Pro Action Hike Lite Vs. Vango Ultralite 100

I just read the review of the Vango Ultralite 100 Tent by @OUTDOORSmagic

The article describes the tent as "The Ultralite 100 is Vango's affordable, lightweight, single-skin one-person tent aimed at ultra-lightweight backpackers on a bit of a budget.".

It is a great article and I thought an excellent review, but I do a large portion of my camping with Duke of Edinburgh groups (almost solely with the Durham/Newton Aycliffe group), and I think I must have a slightly different perspective on 'budget'. But what really caught my eye, was the similarities between the Vando Ultralite 100 and the Pro Action Hike Lite from Argos.

The Vango weighs in at a impressive 1.1kg and is a single shell. It is also made of the popular rip-stop material and uses Vango's TBS (tension band system) to make sure that this puppy is going to stay up.

The Pro Action weighs in at a [still impressive] 2kg and has a separate inner/outer. It doesn't boast the same advanced material make up, but then it doesn't carry Vango's price tag either.

The Vango will set you back a fairly reasonable £140GBP (RRP) whereas Argos will only require £17.99GBP (on sale) for their version.

The Pro Action does come with an awning/porch (albeit a small one), something the Vango is lacking. Popular (according to Argos' customer review system) opinion seems to be the only thing not to love about the Pro Action is the color; though I have to say, I actually like the bright orange (you can't please everyone it seems).

Their aesthetic similarities are obvious, as are the functional designs. I do love both tents, and have had a long love affair with Vango equipment, but I use a Pro Action at the moment (yes, I actually go out at this time of year), and the price wins it over for me. I appreciate people will have different needs, and if money isn't an issue, I may well think differently; but for who isn't money an issue these days, eh?

I don't think it's fair to say that you're "just paying for a name", Vango undoubtedly has an angle on quality and construction, from the 7001-T6 alloy poles to the Protex 3000 fabric, the Argos offering may feel, in contrast, like a trash bag held up by some twigs (if you look close enough); but for the back packer/camper keen to save some pennies, I think the Pro Action Hike Lite deserves a close look too.

It seems we have two tents here separated largely by price. Weight and pole construction are the two main points that pulled me toward the Vango whereas the price and functionality was on the Pro Action's side.

Why I, personally, can NEVER support #Freegle

So this is a rewrite of the previous blog by the same name after it was strangely deleted. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, so I'm assuming this is probably something I did. Still, I've changed my password to be on the safe side :)

Imagine you're an office manager for a law firm (for the sake of this example, 'Freecycle Associates'), your duties include organising the filing, opening and closing the office, answering phones, speaking to new clients, managing existing clients. You know, the usual stuff.

Now, imagine you become unhappy with your employer, you start to look around for new work, you find a startup company (for the sake of this example, 'Freegle Associates').

However, you like your office, your chair, you have your name on one of those little plaque things on your desk and your name is so very eloquently etched onto the frosted glass door to your office.

So, you speak to your new employer, make all the arrangements, and one Friday night, you decide that over the weekend, you're going to make that move.

Now, all seems fair enough so far, right?

Well, instead of actually moving to 'Freegle Associates', you instead change the locks on all the office doors, all of the 'Freegle Associates' staff are invited into what used to be the 'Freecycle Associates' office and all of the clients files are kept inside the same building.

So, Monday morning comes along and the 'Freecycle Associates' CEO says "Hold on just a cotton pickin' minute, you can leave the company, that's your decision, but you've kept all of our stuff, including our client files!".

"Well..." you reply, "...the way I see it is that I handle the client when they call, I'm the one who gets their coffee when they come in for an appointment and I'm the one who spends all that time filing their paperwork".

Well now, call me crazy, but as lovely as I'm sure you may be as an office manager, I'm going to go ahead and assume that the reputation and name of the law firm is the reason clients give business to the company. They don't arbitrarily choose a law firm because it's the first one they flipped to in the phone book (although, that's a possibility, I don't think it represents the majority).

So, if you, as an office manager want to go work for 'Freegle Associates', good for you. You'll be performing the same job, but to take something that doesn't belong to you isn't right, it just isn't.

So...you still with me?

When Freegle moderators decided they didn't want to stay within The Freecycle Network, I for one wish them all the success in the world. Go off, create a group, if you do well, people will join; if you don't, so be it.

But, to do so by simply renaming the group, disabling any Freecycle accounts and moving on (thus keeping all the members that had joined a Freecycle group) isn't fair to the members that joined that Freecycle group, it isn't fair to The Freecycle Network and it isn't fair to those of us who continue to volunteer our time to Freecycle.

Freegle, in my opinion, conducts itself inappropriately in this manner. And because they continue to do so, I, personally, can NEVER support Freegle.

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,836 groups with 6,577,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by going to freecycle.org and entering it into the search box. Have fun!

#welovetheNHS My response to Daniel Hannan on his Telegraph Blog

Daniel Hannan's Blog can be found here.

Is there really anything worse than a corrupt, lying politician? I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch your 'interview' with Fox 'News'.

Why were the NHS wait times from 2004. The wait times aren't anything like that any more. What could you possibly hope to achieve by displaying old information?

Frankly, it hurts your point as you show you are unable to support your platform with current figures.

Could it be that the NHS, universal health care and indeed the health care reform being proposed in the US is not really the monster you portray?

While it is true that hospitals in the US cannot turn patients away for life saving treatment, it doesn't mean that charges cannot be made, it does not mean that people are free to make choices as to how they are treated and by who as they are with universal healthcare (contrary to the remarkable lies being told about the NHS you actually DO have the choice as to which doctor, which hospital and when you're seen).

Is the NHS perfect, is anything truly perfect? The NHS, like many services, can always improve, make itself better, learn and grow.

But it provides a service to all, regardless of money, race or creed.

Is it free? No, of course not; money doesn't grow on trees! But the public that uses it, contributes to it. Those that earn more, contribute more, those that earn little, contribute less, those that are unable to contribute are still able to use it.

We do so because we are a community, a collection of individuals concerned with our fellow neighbour.

A healthcare service run for profit serves only those that can afford it, those that cannot risk limited care, or large financial commitments.

I am embarrassed that any American watching your 'interviews' may mistakenly believe that you represent anyone else in the UK. I am saddened that you choose to represent yourself in this way when you are supposed to hold a position of responsibility.

But most of all, I am disgusted that you are lying to so many people to, what I can only assume is to, further a career in the US.

You, your views and your methods are frankly, little more than an embarrassment.

I am absolutely amazed that this individual actually holds an elected office. I can only assume that this is not a platform he campaigned on.

#Paleo friendly hummus

As we're not supposed to eat chick peas, that means, no hummus; which for me, is not a good prospect.

So, imagine my delight when we found a recipe for hummus on the back of some cashews.

5 garlic cloves (peeled and crushed)

1 tbsp olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

salt and freshly ground pepper

30g cashew nuts

Blend the garlic, oil, lemon juice, seasoning and cashew nuts in a food processor until combined and smooth, adding extra oil if necessary.

I doubled the recipe, but I have to say, 10 raw garlic cloves is like eating a lemon while somebody sprays pepper spray directly into your mouth.

Maybe the original recipe would be tamer, but this I can tell you...go easy on the garlic!

The consistency and basic taste (once your face returns to its natural position) is actually really good, a viable alternative to 'normal' hummus. I WILL be trying it again.

The challenge: 2009

We have undertaken a challenge, a challenge of great strength and determination, a challenge that will likely see death, pain and misery.

Of course, that can only mean one thing; it's a weight challenge.

Now, starting at my super-buff 115kg, it should be a relatively easy process of starting to shed those pounds kilograms. The issue I've mainly been having is, I don't eat at McDonald's, I don't replace meals with ice cream and I don't think "a milkshake is a fine and vital source of calcium".

So, tougher measures are needed!

With the help of a part-evil, part-kind personal trainer and the dietary advice of a sadistic financial adviser, the plan to achieve the greatest weight loss in 2009 has been set.

Here is the progress to date. Thanks to the genius that is Google Docs, this chart should will actually update as I update the data. I'm going to go ahead and apologize now if it doesn't.

So, what are the terms of the challenge? Simple, $1 is paid for every pound lost; simple as that. That $1 is then duly returned to its rightful owner, GAP, Old Navy, Target, Walmart and Banana Republic upon our triumphant return to Texas in December.

Now, obviously I'm shooting for $300, but I would have to implode for that to happen, so to keep things achievable, I think I'll just try for the "Ideal Body Weight" of 67.4kg (150lbs) as it seems like a nice figure (in every sense of the word).

It's not easy, lots of exercise (and it keeps getting more) and what I think is a pretty harsh diet; but, ultimately, it's gonna be great!

Paleolithic diet

This week, Ashley and I have been following the Paleo Diet (Paleolithic diet). This diet is, in essence, the following of the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture.

In other words, 'what the caveman ate'.

Centered around commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts; and excludes grains, legumes (alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, and peanuts), dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

There is a considerable amount of theory around the modern reliance on processed foods being our downfall. I don't know; I'm not a nutritionist (kind of makes sense though, right?).

I'm not sure if I understand the whole science behind the diet, there's a 266 page to read through, but a couple of things I have discovered in the last week -

1. I have lost 3kg in the last week, the diet in the only thing that I've changed, ergo, I attribute the weight loss to the diet.
2. Planning meals & cooking without the above mentioned food stuffs is harder than I ever though possible. I struggle with this all the time.
3. Even though by the end of the week I thought I'd be craving cakes & doughnuts etc. the reality is, I would kill someone for a sandwich right now.

We're going to keep on with it, see what happens; I don't know if I'll actually end up killing someone for the sandwich, but I'll Tweet about it if I do.

You should check with your physician before starting any new exercise or diet regime

Sections of this post are referenced from the Paleolithic diet article on Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia

Single Payer

I have spent much of today reading people's Tweets about Single Payer (or however else they choose to word it).

In essence, some people agree with the idea that the US Government should adopt a universal healthcare policy in which everyone contributes, and everyone benefits. Others believe sensationalist claims by certain media outlets and individuals that understand approximately 50% of what they believe they do, about universal healthcare.

Now, it's not (that) many people who can lay claim to having lived in both healthcare environments (thanks to the UK's NHS) and the US' only-if-you-can-afford-it approach to medicine; and so let me be the first (on here at least) to admit, I received fine, prompt medical attention on both services.

I have no interest in criticizing the health care professionals in the US (or in the UK..or anywhere else), but what I will take exception at, is the idea that any of us should be satisfied that there are people who can't afford health insurance (and no, I don't care about their circumstances, it's all for one, and one for all...if it's good enough for d'Artagnan, it's good enough for me), that people go without medical help, when it is there to be had, were it not for bureaucratic idiocy that extends the offer of help, to only those that can pay.

And, before anyone jumps on the "no hospital can turn you away" bandwagon, let me assure you that I've heard it all before. I'm not talking about the fact that poor John's leg has fallen off while carelessly climbing the old oak on the green, I'm talking about preventative medicine, ongoing support, additional therapies (the list, frankly goes on).

So, before you start Tweeting, Blogging, Facebooking, or whatever else it is you Interwebers do, please forget everything you've heard from The Enquirer or Fox News; in fact, forget everything you've heard from me. Get off your ass, read about it yourself, actually bother to find out what it means, what it means for the future and whether you THEN can get behind it or not.

Until you have, running through the same argument of "but I get taxed enough as it is!" is getting thin, and starting to sound a bit ignorant.

@jamesdotlane
If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, click the link above.

Civil Servants

A friend (@mclaughlin_aj) on Twitter sent me a link to this -

Ten civil servants standing in a line,
One of them was downsized - then there were nine.
Nine civil servants who must negotiate,
One joined the union - then there were eight.
Eight civil servants thought they were in heaven,
'Til one of them was redeployed - then there were seven.
Seven civil servants, their jobs as safe as bricks,
But one was reclassified - then there were six.
Six civil servants trying to survive,
One of them was privatised - then there were five.
Five civil servants ready to give more,
But one golden handshake reduced them to four.
Four civil servants full of loyalty,
Their jobs were all advertised - then there were three.
Three civil servants under review,
One left on secondment - then there were two.
Two civil servants coping on the run,
One went on stress leave - then there was one.
The last civil servant agreed to relocate,
Replaced by 10 consultants at twice the hourly rate.

As with all very funny things, it's funny, because it's true.  Hope you enjoy!