This is not my... Week 36
05/10/06 - Oh I would walk 10,000 miles
This Section; Background; The point
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Not around yesterday after some dramatic events... |
To be fair - more dramatic for other people than myself
(mystery, intrigue and a transnational search and rescue) but I did - rather less explosively - find myself on a bus to Devon at 7am on Sunday morning.
Since my attempts at sleep had been thwarted earlier by some friends turning up at 3.00am (we may need to talk about this - when I said come round any time...) I forgot to take my computer with me.
So if anyone was trying to get in touch I had neither phone nor email. Sorry!
Quite nice really - but I admit - not the most handy.
Anyhow - one positive thing is that I have a new found love for the National Express.
I love trains (though not, I would like to point out, in a cagoule wearing type way) but a last minute 24 hour trip to Exeter was going to cost £50.
National Express... £17.
And - since I slept all of the way there and back anyway - it was just dandy.
It was also amazing to be unexpectedly in the South West.
I had forgotten how lovely it is.
Despite the lashing winds and pouring rain it was wonderful to be by the sea and the moors.
Another reminder of how great the UK holiday can be.
Got back home to find my Dad had arrived. He had been deployed by my mother to bring me some DIY stuff and the BIGGEST mushrooms I had ever seen.
Just taken from their garden.
Really need to work on that living roof and get growing.
Though I might leave it till tmrw...
Oooh but in the meantime - hoping to get along to the first of 3 climate lectures being held in St Paul's.
Well that or track down the guy who was cleaning the outside of his shop into the wee hours last night. Argh. Who'd think it could be quite so noisy?
Grrrr.
If it happens again tonight I am heading straight back to the bus station. Seems to be the only place for a snooze round here!
Anyhow - hope you are having lovely weeks x
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so many exciting things recently. But... |
having a complete mental blank as to what they are.
Ar*e!
Probably best to have another crumpet and mull it over a while.
I can distract you with the fact that the first pictures from over video viral filming came in. Thought I might as well get them up so that the shame and humiliation can start straight away!
Getting quite ambitious for adding bits to it and the editing is yet to be done so it may still be a little while till the finished product can be seen though.
What else.
Oh yes - my beautiful friend Sam has set up a fantastic project to find Agents of Awareness.
Think Kill Bill jump suits (or some suave and sophisticated manly alternative) and a mission to do a bit of good, meet fantastic people and do entertaining things.
She is looking for someone to get involved.
I have demanded that I can - but she needs a permanent person. The role is voluntary till funding is secured but I reckon if anyone can get funding then it will be Sam.
Anyhow - if it sounds like it might be up your street or you want to know a bit more then check out the details here and get in touch.
It's gonna be so fun!
Hmmm other than that my mind has sadly headed off for a walk so will have to save all the things I wanted to write about for Monday.
You're just going to have to wait for all of that excitement... bet you'll hardly sleep....!
Oooh yeah - in the meantim though - there is still time to sign up to the Big Ask (getting the government to set a targets for emission reductions) if you haven't managed yet.
No time like the present.
See you later x
05/10/2006 - Oh I would walk 10,000 miles
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And I would walk 10,000 more... |
Well - maybe not quite - but 2,000.
If I had time.
Went to a brilliant lecture put on by the Campaign against Climate Change last night and left with a lot to mull over.
It was pretty inspiring.
Lots of well informed people discussing the best ways of taking action over the climate or - more wryly - Weather of Mass Destruction.
Well known writer and activist George Monbiot spoke fantastically, but the guy I thought was the most amusing, was the one who writes for the Independent (and whose name I can't remember - sorry).
He summed up a thought that I have had for a while but never been able to articulate. Namely:
Climate change is really annoying!
Much to my pleasure he spent a while lamenting its irritating inconvenience.
I haven't got exact quotes but it was along the lines of:
'I agree becoming a vegetarian is one of the best and under reported ways of tackling climate change.... but I love meat (cue small moment to dwell on how great meat is). If it wasn't for this pesky climate change I would be eating it all day.'
and
'Flying. Brilliant. It is incredible that my 87 year old Grandma can hop over to Europe for the weekend. Amazing... If it wasn't for this pesky climate change I would be flying everywhere.'
And that is it in a nut shell. Like it or loath it it will get hotter. It is an accepted fact. A really really irritating one but one that will be worse to ignore.
We have got used to incredible freedom.
It is phenomenal what we can do.
But the tragic thing is that doing everything - in the way we currently do - is no longer tenable.
I don't mean to say that we can't have nearly all of the things that we have - just that we need to be a little more restrained and a little more focused on what really gives us a better way of life.
We don't need to stop watching TV, we just need to stop watching it on screens that cover an entire wall of our living room.
We don't need to go back to the horse and cart, we just need to use cars when we actually need them, share them or get electric ones.
We don't need to stop eating, drinking and making merry, we just need to eat differently, buy locally and produce more sustainably.
And, if we do, we get to have freedom for longer.
Food prices wont go up as steeply as they will when the price of fuel increases. We wont be spending as much on aid as we will when shoreline cities are deluged and we will be more prepared for the inevitable changes that will come.
Which would all be good.
Anyhow - getting quite carried away - so shall save it all for a soap box moment in the future!
What I actually wanted to highlight again was Seat61
It is a website which provides train travel advice to help you navigate the globe.
A while before I pledged to avoid flying, I signed up to run (ok crawl) the Marathon des Sables.
It is a race that takes place in the Sahara.
And you have to fly to get there.
Which is a problem.
I considered walking to Morocco but concluded that - even if my body could take the punishment of walking 2,000 miles before the 150 miles of race - 3 months to actually get there is a bit excessive.
And I'd miss my next hair appointment.
I checked out Seat61 though and found that it only takes 3 days by train.
Plus I get to go on the Eurostar (I LOVE the Eurostar) a day in Madrid (always wanted to go to Madrid) and time to check out Marrakech.
How great would is that!
Will investigate more but definitely think it sounds like a good option.
Anyhow - best be getting along.
Still running into work (I give it till the first rainy day) and so need to bemuse the neighbours with some stretching and limbering.
See you later x
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Sometimes it's just not good to be dim... |
Got my kitchen re-wired yesterday.
It was vital as the electrics looked as if they had been done in the 1800's and we were living in fear of explosive kettle boiling.
(My lovely and long suffering house mate is used to my energy efficiency ramblings but might have put her foot down if I started electrocuting her when she fancied a cup of tea.)
Anyhow - thought that it might be nice to have a dimmer switch to add some mood lighting - aka cover up the fact that the painting and cabinets are also from the pre-industrial era... and not in a good 'antique' way.
All went well till I got home and turned the light on to find that the bulb had been changed for an old red one I got at uni and no longer use (as at some point I realised it made the house look like a brothel).
Apparently it was the only one the electrician could find as - to my horror - I found that dimmers don't take energy efficient bulbs.
Oh no!!
Damnation.
What to do?
Clearly - as with most problems - I am leaving it till later to sort out.
Anyhow - on the plus side the jogging to work is still at 100% success rate (still only on day 3 though and I haven't set off yet).
My friend sent through a link to www.walkit.com which you can use to find distances around London and whether or not you can avoid using transport.
Handy indeed!
I have found that in order to get to the Big London Public Meeting on Climate Change this evening (free and open to all so come along) it isn't even 2 miles.
Which isn't even half an hour.
Which is quicker than the tube.
Easy.
Anyway - best be off but maybe see you there.
Have a lovely one x
03/10/2006 - The Christmas List
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Is getting somewhat extensive... |
Not sure how many relations, friends, overly generous neighbours I think I have but never mind.
The new addition is the Trio bin. (Oh yes - it's going to be a hedonistic festive season round here!)
Saw one of these in Cafe Arlington last year and was smitten with jealousy.
Sadly there was the ethical dilemma of stealing it since the cafe is a fair trade / organic enterprise giving jobs and profits to the homeless (it was too big and wouldn't fit under my jumper) and so I was forced instead to look at it through the window longingly whenever I felt the urge.
But no more.
Now I can get one in my very own kitchen and separate my plastics from my papers with ease!
The long winter evenings will fly.
Anyhow - more excitement in store for right now.
The electrician, Dan, is coming round.
I'm getting my kitchen re-wired and the dodgy looking round pin sockets put in in the 1940's removed.
It's a good opportunity to move the fridge away from the cooker to save a wee bit on the electricity bills too - which is good as I need to get my Carbon Rationing figures in today.
59 shortish public transport journey and (more shockingly) 164 miles in the car - and I don't have a car!
Have started jogging to work to cut down on travel (100% success rate so far... though it is only day 2) but have to try to keep the bills down as well.
Not too sure how much they are but sure that they are sneaking up a little bit.
Actually - where have I put them.... probably in the pile marked 'Don't even bother opening it it will just make you cry' with all the others.
Anyway - best get on as I have to keep an eye out for Dan.
Currently have no doorbell and no phone and last time I locked him out so he had to climb in over the 3 metre fence.
Oops.
Have a lovely day! 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.
