Bum ... Bags

We concluded after our walk last Sunday that we both needed to carry water on Summer walks. I don't get on with rucksack bladders¹ and we don't really need two rucksacks anyway for summer day walks so I wondered about a bum bag. I'd seen several around with bottle carriers.

A quick search around the web suggested that the Lifeventure Base Runner 2 was what I needed and aktive8 in Edinburgh had it at the excellent price £21.25 with free delivery (the usual price being £25 and most people wanted carriage on top of that).

So on Monday I placed my order. On Friday I was checking my credit card bill online and noticed that aktive8 had debited my card ... but where was the bum bag?

Checking their web site revealed the order had a status of "Awaiting Stock" but elsewhere on their web site it said:

We do our best to keep the website up to date with our stock levels but high demand on some products does mean we sometimes run dry on certain bits of gear. If this happens with an order you have placed, we will make contact to advise of a new despatch date - we will leave it to you to decide whether to accept this date or cancel you order for a refund.

Hmmm ... so why hadn't that happened then? In the end, after chasing them by email, I had to phone them on an 0871 number to discover that they didn't have stock and wouldn't have any for a couple of weeks yet. Sigh. We agreed they would cancel the order.

A trip into town on the bus and a wander through (the soon to be closed) Field and Trek, Blacks, Millets and finally the wonderful Open Air revealed I should have just gone to Open Air in the first place as they had the Base Runner 2 in stock and for £25.

Home again and we did the Horningsea to Anglesey Abbey² walk (anti-clockwise for a change) with me wearing the bum bag and carrying two pints of iced water. My conclusions: it works fine, but to keep the water cold I need to put more ice it, I used six cubes in each this time, next time I'll use all the ice in the freezer (i.e. twelve cubes per bottle).

Oh yes, and other good news: my weight dropped to 245lb for the first time (in recent years) yesterday. It's up a bit again today but that's a good sign as the general trend seems to be very gently downwards³.

1. We've tried two different brands now and with both of them the pipe seems to taint the water for me. Curiously Beth, who's normally a lot more sensitive to dubious tastes and smells, doesn't notice it.
2. Which reminds me: our new "walks" pages are now online. Share and enjoy.
3. I peaked at about 256lb, that's over 18 stone in real money. Not good. 245lb means I'm down to 17.5 stone but I'd like to get back down to about 15.5 stone really.
   
   It's worth mentioning that my BMI now is 29.8 which puts me just below "obese" but even 15.5 stone would leave me with a BMI of 26.4 so offically "overweight". I would have to get down to 14.5 stone to be at the top end of "normal" and most people would claim I'm looking thin by that weight. Sigh. I've never been convinced by BMI for tall people.