Day 47 - Sam Ignacio

Well as this is the first day of the new year, I ought to begin with something uplifting and positive to set the tone for the next 12 months.
New Years Eve is pretty dreadful the world over. Doubly so when you spend it on your own. I think 4/5 of my friends spent NYE on their own and didn't make it anywhere near midnight as far as I can tell, and it was the same for me. And I know I wasn't the only one to be roused from my slumber at midnight by a barrage of fireworks. Happy New Year and thank god for earplugs.

I have decided to lighten my load a smidge. I’ve come away with way too much technology really, and way too many clothes. I’d quite forgotten how much wear you can get from a pair of pants without feeling a great deal of shame. So I am shedding two pairs of well worn pants. Quite frankly there are Papua New Guinean tribesmen still resorting to wooden codpieces that would turn their nose up at my jaded briefs, and one pair at least has developed a crutch hole that kind of lassoes and then garrottes my left bollock from time to time and results in some considerable discomfort unless I am able to retrieve it fairly sharpish, so they’re binned. Likewise socks. The underwear I brought with me was all deliberately end of life, so I’m just keeping two pairs of socks, which I don’t expect will see the light of day until the plane home. Finally, and much to the relief of one or two people I know, a vest is also going on the pyre. I don’t know exactly what you call these, I’ve heard them described as muscle shirts before now but that has a somewhat ironic ring to it in my case, but they aren’t unusual garments on the backpacker trail, and yet have caused in my opinion, unwarranted attention from spectators back home. Anyway I bought a job lot in Nicaragua a few years back and their low quality is beginning to show, and one at least is failing to perform its basic function of being a vest. Lastly, I have ditched a Star Trek themed t-shirt. Not so much because of the subject matter, I’m unapologetic about pretty much everything I wear, but because it is cut so badly, it makes me look like a string of badly tied sausages. 

So in total, I reckon I’m saving about 400g, and that makes my massive winter clear out a big fat waste of time really. 

Goodbye old friend, you've been shit.