Distractions in spades

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Hostel floor.

Spade-worthy.

Back to work, or at least that’s the idea.

My hostel room’s floor is covered with camping gear, a constant reminder that there’s somewhere else I should be.

If only I could finish this work! But my environment has other ideas.

Scrape scrape scrape. Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof. Scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape. Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof.

Spade vs ice. Ice loses.

Spade vs dog. Dog loses.

Spade + dog vs coder. Coder loses.

I actually did have ear plugs at one stage, but well-founded fears of people and wolves sneaking up on me in my too-visible tent quickly rendered them redundant for their intended purpose.

On a more positive note, the replacement ATM card for the one I destroyed at the market arrived today. I’m pretty impressed that it found me at all, and that it only took ANZ 10 days to do so.

More must-haves

Shopping has become a habit now and I’m buying things that I’m not even sure that I’ll need.

A beanie and gloves seem like good backups to have, especially after my experience with frozen hands while hiking the GBT in Russia.

But a Russian-made monocular (mono binocular) is definitely more of a novelty purchase. I reason that it will be useful for scoping out stealth camping sites, but maybe it’s just latent FOMO from the war merchandise I passed over in Manzhouli. Whatever the reason, I have to have it.

Gear costs

Item	₮	NZD
Grey/Brown beanie	31,500	$24.20
Cashmere gloves	29,000	$22.30
Russian-made monocular, 30x8 magnification	80,000	$61.50