Another item that I decided to tweak was my glove / mitten harness. I made it originally with a simple strap across the chest but decided along the way that I would prefer a release system for safety.
I replaced the braided strap with one that had a plastic quick release buckle but never liked the look and feel of the thing so I decided to replace it again with a Sam Brown stud system to release it if needed. A bit more “old school” which will sit well with the rest of my gear.
17th January 2023
What an age we live in?
I have just ordered all my food and fuel supplies for the trip for collection from a local supermarket 1300 miles away at midday on the day of our arrival.
I'm able to do this on a Finnish website, even though the only word I know means "thank you", because Google Chrome translates the web pages almost seamlessly. I can check the ingredients aren't going to hospitalise me and add to the order any time up to the day I fly. My credit card gives me the best exchange rate with no foreign transaction charges and I do this all from the comfort of my own home.
This is the kind of future that the internet was made for.
We committed to the trip at the turn of the year. After the problems of the last years we were cautious of doing so but as much of Europe has had poor snow conditions and many of the ski centres closed their slopes we needed to beat the headlong rush to book tickets for Levi.
Finnair, in yet another demonstration of their dubious ethical standards, were rushing even faster to hike up the prices to make profit from this bonanza and although we got in as early as we could, we got rather burned as the prices stared to rise. A day or so later and we would have been paying hundreds more. Shocking. If there was any other option on this route I would gladly choose a different carrier next time.
Never the less, it looks like we are on our way at last.
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