Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

So when I got home from my recent run of Cruise Ships it took my luggage about an additional 48 hours to arrive. This is never ideal, but at least the bags were delayed on my return trip not on my way to the ships… I didn’t have anything critical that needed to be dealt with immediately upon my return, so having a couple of days to chill and catch up with family before having to deal with luggage wasn’t such a bad thing.

My bags did eventually show up though but somewhere along the line baggage handlers for either Continental Airlines or Air Canada determined that putting a hole in the purple cover that I use to protect my Storm Case seemed like a good idea. I think the bag likely got dragged across the ground by someone during the trip and it left a couple of nice gashes in the fabric.

As I’m always a fan of getting on repairs immediately so that the damage doesn’t get any worse I went out yesterday and picked up some iron-on fabric patches from the local fabric shop that I’ll apply to the inside of the fabric to make the repair. I’ll take things one step further by running my sewing machine over the affected area as well just to make sure the damage is anchored down and won’t get any worse.

By doing these sorts of regular repairs to not just my bags, but also my equipment I seem to be able to get more life out of my props and equipment which means spending less in the long term on gear. I’m prone to getting attached to certain pieces of gear as well… More than just a tool of the trade they somehow become a part of my being the longer I use them and often when I go to replace something that really truly has worn out I often find that an identical replacement is no longer available. This is why I often buy multiples of things I really like.

Anyway… This whole TLC of props and gear is something I likely inherited from my Dad who grew up on a farm in New Zealand during WW II. I think growing up during a time of rationing and on an island nation really instilled in my father a sense of making things last and this is a trait he drove into me at a young age. Look after your stuff and it will look after you.

So, part of my day today will be to give the damaged cover a good once over and repair the recent tears and make sure I can get some more use out of it.