Bag Strap

I think I already mentioned that Dave got me a camera bag for my birthday. My old bag had become so dirty and tattered that it was too far gone even for me. I asked Dave for another one just like it -- my third successive Kalahari shoulder bag, which is the perfect size for my camera and has lots of pockets for the other stuff (two additional lenses, lens cleaner, pen, tissues, umbrella, dog poo bags) that I like to keep handy on my walks.

It took me a couple of weeks to switch over to the new bag, but I finally did so in late November, and I used it a few times. I had it with me on Sunday on Hampstead Heath when I was out with Olga. To my surprise, as I kneeled down to pick up Olga's ball on a forest path, the bag suddenly slid off my shoulder. One of the seams connecting the shoulder strap to the bag had come undone! My camera was fine (lots of padding, plus I was low to the ground at that moment), but I was annoyed that the bag would let me down so quickly. I tied the strap in a makeshift knot that held until we got home.

At first I thought I'd return it, but we didn't save the packaging or the shipping receipt. I could have mailed it back anyway, but the more I thought about it, it seemed a shame to waste the whole bag just because of a badly sewn strap. So yesterday I took it to a tailor who occupies a corner of our dry cleaner's shop, and she assured me she could fix it. I left it with her for an hour and voila! The strap is fixed. Charge: £6.

Hopefully it will hold, given that my camera is fairly big, but it looks like a solid stitching job. That's one less camera bag in the world's landfills, at least for now.

Here's my other recent success at keeping something out of the waste stream. Olga and I found this little bathroom shelf in a pile of rubbish -- on the crap corner, in fact -- on one of our walks. I brought it home thinking it would make a good plant stand, and it does! It fits perfectly on the little ledge beside our back door.

(Top photo: A shopfront in Kilburn.)