More gear has arrived

As the date for deployment creeps closer, the last of the new gear has arrived - a new digital camera, since my old one is slooow to start and have started to eat batteries faster, and a hand held GPS just in case I get lost or separated from the team while in Sudan. I've actually been lusting for a GPS for a while now, but couldn't really justify one for biking to work... but now that I had a proper reason I got one.

The other big thing has been getting everything ready at home for me to be away for a prolonged period of time - the problem is that while I know I'm getting home on leave, it's impossible to say before I'm at the team site when my first leave is going to be. It can be one month after I deploy, it can be up to three. The average seems to be two, but we cant plan based on that.

Part of the preparations is to stock up on dried and frozen goods, and there is no cheaper place in Norway for bulk shopping than in Sweden. So I grabbed the new camera and the new GPS and went on my way...

Three lessons learned:

1. The basic map built into the GPS is very basic - thankfully I know where to get more accurate maps for free.
2. The GPS is quite accurate (if you put the coordinates in the photo into Google Earth and Google Maps, you'll discover what parking spot I was using).
3. The camera requires a little bit of getting used to to make good photos.