the first thing to go was my laptop hard drive. the old Toshiba drive had taken some knocks and bumps in its life even before i stuck in my Eee last year and walking 100 metres back to the hostel after war-walking (looking for unsecured wifi connections) without shutting the machine down did it in (damn old-school, non shock-locking drives). i've patched it up and kept it limping along ever since, but not before it ate ~20 of my photos from the days previous so i know i can't trust it to store important data from now on. if i had access to my equipment i could set it aside and run a looped diagnostic over the course of a couple of days, but i need it too much and too often to have it out of action for that long.
i broke my specs in Paris - 5 years i've had those: so long that i can't even remember what i had before. they snapped on one side of the bridge. something most people don't realise is that titanium is work-hardened, which means that the more you bend and flex it the more brittle it becomes until when, one day, you're straightening them outside the Sacre Coeur it shears, leaving you with prescription sunglasses as your only way of seeing more than just a blur.
my camera's been getting progressively more and more beaten up, and there's now dust between the lenses which shows up as dark fleks in some of my photos. i'm still not sure how i'm going to clean that out, although i may spend some time exploring with my screwdrivers (i packed one small philips-head and small flat-head jeweller's screwdriver in my backpack in case i needed to mend something).
my cheap-arse shorts that i picked up in Primark for something like 6 quid have started tearing on the left-hand side between the pockets, and there's a rough patch on the left buttock from where my shoulder bag rubs against them. they've got a date with a skip when i get back to London... or better maybe: a ritual burning. i haven't had one of those in ages...
my PSD (Personal Sanity Device) died a death in Krakow - i'd forgotten that it was in the pocket of my shorts and it fell 2 metres onto the tiled floor of the shower and decided that it didn't want to boot anymore. i spent an hour that afternoon gently prising it open, reseating the memory module (the memory's not soldered onto the mainboard on this model and it had come loose) and reconstructing it to get it working again. it's scratched up more than it was before, but it's making noise again which is all i care about.
the Merrell shoes i bought on my first trip to Singapore for a bargain are starting to give - the stiching's finally going, the lining in the heel has worn through on the left one and the innersoles are so well conformed to my foot that i expect they'd cripple anyone else who tried to wear them. they've lasted me through something like 18 countries and a rough guestimation has them on my feet for over 1000km worth of walking. still, i have the feeling they're also going to want a burning before the year's out.
operating life is usually measured in time - a fridge will work for, say, 15 years before it needs servicing, or the compressor needs replacing. an engine is good for 10 years before it needs servicing. we think in how many years before something needs to be thrown out or repaired. in the aerospace industry things are measured in hours of operational use, which is really far more accurate. if i bought an mp3 player, used it once a week for an hour and packed away nicely in between it'd never get damaged or fall apart, and it'd finally die when the battery broke down, but that's not really the point, is it? what's the point of having something useful if you keep it wrapped in cotton wool and never use it? in real life i'm reasonably nice to my gear, and it lasts longer. while traveling i've been pretty hard on my kit, and in general it's stood up pretty well, especially bearing in mind the beating it's taken. i try to be as nice to it as i can be... it just seems that this life comes with a surprisingly increased level of entrophy. run around the place with a backpack and things are going to take a few knocks and bumps. i know i have.
last night i managed to fall backwards down a steep flight of steps, sliding on my back with my Eee clutched to my chest so that it wouldn't get smashed, keeping my head up so that i took the blows from the steps on my shoulders. today my back's a stiff, bruised mess, but nothing's broken and i'll heal - a smashed laptop screen's not the sort of thing i can easily replace on the run. i have a persistent cough that have been following me since Barcelona and a runny nose i've had since Interlaken. too many skipped meals and too much expedient, cheap food mean that i'm popping through the last of my multivitamins to try to keep myself in vaguely working order. i don't have the time or resources to look after myself properly if i want to cover the amount ground i've committed myself to, and i'm loathe to pay exhorbident prices for food in tourist locations which, to be honest, is where i wind up most of the time. something's going to give, but in the meantime i keep moving in the hope that i can keep ahead of the sickness-monster chasing me and i'll be able to steer clear until i'm done and have the time to spend a couple of days in bed.
living on the road has its toll. double my budget and i'd be able to run at a more comfortable pace. take more time and maybe cook for myself every once in a while, or eat better when i'm out. you know i wouldn't tho - double my budget and i'd double my distance and make even greater sacrifices so that i could get even further across the map. i just hope i manage to not break anything else i can't fix. or easily replace... which reminds me that i need to wander into town and see if i can find some two-part epoxy for my specs. it'd be nice to be able to see at night again...
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