Wheelchair Accessible - Ben's thread

[pomsbz]

I'm a big fan of the UST pill container thingies. I have them in small (shown in bag picture) and bigger (for my outdoors bag). I unfortunately need to carry a good selection of pills.



Paracord. Hmmm. Shown here as 275 paracord (plenty strong) in orange (for visibility). I have a bunch on these ladder thingies. Good way to transport it. I have to be honest that I'm still looking for a better solution than paracord. It doesn't hold knots very well, too slippery.



I seem to be hinting at more outdoors stuff aren't I?

[pomsbz]

If we're talking outdoors, anyone interested in fixed blades? Or should I show a photo series about how much a loathe the smartphone culture among the young?

[Ron Who]

I´m interested in fixed blades. Carrying them is illegal here but I can use them in my own garden. I have quite a few.

[pomsbz]

I´m interested in fixed blades. Carrying them is illegal here but I can use them in my own garden. I have quite a few.

Not illegal here but heck you have to have a really good reason. Outdoors in a forest, fine. Anywhere else, you're going to be in a whole lot of trouble.

[pomsbz]

My first fixed blade. A TBS Boar in Turkish Walnut and O2 steel.



Well priced and good quality. The knife taught me several important lessons. I don't like scandi grind, it's too woodcraft specific, I really really appreciate a big hefty hand filling handle and oh, stainless or almost stainless next time please.

[pomsbz]

Next was a Chen Duty I. It was up for a forum GAW, someone else won it then gave it to me. A really great guy!



S35VN, a great little blade, what's not to like? Well there was a problem. Specifically the knife was designed by the maker for his own hands. Asian hands. My big monkey paws just couldn't get comfortable holding it. I talked to a friend who offered to reshape the handle. While he was at it he suggested that I might like to change the handles. Oh and if I'm putting new handles on, why not do something special?

You tell me if the result is something special?







Unfortunately due to a year of various surgeries I've only once been able to take it out into the field. Here it is in preparation for a night trip near the Dead Sea.





Here's the picture taken that night at Massada.

[pomsbz]

The next knife is again something very special to me. A present from a wonderful group of people when I was going through my first surgery of the past year (was supposed to have been the only one).



An L.T. Wright Patriot in beautiful stag. Shown here with my little stag toothpick.



and together with the Queen Copperhead which was at that time my EDC, for an incredible pair of D2 blades.

[pomsbz]

It's pains me greatly that due to my surgeries and disabilities these two incredible, beautiful blades have seen so little use.



I hope to be able to change that in the near future.

[Syncop8r]

(Image removed from quote.)

                         

[Ron Who]

Lovely pieces! 

[pomsbz]

Anyone in for hats?

You've seen my flat cap in the first image, picked up in Ireland. I've added a tweed one from Scotland to my collection since.

My two fedora's. Both crushable for easy packing. Sorry it's stock pics.



The hat they call here colloqially 'idiot's hat'.



and my latest favorite:



My grail is a really good Indiana Jones hat. Have yet to find it though. The good ones cost real money unlike my hats above which all creep in under the £50 mark.

[ThundahBeagle]

Hi Ben

I recall seeing your "New Member" posting some months ago when I added my own. Nice to know more about you

[Poncho65]

Love all these pics and the stories with all of them poms

[microbe]

Hi Ben, small world.
Great tread and great pics.

[Poncho65]

The night pic taken at Masada is breathtakingly beautiful

[microbe]

Better get the Indy hat soon
https://gearjunkie.com/indiana-jones-borsalino-hat-maker-bankrupt

[LoopCutter]

Very enjoyable reading of your selections and the back ground.   

I am curious of how or why you landed in Israel?


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[pomsbz]

The night pic taken at Masada is breathtakingly beautiful

Thanks! My first ever decent star shoot. All the wrong gear but a friend and I were having fun and spent hours trying out stuff.

Better get the Indy hat soon
https://gearjunkie.com/indiana-jones-borsalino-hat-maker-bankrupt

My first ever fedora was a Borsalino. I was sorry to hear that they were going under. That hat served me faithfully for 10 years. I was married wearing it.

Very enjoyable reading of your selections and the back ground.   

I am curious of how or why you landed in Israel?


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Hmmm. OK, official warning to everyone, life story ahead!

Well my disability first became apparent when I was 13. As you can imagine I had a somewhat miserable teenagehood. Then I had a major operation when I was 16 and by 17 years old I could walk, run, jump, etc. In fact everything I had never been able to do before. I shed the weight that had defined me for so many years and could finally concentrate on being a teenager. Except by then I was in college, studying like crazy and I was still in Manchester (UK) where I grew up. Dreary, rainy, grey, those are the best parts of the city. There were some decidedly nastier parts also. I persuaded my parents to allow me to study out in Israel (I'm Jewish as you might have guessed) and I landed off the plane to a hot, bright country. One full of life, a hectic place, an alive place. Utterly the opposite of everything I'd ever known. Within a year I was addicted and totally fell in love with the country.
I quickly picked up the language (at least a street version of it) and emigrated at age 18. I lied my way into the army but it didn't take all that long for them to realise that those scars on my feet meant that I wasn't infantry material. They seconded me to the police and I became an expert at searching vehicles for drugs or the weapons being bought with said drugs. I got married, my wife lived just 5 minutes away from me back in Manchester but although I knew her sister, I'd never met her until we met out here. We struggled for two years, I managed a photo store and she sewed clothes. My mother came down with cancer for the third time, we were living on pennies and we flew back to the UK to look after my mother and try to find career paths.
For 4 years I built up a wedding photography business, first apprenticing and eventually becoming one of the premier wedding photographers in my market, riding the cusp of the digital revolution. My wife did a Bsc and Msc in Genetics. We came back here 4 years later, I continued my thriving business in the UK, I was literally commuting for work, logged around 80 flights a year. Thankfully there was a mutual tax agreement between the two countries so I didn't have to pay tax again back in Israel. My wife in the meantime became one of the top Embryologists in the country (IVF, she makes babies for a living ).
I flew for four years but by then we had two kids, I was exhausted beyond belief and my legs were failing badly. I started doing some work for a museum and when they asked me if I was interested in setting up a Reproduction Studio I jumped at the chance. It's been an interesting and often frustrating 5 years but last week we signed an agreement and started working as the preferred digitization partner of the Israel National Library, an achievement I'm very proud of.

If anyone is interested I have a website of project work I've photographed out here. Ignore the pricing/sales stuff, it's mainly wishful thinking.
www.timelessjewishart.com

[pomsbz]

I know I'm probably sounding obtuse but how do I add a signature? Can't seem to work it out.

[Don Pablo]

Go to your Profile, find the "Modify Profile" dropdown button and click, then on "Forum Profile", that takes you to the page where you should be able to add/modify a signature.  Don't forget to save (via "Change Profile") when done.

[Poncho65]

Cool story and very interesting life you have and are having

[pomsbz]

Go to your Profile, find the "Modify Profile" dropdown button and click, then on "Forum Profile", that takes you to the page where you should be able to add/modify a signature.  Don't forget to save (via "Change Profile") when done.

Thank you! Just added my favourite quote.

[pomsbz]

My phone's been playing up, well it's been rather hard used over the past few years. Ordered another one. Fully refurbed and unlocked. $25 shipped.



I know that I've picked the right gear when I would always replace it like for like without a thought. For me that's the definition of a perfect EDC.

[pomsbz]

Talking of phones, here's a series I did a while back, inspired by seeing these exact same scenes in real life. I attempted to over dramatise and exaggerate the point I was making at the time for effect. Since then in the years preceding the start of the project the reality has become as bad or worse which rather dampened the effect.  I've another 4 pictures I would like to add to the series. When my feet work again...

[pomsbz]

Just had a thought, once I've finished this marathon bout of posting, I'm going to have to sit down and work out just how many badges I can request and then bug a poor moderator for them.

[Don Pablo]

I suggest Poncho. 

[Higgins617]

I suggest Poncho. 

Always Poncho

[pomsbz]

Did someone mention a poncho? I love my poncho! One day I got to work on my bike and then the heavens erupted. I had no coat at all, I was in my shirt sleeves. I always kept a pair of waterproof trousers in my bike bag oh and a poncho. I biked back through a flood that night, 45 minutes of riding, I got home, not a single drop of water on my clothes and I was in shirt sleeves under that! Here is me prior to setting out from work and looking manic. Oh and I'm not that fat. It was the poncho, honest! 



Another great thing about a poncho, it's great at keeping your legs dry in a wheelchair! When you're in a wheelchair putting on waterproof trousers is a pain or impossible and a regular coat will leave you sitting in wet trousers on a damp puddle of the wheelchairs seat  (not due to incontinence!  ). Enter the poncho. A perfect solution in a tiny package! Now I'm car bound I always keep a poncho tucked into the pocket behind my drivers seat.

[styx]

yup that guy

[LoopCutter]

Thank you for replying about how you landed in Israel. 
Interesting that you meet your wife a few thousand miles from where you both grew up. 

Your eye for photography and composing shoots is to be envied, enjoying your history and now can’t wait until your current exploits make the thread. 


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