This is one is a thread for things that don't exactly fit in either the smile or annoy thread, it's for posting about things that have given an extraordinary amount of service but have finally passed the point where they can't be used any more.

 

 

In this particular case it's a Knirps umbrella that's had 23 years of continuous use including going around the world dozens of times, and in that entire time the only damage was losing the hand strap (which was a nuisance anyway) and the cap at the top cracked about ten years ago and had to be glued. Apart from that no broken ribs, no worn-through bits of fabric, it just kept on going. What finally killed it after 23 years was that the plastic collar that locks it closed cracked and, since part of it has broken off and vanished, I can't recreate the form that it needs to lock into place (see the sugro + epoxy putty post elsewhere).

 

 

Replacement will be another Knirps, which took about 0.1s to decide on. You can't really get them here, but Amazon AU has them for the same price they're sold for in Europe which was a nice surprise.