We wandered thruogh miles upon miles of camping store looking for the perfect tent, the perfect mattress...for a reasonable price. As our search went on we grew weary- would we ever find what we were looking for? Discussions were had over the merits of this tent or that, but somehow we reached agreement. It soon became clear, however that, when it came to the issue of what to sleep on, we were on different wavelengths. "Look at this", I said, profferring yet another thin, self inflatable (some may say Thermarest), style camping bed, "we can get two of these, feel how light they are." In truth, I knew it was useless, my lover's eyes lit up as he surveyed the array of inflatable airbeds on offer, assessing which one would be the comfiest once inflated. "We're going to two festivals", he said, "not trekking through the himalayas." I grudgingly relented, "Well, you can carry it then."

The purchase made, we arrived home, eager to try out our new airbed. We pulled it from the box, noting the velvety smoothness of the sleeping service (I think this must be what the flock in the name refers to), and remarking how much nicer that was to the touch than plastic. I then continued to peruse the box, in search of inflation instructions. There were none to be found.

By this time, we were tired and ready for bed, so we laid our sleeping bags on teh mattress and promptly fell asleep. A good night's sleep was had by both of us, the only downside being a tendency to roll toward the middle of the mattress, but we suspected this may reduced by perhaps inflating the mattress a little more.

Well, there's only one way to find out if my premonitions would prove right- we would have to try it out under real conditions. Off we went to our first festival with our new camping equipment. We arrived happily at our allotted camping space, quickly and easily erected our tent, and went to visit a friend in a tent next door. As it turned out , said friend also had a blow up mattress, with built in pump, but his had something ours lacked- instructions....with photos! Well, it turns out that the hole underneath the pump needs to be on top when you are inflating the mattress! My ever hopeful partner tried this method- SUCCESS. Wthin 15 minutes our bed was ready and there was nothing more to do but go and fill our heads with music.

However, I'm not sure we ever got it just right, as we both noticed that if either of us moved the other would feel it- sometimes it would feel as though you were lying directly on the ground. We were very grateful we had each other as sleeping on this mattress on your own also seems to result in such displacement of air that you end up lying nearly on the ground. The lovely "flock" covering avoided getting stuck to plastic in the night.