This is not my... Week 32
11/09/06 - It would be impossible
05/09/06 - Got sidetracked yesterday
04/09/06 - Always exciting to find...
This Section; Background; The point
11/09/2006 - It would be impossible
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for anything else to have gone wrong... |
getting everyone home yesterday.
It's a long story but basically we were in Lincolnshire for a party for my friend Kim.
On the way up there had been a couple of issues (missed trains, physical restraint by the ticket conductor, losing two people on a bus in Piccadilly etc) but all was looking positive for the journey home.
Everyone was at the station basking in the sunshine well in time for the 2.37 Market Rasen to Newark... they were still there at 2.38...2.39...
Engineering works.
Argh!
The problem with small stations like Market Rasen (well aside from a complete lack of anyone to ask where your train is) is that they only get one or two trains a day. Getting back to London wasn't looking good.
Cue dramatic drive to Newark to get the connection. There were 12 of us and so it was quite a complicated procedure. My mother by this point had got involved and was adding a further level of stress to the situation by just shouting "Go, go, go" repeatedly as people, bags and tickets changed hands.
My cousin Amy was drafted in to help - she lost her car keys. We had my Grandma's car - mid mayhem she came to get it back, nearly taking three peoples luggage away with her...
Me oh my it was a trial.
But all the way through I wasn't worried about getting home. I was thinking: 'if we have to make extra trips, how much carbon will that be?'
This carbon rationing is really all pervading!
As I am now part of the Clapham Carbon Rationing Action Group we are trying to assess how much carbon we use.
I haven't actually figured out how much leeway I have for such emergency situations but have a terrible competitive streak so am determined not to go over my quota.
Next year I have to fly to Morocco. Climate Care estimates that this is going to take up a huge 0.5 tonnes of C02 from my 4.4 tonne allowance so I have to keep my general emissions down.
I made a chart to show my progress. Feel free to see how well I am getting along (or badly!) or to use it to track how you would do.
Mine wont usually feature quite so much car travel but naturally our rationing started after the pandemonium this weekend and a trip to see my Gran.
Oooh actually just remembered - on the way to my Gran's I had on Radio Lincolnshire (I should point out that it was the only channel I could get). Between the country and western tracks the news came on and it mentioned that Sainsbury's has started to use compostable packaging on its products.
Great idea.
My bedtime reading at the minute is a book called Rubbish (almost as good as a Mills and Boon..) which keeps citing frightening facts about how much packaging goes into landfill.
Haven't actually got round to getting my compost bin yet but it is on the Christmas list. May see if I can get one a bit earlier though.
Anyhow - better go - but hope that you had just as entertaining and action packed a weekend.
See you later x
07/09/2006 - A summer holiday!
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Well three days at my parents in Lincoln to be a bit more accurate but... |
it's going to be the perfect break.
Haven't been out of London for a while and have developed a bit of cabin fever.
Bring on the rolling hills of the English country side... or in the case of Lincolnshire (one of the UK's flattest counties) the rolling plains...
Anyhow, Ol and various other friends are coming too and with Lara still away that means that there will be no one here tmrw to scribble their ramblings. Please. No tears. We'll be back on Monday!
Anyhow - got my September issue of ethical consumer in yesterday.
Was exceptionally excited to find that it had an article on paint as I am still sporting the remnants of the stuff I splattered all over myself on Monday.
Sadly though - there was still no mention of environmentally friendly paint remover. Ah well.
The magazine also had an article on ethical make up so - if all else fails - I can just smear my arms in environmentally friendly cover up...
Actually it was quite a useful article. I found out a while ago that Maybellene was owned by Nestle but never figured out what I could replace it with. (Sadly wasn't born with it!) So have been nursing my concealer for about 2 years.
It isn't going to last much longer so might be forced to venture to the shops.
Unfortunately, the best ones are not high street regulars but it can't be too hard track them down. I'm quite enthusiastic about finding the one called Hard Candy - always sold on something that mentions sweets!
If - for some odd reason I can't though, then the best of the well known's is Rimmel (though it still only rates 9.5 out of 20) and the one to avoid, rating even lower than Nestles offering, is Max Factor.
So there you go boys.
You remember that when you are next picking up a spot of lippy or a bit of body shimmer!
Right - better be getting along.
Have to pack and then - inspired by a meeting with Greg from my Carbon Rationing Action Group (will tell you all the details next week) am going to attempt to walk to Kings Cross to avoid the need for transport.
Not something I will have time for every day but that is no reason not to when I do have a spare couple of hours. (Though it's possible that after the first attempt I will find a reason quite quickly!)
Anyhow - hope you have a lovely few days.
See you on Monday x
06/09/2006 - Sweat, yogurt and
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long living Bulgarians ... |
Since I'm meant to be highlighting 'things that are not on the site but should be' I'm going to start with a rapturous review of AMT.
I have been waiting for them to update their website for ages and they still haven't so they will just have to go up as they are.
Because they are great!
I know this because I spend a lot of time in Victoria train station.
It it pretty inevitable that I will arrive there 2 minutes after my twice hourly train has just left.
And usually pretty sweaty. In a properly unattractive way rather than a dainty, rouge cheeked, slightly clammy foreheaded one. (I should mention that this is because I am doing a lot of running and not because I just tend to perspire overtly at all times...)
Anyhow - usually after about 15 minutes (so still half an hour from a reassuring proximity to my toaster) hunger starts to knaw away...
And then I'm stuck.
A £3 sandwich is ridiculous so close to home and I'm not a big fan of the crispy creme doughnut.
But there is hope... dun dun nun nahhh - AMT - the UK's first national coffee company to go fair trade! With organic milk and frighteningly delicious muesli bars.
They have one covered in yogurt which claims that yogurt is responsible for the long lives of many long living Bulgarians.. so there...
Anyhow - at that 15 minute hunger point I saunter over and - despite the fact that I look stunningly awful - they are really nice and happily exchange one shiny gold coin for a delectable, life extending bar.
On rare flush days I also contemplate a freshly squeezed orange smoothie, apple juice (from UK orchards) or a phenomenally delicious (Fair Trade) milk shake.
Hmmm.
Never quite so exciting getting stuck on the platform at London Bridge!
Mind you - they do have Eat Natural bars in the newsagent there. Not 100% sure of their fair trade credentials but they equally as delicious and - well - full of natural things rather than unnatural (see what they did there with the name...)
Right - that is probably quite enough of that particular topic - get a bit over excited about yogurt coated muesli bars if I'm honest.
Better get along - hope you are having a lovely week!
x
05/09/2006 - Got sidetracked day yesterday
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And now sporting the 'pigeon poo' look... |
Ended up painting some shelves.
Well - I say shelves - mostly ended up painting myself and since I haven't yet found a non toxic white spirit alternative I now look like a large group of pigeons has pooed on me. Very 2006!
The excuse for said distraction was that I lost my phone. (Now found... in my bag... in the front bit... where there is space for you to put your phone - d'oh!)
Anyhow - I somehow justified it as a sign that I should ignore work and the calls I need to make and do something else instead (I try not to get those 'signs' too often!)
The promised site review was also shelved but - never fear - as I did get a couple of interesting emails with which I can entertain you.
Firstly I got sent details of Ethico.com a new ethical/eco friendly shopping site which scores different high street products on how good they are and shows their comparative cost.
At the moment it only has white goods and electricity providers but it has only just started and so more items are coming soon.
Certainly one to keep an eye on.
If you want to buy things that don't fall into the fridge / freezer / washing machine category then there is of course still Ethiscore (I know I go on about it but it is just such a great thing and only £15 for the year).
It is brand specific rather than product specific but so handy.
The focus on their main page today is MP3 players.
I have an ipod (it was just so teeny tiny...) Ipods aren't too close to the top of the ranking and have just been in the press for bad working conditions.
Ar*e
Ah well - can't get it right all of the time.
What else oh yeah and - most excitingly - I got an email from Ol with the flyer for an event we are going to hold.
I would tell you more about it but we are fine tuning and if I do all of the details will undoubtedly change or something will happen so we can't go ahead.
With my ability to make up excuses, that could be anything from alien abduction to misplacing my bus pass.
Will let you know more pretty soon though.
Fun fun fun.
Right - enough dithering - best get on with all of the things I didn't do yesterday - and getting this paint off!
x
04/09/2006 - Always exciting to find...
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Things that you'd forgotten you had... |
Got a great email the other day.
Someone wanted to sign up to our 0.7% pledge.
I had completely forgotten that we even had one!
Not to say that I was not going to honour it - I did last year and will this one - but it had completely slipped my mind that we had made that particular page. Memory like a sieve!
Deary dear!
Basically the pledge was made as the UK offered 0.7% of its annual GDP to tackle global poverty back in 1970. Unfortunately, we have never reached that target.
St Paul's started an initiative to get people to give 0.7% of their personal yearly income away to fill the deficit and we thought it was a fine idea.
We made up a pledge page and then added to our action section.
The intention was to highlight it at various junctures.
But - naturally - we forgot the shameless plugging until someone actually signed up to it.
So in honour of Andrew Schafer, the fine man who valiantly tracked it down, I have now added it to Pledge Bank in the hope that a few more people see it.
Take a wee look.
Actually there are some other good pledges on there too. Though some people do seem to use it to get sponsorship for races, jumping from planes, eating 4000 ice creams etc which seems a wee bit cheeky.
(In any case - if you were going to sponsor something it should surely be my mate Phil and me running the Marathon des Sables.... hahaha - love a bit of hypocrisy first thing on a Monday!)
Anyhow - thought that I would spend quite a bit of this week reviewing some of the fine actions, issues, articles and stupid things we have put up on the site since January, as well as adding new content in general.
Will get some more highlights up tmrw.
In the meantime though get in touch with details of anything you think should be on here and isn't.
Right - best get started.
Have a lovely day and feel free to sign the pledge!
Go on - you know you want to... x
This section will be a daily, well - Monday to Friday daily, editorial. (Have to keep some time aside to keep up the ritual wine drinking / dancing as if being chased by bees.)
I promise to make it my mission to investigate something each day on exciting forays to find new stuff, fun stuff, ethical stuff and anything involving break dancing men with extremely toned physiques.
Let me know if you think of something I should go and visit or if you have any great ideas or information. (Any dodgy suggestions will be politely declined... or not so politely, depending entirely on what they are!)
For today, though, please just have a look below to find out how this whole thing came about. I hope that you are having a lovely morning.
See you tomorrow,
Susie x
Background to This is not my...
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What is this site all about?
Well, as all good ventures do, it started in the pub with the ominous words "I know, why don't we...?" |
What was different, though, was that it still seemed like a good plan in the morning (and somewhat less injurious than trying out extreme ironing, the other suggestion...)
Anyway - once again we had been supping beers and putting the world to rights when someone mentioned the unmentionable, despite our disaffection with the state of the world, none of us was actually doing anything positive to change it.
Whether this was complacency or apathy, who knows - but we were definitely leaving it to others to make decisions and take action for us on issues about which we felt strongly.
We live in a free society, but often things seem to happen as a fait accompli. The war in Iraq, ID cards, the fact that we will eventually succumb to watching some of Big Brother no matter how hard we try...
And we just go along with it. But that is ok, right? I mean, we aren't exactly encouraging the abuse of others - are we?
Ok - so maybe my new top might have been made under less-than-perfect conditions and I suppose that means I am supporting those conditions, but - I have to buy something to wear, so what other choice do I have?
And that was the problem. What - and where - are the choices?
So we decided to investigate. Surely in this free society we have other options; we just need to know how to find them.
So we went online. There are some great directories already for ethical and/or environmentally friendly products, but for us these didn't go far enough. We were on a bit of a roll and decided that these products deserved more active promotion.
We wanted to make as many people as possible aware of the practical things they can do to live life in a better way.
So on this site we will provide information about easy, positive and ethical consumer choices. These are choices that won’t necessarily cost you more, either.
In our directories you will find environmentally friendly and ethical companies and products across the following categories:
Clothes
Energy
Food and Drink
Health and Beauty
Home and Garden
Office
Recycling
Restaurants
You will also find debates, downloads, fun stuff and plenty more to lure you back to the site on a regular basis.
We’d love you to get involved with some curious antics to keep important issues in the public eye – and provide us with much entertainment and amusement at the same time.
So - take a look. Explore… investigate… probe away.
We hope you like it; we hope you use it.
