is great, because I tend to swing my arm round a bit and no matter how good the EOS350D camera is, the handgrip is too small (it might have been comfortable when I was about 12), especially with a larger lens on it. The camera body is badly weighted and becomes very front heavy. The advantage is that it's great for travelling, being small and light, but unless you have it around your neck constantly (which gets uncomfortable) it is a worry. Luckily, when I dropped it, the lens hood was one (that funky flower-petal thingy that photographers have on the front of their lenses) so that was damaged, but the camera itself is fine.
Now I live in constant fear that my camera is about to go flying off the ramparts of an ancient ruin, and disappear into the blackness. In 200 years, when they excavate the rest of the place, they'll discover that the Romans conquered southern France with their mastery of photographic technology.
Camera
I've dropped the lens cap of the camera at least once per day, but that's okay. I can sacrifice it for the greater good.Jeans
apparently holes in jeans are no longer cool. Maybe they never were. In either case, my jeans will be dead by the end of the trip.Watch
I have a Quiksilver watch that I love - it's a good weight, lots of features and is very well designed. Unfortunately, it's not well made. I repaired it a couple of months ago, and it took on water somewhere in Italy. The inside fogs up and the digital clock is off. Silly thing. I'm only keeping it on so I can take it back to Quiksilver and complain.Shoes
my sneakers/trainers/sport shoes have been soaked in Swiss mud, and are wearing out quickly. I give them a few more weeks. With luck they'll make it to the plane home. Maybe I can 'forget' them on the plane. I also bought a pair of good walking sandals, and they are swiftly going the way of the trash can. Yen has already dumped one pair of shoes.Socks
because of my heard-wearing shoe lifestyle, my socks are also wearing out.T-shirts
a few of them are dying swiftly, due to the combination of big backpack, heat, sweat and leaning against rough walls to take photos. Plus, I'm a real klutz and have caught my shirts on multiple sharp pointy things on fences and so on.Caps
note to self: caps + sweat do not mix. We've dumped 2 caps already, and I'm well on the way to dumping a 3rd.
