It gives me great sadness to bring you an update to this post, about the fate of the late Robens Lite self inflating sleeping mat! Having spent a considerable amount of time bent over my bath performing what can only be described as open-hole surgery, it seems it was too late for the much loved Robens, which passed away on the 18th June 2008.
Those of you who read the post about my discovery of 19 holes will remember that I had set about repairing the meticulously marked pin holes that I had discovered with the use of my bath. I have to say that although I was initially very surprised to find that many holes, I was confident that I had found most, if not all of the holes and I would restore Karma soon enough. It turns out my confidence was in fact naivety as when I checked on it's progress (having re-inflated it after the glue had set) I was met with a limp Robens once again. I tried to reassure myself, by holding it up and muttering that at least it wasn't as flat as last time - oh how wrong I was!
I decided that it was time to ditch the pleasantries and I half filled the bath, covered the mat in a thick water/washing-up liquid syrup and made a cup of tea. At that time I was expecting to find maybe 2-5 more holes that maybe I'd missed in my previous attempt, so when I was met with the image below, you can fill in the blanks as to my reaction!
I'm not an expert on such things, but my guess is that this is not the result of a few unfortunate moments on the hill. This picture from my mobile phone isn't that clear but if I said that there was around 200 tiny 'foaming' holes just on that section of mat, that would be an under-estimate.
I have no evidence to suggest that this was done on the hill because all the holes are on the side on which I lie and not the side coming into contact with the ground. My only guess (and it is a long shot) is that the damage was done whilst the mat was left inflated, top side up, in my loft. As odd as this sounds, we (sorry I - because Charl will not go into the loft) often find the odd dead wasp or two on the laminate flooring under the window. My guess is that they find their way in and are unable to find their way out (I know, I hear you - it's their own stupid fault). They must fly into the closed window a few hundred times attempting to escape, but when faced with the realisation that they are trapped forever, in a cruel act of revenge they decide to eat my self inflating mat! Not bad hey? - all those hours spent watching Columbo have paid off! Case closed.
I said a long goodbye to Robens and I watched them take him away in his wheeled coffin (my wheelie bin). This inevitably leaves me with no choice but to use my free Superlite Compact 25 from Multimat and just hope that I can live the shorter length.
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2 comments:
I've known insects to nibble at synthetic materials for bedding before now - so at least it went to a good home, to a good home, to a good home, to a good home, to a good home, to a good home, to a good home, to a good home, etc
;-)
Had to laugh at that John! At least there is someone else who supports this theory - my friends think I'm mad!
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